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Museums Challenge: A Symposium for Transformative Practice University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida February 17-18 2020

UF Museum Studies 20th Anniversary Symposium

In 2000, the University of Florida (UF) established a graduate program in Museum Studies. In the last twenty years, museums and museum professions have undergone critical transformations. To mark the twentieth anniversary of the program and the radical changes in Museum Studies and museums, UF is convening a symposium to examine the history and future of museums and museum professionals challenging ideas and practices in order to shape transformational knowledge and experiences.

The UF Museum Studies program states: “We believe museums can change the world.” Thus, the program centers the transformational power of museums. At this interdisciplinary symposium, we will focus on museums and Museum Studies programs:

For the history of museums: how have they engaged with and made visible the social and political challenges of their times? Particular interest will be given to how institutions, individuals, and communities manifest transformations that challenge accepted ideas and/or practices.
How have Museum Studies programs and other forms of professional training evolved to respond to changes to bring about transformations?
For the future, how can museums and Museum Studies best work in concert to lead change through transformational practice?

Twenty-years ago Stephen Weil posited that American museums were in a moment of great transformation, shifting from “Being about Something to Being for Somebody.” No longer able to be ‘salvage and warehouse business[s]’, he argued that it was imperative for museums to become more entrepreneurial and to demonstrate their impact and advocate for their value. In the decades prior to Weil’s essay, New Museology or New Museum Theory established a critical discourse for museum practice around how museums construct knowledge, engage with communities, and operate in society. Pierre Mayrand argued that this critical discourse “mobilize[d] the supporters of the radical transformation of the aims of museology, and advocates profound changes in the thinking and attitudes of the museologist.”

Today, museums continue to strive to assert their public value and critically engage with the systems and structures upon which they have been built. Many museums have shed guises of neutrality. Museum professionals are positioning their work and institutions as inherently engaged with justice, representation, and addressing historic traumas. Some museums have taken more overt stances to address critical contemporary social issues such hate crime, genocide, migration, mass incarceration, racism, and climate change through their collections and programs.

This symposium celebrates the work of museums, Museum Studies, and our communities over the past twenty years. In doing so, this program looks to the future as we work together for a more just and equitable world.

We seek proposals for participation in the symposium in various formats:

Presentations (20 minutes inclusive of discussion )
Panels (3 presentations, 75 minutes inclusive of discussion)
Roundtables (multiple presenters in conversation, 1 hour)
Lightning round presentations (5 minutes)

A publication in the form of an edited volume is planned. Selected participants will be asked to contribute to this publication with texts due in Feb 2020.

Proposals Due: Monday, August 26th
Acceptance Notifications: by Friday, September 20th

Proposal for each formats should include:

Presentations: 250 word abstract and short bio (100 words),
Panels: 500word abstract of the panel including a summary of the goals of the panel and topic the individual papers and short bios for each presenter (100 words)
Roundtables: 250 word abstract of the theme of the roundtable including the guiding questions for the conversation and short bios for each roundtable participant (100 words)
Lightning round presentations: 250 word abstract and short bio (100 words)

proposal submission form

If you have inquiries about the symposium or the proposal process you may send them to:
museumschallenge@arts.ufl.edu

Call for Proposals: International Studies/Digital Humanities Symposium at the University of North Florida

On March 9, 2018, the University of North Florida will host a one–day symposium examining intersections between international studies and the digital humanities. This event is cosponsored by the UNF International Studies Program, the UNF Digital Humanities Initiative (DHI), and the UNF Center for Instruction and Research Technology (CIRT).
We will begin with a panel discussion (noon–1:15 PM, Building 58W/Room 3703) addressing the implications of digital tools and methodologies for how we understand problems in the world today, interact across cultural boundaries, and deal with matters of cultural heritage in a globalized world. Our panelists will be Crystal Andrea Felima, CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in Caribbean Studies Data Curation, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida; Josh Gellers, assistant professor of political science, University of North Florida; Hélène Huet, European studies librarian, University of Florida, and vice–chair, Florida Digital Humanities Consortium; Barry Mauer, associate professor of English and director, Texts and Technology Ph.D. program, University of Central Florida; and Tiffany Earley–Spadoni, assistant professor of history, University of Central Florida.
This discussion will be followed by an interactive showcase of digital projects (1:30–2:45 PM, Building 58W/Rooms 3804–3806) that are international in nature or that involve methodologies that may be applicable to the interdisciplinary field of international studies.
Lastly, we will hold an open conversation about opportunities for statewide collaboration on Digital Humanities endeavors (3:00–4:00 PM, Online Learning Laboratory, Building 10/Room 1102).
As part of the 1:30–2:45 showcase, we invite students, faculty and staff from UNF and other regional institutions and universities to present on digital projects, at any stage of development. To propose a project, please send a document with the following information to Clayton McCarl (clayton.mccarl@unf.edu), director of the UNF International Studies Program, by February 16, 2018: 1) full title of poster/presentation; 2) names of all participants, with academic/professional titles (or major/program of study for students); 3) a description/abstract of the material to be presented (150–250 words); 4) name of faculty mentor or project leader, where applicable, and 5) an explanation of any special needs regarding technology or equipment.

