SiP Talk #11
Museums and Fieldwork: An Interdisciplinary Conversation on the Colonial Legacy of Science
Collecting and exhibiting create contact zones between scientists, experts, and the public. Museums and fieldwork serve as spaces where knowledge emerges, is contested, and becomes embedded through social interactions. In these settings, knowledge is also shaped by the means of communication. Both museums and fieldwork connect different localities while simultaneously establishing conditions of power. In recent years, collections and museums have become central to debates about the colonial legacy of European empires. These discussions highlight the prominent role scientists played in colonial enterprises, with scientific collections and museums serving as key evidence of this involvement. While much attention has been given to these issues in ethnological and archaeological collections, they have largely remained unaddressed in natural history museums and scientific fieldwork. Science in Perspective Talk #11 will examine the historical circumstances under which knowledge production and collection have entered European museums. It will also propose alternative ways to reflect on this colonial legacy by designing strategies that foster representation and encourage the participation of diverse voices and experiences.
Panel Discussion with:
Miranda Lowe, Principal Curator and museum scientist at the Natural History Museum, London.
Andrea Scholz, Curator, Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin.
Ettore Camerlenghi, Evolutionary biologist and ecologist, Collegium Helveticum, ETH Zürich.
Organized by Tomás Bartoletti, Senior Lecturer and SNSF-Ambizione Principal Investigator at the Chair for History of the Modern World of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich.
Date: Thursday, 20 March
Venue: ETH HG E 7, Rämistrasse 101, 8006 Zürich
The talk is part of the conference «(Re-)Naming Natures: Knowing and Collecting Otherwise” between 20 and 22 March in the context of the exhibition Naming Natures: Natural History and Colonial Legacy at the Natural History Museum of Neuchatel. More info, external page www.naming-natures.ch