8th International Conference on the Inclusive Museum | India

The 8th International Conference on the Inclusive Museum will take place at the National Science Museum, Delhi, in New Delhi, India, between 7 and 9 August 2015. The special focus of this 8th edition is 'Museums as Civic Spaces'. This topic builds on the notion of the 'inclusive museum' as an aspirational civic space that is created and recreated based on the context and relevance to diverse stakeholders. It liberates museums and communities from legacies, enables a first voice, and empowers people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds with a sense of place and multiple identities. The challenge is also to address intersectionality across cultural borders through appropriate research, development and capacity building. This must be at all levels of engaged partners from curators, educators, conservators to directors and trustees. Connecting collections and communities is critical. A call for papers addressing these issues is currently open. Proposals from candidates wishing to attend the conference may take a variety of forms, including paper presentations in themed or roundtable sessions, workshops or interactive presentations, posters or exhibit sessions or colloquiums. In addition, authors may also submit proposals for articles even if they are unable to attend the conference in person. Specific themes of the conference include the following:

• Visitors - the museum's relation to its communities of users, including visitor diversity, defining museum stakeholders, gender, disability, education, etc.
• Collections - the practices and processes of collecting and curating, including curators' changing roles, exhibition didactics, technologies, arts, preservation, etc.
• Representations - museums as repositories and communicators of culture and knowledge, including museums as knowledge makers and cultural creators, research in the museum, digitalisation, etc.

At the time of writing, the deadline for submitting proposals is 12 February 2015. However, you are encouraged to visit the conference website regularly since it is likely that this deadline may be extended. The International Conference on the Inclusive Museum is the annual face-to-face event of the 'Inclusive Museum Knowledge Community'. The community brings together academics, curators, museum and public administrators, cultural policy makers and research students, with the common concern for the future role of the museum and in particular how it can become more inclusive. For additional information about this event, please visit http://onmuseums.com/the-conference