University Heritage and Cultural Engagement of European Universities

CALL FOR PAPERS
The European Academic Heritage Network UNIVERSEUM announces its 16th Annual Meeting. In order to stimulate general debate, knowledge sharing and in-depth reflection, UNIVERSEUM  introduces a new meeting format this year. Papers can be submitted to one of the four sessions below. Papers in the thematic sessions 1, 2 and 3 need to present an argument that we will discuss. Descriptive presentations can be submitted to the poster session (session 4).

1. THEMATIC SESSION on University Heritage and Cultural Engagement of European universities
Oral 15-min papers followed by 5 min discussion
The cultural role of universities in communities and in society receives increasing attention as part of the national and international focus on the universities' so-called‘third mission’. This focus provides interesting opportunities for the preservation and promotion of university heritage.University museums and collections, archives and libraries have a long history as cultural actors in local communities or at the national or international level.The understanding of the cultural role of universities, however, has changed drastically in recent decades. How can the university heritage community contribute to the cultural mission of European universities?  In which ways can university heritagebecome more central to this enterprise? What are the challenges and opportunities?Which projects and activities are currently developed in this direction? What are their goals and who are their audiences? What are the results and how shouldthey be evaluated? We welcome exchanges of experiences, case studies and in-depth papers that help us identify the nature and specificity of these issues and concerns.

 2.  THEMATIC IN-DEPTH SPECIAL SESSION on The most crucial issue(s) with University Heritage today
Oral 5-min papers (max. 10), followed by in-depth debate.
Explain what you think is the most important/crucial/critical issue – external or internal – that university heritage faces in Europe today.Explain why it is important.

3.  THEMATIC IN-DEPTH SPECIAL SESSION on University Heritage, its generators and its scholars
Oral 5-min papers (max. 10), followed by in-depth debate.
Various communities inside universities have natural ties with specific dimensions of university heritage. Through research and teaching activities, biologists, astronomers, physicists, engineers and technicians are generators of scientific heritage. While art and architecture historians study art and architecture heritage, historians ofscience may pay attention to scientific heritage. In this session we would like to discuss how different groups of generators and scholars regard university heritage.What are the roles that heritage plays, or could play for and within these communities? How to enhance these possible roles? What are the challenges and perspectives? 

4.  CHAIRED POSTER SESSION 
5-min presentations followed by questions and discussion.
In the poster session, we invite presentations of scientific programmes, technical issues of and around collections such as storage, preservation and documentation, aswell as descriptions of museums, collections and other heritage. Presentations of cultural projects and questions related to the promotion of university heritage are also welcome.

The conference language is English. Post‐graduate students are encouraged to participate with presentations.The abstract template is available at http://www.universeum.it/meetings.html.

Abstracts for session 1, 2 and 3 need to include: i) introduction/problematic/context, ii) main arguments/methods, iii) results ordiscussion. Abstracts for posters can be more descriptive. The identification of questions and issues for broad in-depth debate are most welcome.

Please send abstract proposals (max 200 words), with an indication of the session you are submitting, plus a short biographical note highlighting main research interests (max. 50 words) to the following email address before 15 March 2015: universeum2015(at)uoa.gr.

A website with accommodation details and a preliminary programme will be provided by the end of January.

Programme Committee:
Athanasios Katerinopoulos, University of Athens (Greece), ChairMarlen Mouliou, University of Athens (Greece)Marta Lourenço, University of Lisbon (Portugal)Sébastien Soubiran, University of Strasbourg (France)Sofia Talas, University of Padua (Italy)Bruno Vila, University of Aix-Marseille (France)Roland Wittje, University of Regensburg (Germany)

In case of questions or doubts about the new meeting format, please email Sofia Talas.