12th Annual Symposium of Spanish and Portuguese Studies. January 27, 2018

CALL FOR PAPERS

12^th Annual Symposium of Spanish and Portuguese Studies

January 27, 2018 at the University of Florida, Reitz Student Union

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Florida cordially invites submissions for our 12^th Annual Symposium of Spanish and Portuguese Studies.
We invite proposals for both individual presentations and panels (maximum of three presentations) from graduate students and faculty on topics related to Hispanic and Lusophone literature, linguistics, foreign language pedagogy, and other interdisciplinary studies, including Digital Humanities.
Please send a one-page abstract (approximately 250 words) to pfernand@ufl.edu
In the accompanying email, please provide the following information: your name, the presentation’s title, your position and institutional affiliation, and your preferred email address. Abstracts and presentations may be in Spanish, English, or Portuguese.
The submission deadline is November 1, 2017.
The keynote presentation for this year’s symposium is “The Digital Library of the Caribbean and Digital Humanities: Opportunities and Resources for Research, Teaching, and Collaboration” by:
Dr. Leah Rosenberg is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Florida. She teaches Caribbean and Postcolonial studies, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary courses. A member of the advisory board of the Digital Library of the Caribbean (www.dloc.com) since 2008, she has worked to build its dLOC’s holdings in Anglophone Caribbean literature and history as well as its pedagogical materials and ability to support collaborative teaching.
Dr. Hélène Huet is the European Studies Librarian at UF and oversees many international collections. As a digital humanist and the Vice-Chair of the Florida Digital Humanities Consortium (FLDH), a collective of institutions in Florida that seeks to promote an understanding of the humanities in light of digital technologies and research, she is particularly interested in studying how digital tools can help facilitate students and faculty’s research.
Dr. Laurie N. Taylor is a Digital Scholarship Librarian at UF, where her work focuses on socio-technical (people, policies, technologies, communities) needs for scholarly cyberinfrastructure. Her work activities are geared towards enabling a culture of radical collaboration that values and supports diversity and inclusivity, including as the Digital Scholarship Director for the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) and is the Editor-in-Chief for the LibraryPress@UF.
Please direct questions to the Organizing Committee at pfernand@ufl.edu

Poster of the Call for Papers

Symposium, Collaborating Across the Divide: Digital Humanities and the Caribbean, Sept. 21-22, 2017 University of Florida

Please save the date for the upcoming symposium:
Collaborating Across the Divide: Digital Humanities and the Caribbean
Date: September 21 and 22
Locations: Smathers Library, room 100
The full event information is online (http://digitalhumanities.group.ufl.edu/event/collaborating-across-the-divide-digital-humanities-and-globalization-sept-21-23-2017/).
We hope that you can join for the symposium, and we look forward to the event as a place for conversation on next steps in regional collaboration! Please share on any questions, and please share this with others!
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About the Symposium:
Digital technology has made the early twenty-first century a critical moment of opportunity by providing access to a wide range of library and archival materials and by offering new means of teaching, analyzing content, and presenting literary scholarship. While digital technologies have the promise of bridging institutional and geographic barriers, they have also continued to reproduce colonial hierarchies and marginalize content from the Caribbean and the Global South. This symposium, “Collaborating Across the Divide: Digital Humanities and the Caribbean,” brings together scholars and artists from the Caribbean and the United States to discuss how to collaborate through digital humanities in ways that decolonize knowledge and empower Caribbean subjects, rather than reaffirm colonial histories of archiving and education. The project will center on the Digital Library of the Caribbean (www.dloc.com), an international partnership whose technological and DH hub is the University of Florida. The objective of the symposium is to produce an action plan for making dLOC a hub for pedagogical, scholarly, and artistic collaboration.
Schedule:
Thursday, 21 Sept., 5-6:45pm:

Introduction and Presentation: Oonya Kempadoo

Friday, 22 Sept.:

9-10:45am: Panel: “DH and Non-DH Collaboration within the Academy,” Rosamond King and Matthew Smith
10:45-11am: Break
11am-12:45pm: Panel: “Public Humanities and DH Collaboration: Pedagogy beyond Academia,” Gabriele Hosein and Schuyler Esprit
12:45-2:15pm: Lunch Break
2:15-3:15pm: Platforms for Caribbean DH: Thomas Hale and others
3:15-3:30pm: Break
3:30-5pm, Roundtable:
5-5:15pm: Closing remarks

Speakers:
OONYA KEMPADOO is author of Buxton Spice (1997), winner of the Tide Running (2001), and All Decent Animals (2013); winner of the Casa de Las Americas Prize (2002), and consultant in the arts and social development, including work with UNICEF, UNAID. She was Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence and Creative Writing Instructor (2013-2014) at two colleges in Connecticut; and serves advisor to Caribbean literacy non-profit “Hands Across the Sea” and co-founder of the Grenada Community Library & Resource Center in St George’s Grenada. An internationally acclaimed novelist, she is a leader in digital arts and educational collaboration in the Caribbean. Kempadoo has initiated two digital projects to support environmental sustainability in the Caribbean. The first, Naniki, is a speculative fiction, multi-media, eco-social project designed to engage students in the Caribbean and other countries in using digital technology and supporting environmental sustainability. The second, Carisealand, is a digital platform for scholars, artists, and the public for sharing projects on sustainability, designed and built by Create Caribbean Research Institute and it’s students (Dominica State College).
SCHUYLER ESPRIT is a scholar of Caribbean literature and cultural studies. Dr. Esprit holds a PhD in English literature from University of Maryland – College Park. She currently serves as dean of Academic Affairs at Dominica State College as well as director of the Create Caribbean Research Institute. She has pioneered Digital Humanities projects and digital technology training at the K-12 and College level in Dominica as well as collaboratively, linking classes at the Dominica State College and classes at colleges in the United States. She is now completing her book manuscript and its digital companion, both entitled Occasions for Caribbean Reading, a historical exploration of reading culture in the Caribbean.
GABRIELLE HOSEIN, Director of the Institute for Gender & Development Studies, at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine (Trinidad), which is home to several significant digital and public humanities projects, including Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, an open access peer-reviewed journal, of which Hosein is associate editor. Hosein is Principle Investigator for Politics, Power and Gender Justice in the Anglophone Caribbean, 2011-2014, member of the research team for the project Building Responsive Policy: Gender, Sexual Cultures and HIV & AIDS in the Caribbean, 2008-2011, and co-editor of Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought Genealogies, Theories, Enactments (Palgrave 2016).
MATTHEW J. SMITH is Professor in History and Head, Department of History and Archaeology, The UWI, Mona. His areas of research include Haitian politics, society, and migration. He is the author of the books Liberty, Fraternity, Exile: Haiti and Jamaica After Emancipation (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), winner of the Haiti Illumination Project Book Prize from the Haitian Studies Association and Red and Black in Haiti: Radicalism, Conflict, and Political Change, 1934-1957 (University of North Carolina Press, 2009) which was a winner of the Gordon K and Sybil Lewis prize for best book in Caribbean History from the Caribbean Studies Association. He had contributed significantly to dLOC’s teacher training program and to its edited collection Haiti: An Island Luminous; his service work utilizes the digital for critical needs, including as Director of UWI-Mona’s Haiti Initiative following the 2010 earthquake providing assistance to Haitian university students and the Haitian national library, his work serving as Director of the UWI’s Social History Project, and as member of the Board of Museums and Archives of the Institute of Jamaica.
ROSAMOND KING (Associate Professor of English, Brooklyn College, CUNY) is a critical and creative writer and artist, whose work focuses on the Caribbean and sexuality. Her book Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination won the 2015 Caribbean Studies Association Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Prize for the best Caribbean Studies Book. She is also a poet, artist, and performer with an extensive record of publications and performances. She is also a leader in digitizing LBGTQ archival materials from the Caribbean for dLOC and has collaboratively developed and taught with Dr. Angelique Nixon, a distributed online collaborative course (DOCC) in the US and Caribbean on sexualities.
THOMAS HALE was one of the founders of the African Literature Association, a field of study that developed in the early 1970s. Two of his early books reflect this initiative: The Teaching of African Literature and Artist and Audience: African Literature as a Shared Experience. He devoted several decades to research and publication on the oral traditions in West Africa, where he recorded epics narrated by griots, professional bards who maintain the cultural heritage of peoples in the Sahel region. He is also a prominent scholar on Aimé Césaire and has recently developed an online annotated bibliography of Césaire: http://lesecritscesaire.libraries.psu.edu/. He served as head of the Department of French and Francophone Studies at the Pennsylvania State University from 2001 to 2008.

For additional information, please contact Laurie Taylor (laurien@ufl.edu).
All events in the Smathers Library, room 100.
All events are free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere with support from the Rothman Endowment.
Co-Sponsored by the Creative Campus Program, Center for Latin American Studies, the Interdisciplinary Working Group on Caribbean Arts and Humanities, the Science Fiction Working Group, and Imagining Climate Change, the George A. Smathers Libraries, the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research, the Department of English, the Department of History, and the UF Informatics Institute.
Program Team Members: Leah Rosenberg, Randi Gill-Sadler, Prea Persaud; Chelsea Dinsmore, Tace Hedrick, Emily Hind, Maria Rogal, Malini Johar Schueller, Maya Stanfield-Mazzi, Dhanashree Thorat, Laurie Taylor