Messina: A City without Memory?http://www.ucl.ac.uk/place-and-memory/messina/index.html

22nd April 2008 @ 6pm in the Archaeology Lecture theatre

Film Screening of Messina: A City Without Memory

With John Dickie, Director of the Messina Project

On 28 December 1908 an earthquake, quickly followed by a tsunami, almost completely destroyed the cities of Messina, on the eastern coast of Sicily, and Reggio Calabria, which looks out across the Straits at Messina from the Italian mainland. The exact number of victims will never be known, but most estimates suggest that between 80,000 and 100,000 people died. Very many of these fatalities occurred in Messina: about one third of its 150,000 inhabitants is thought to have perished.

Today, many messinesi say that theirs is a city without memory.

EXPLORING A MEMORY COMMONPLACE

The idea that Messina is a city without memory has become a commonplace for some of its citizens. That commonplace is the subject of this research project, which aims to trace its history, and explore the many different narratives about the earthquake and about the city that are expressed in the notion of the city without memory.

Graduate Student Conference 2008: Call for papers

The Research Student Reps and the Graduate Coordinators of the Research Groups are pleased to announce that the Graduate Student Conference 2008 will be held at the Institute of Archaeology the next 8th of May.

The aim of the event is to represent the variety of the research ongoing here at the Institute offering students a chance to present their work in a stimulating and relaxed venue.

Research students are warmly encouraged to participate with 12-15 min. papers.

Abstracts (100 words) can be sent to the Graduate Coordinators of each Research Group.

Please send 100 words abstracts to: Niki Savvides- Student Coordinator, Heritage Studies Research Group: n.savvides@ucl.ac.uk

HERITAGE CHAT

CHAT 2008

‘HERITAGE CHAT’

November 14-16, 2008
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

Hosted by Atkins Heritage, English Heritage and UCL
Centre for Museums, Heritage and Material Culture


Concern for heritage of the recent past has long been confined to the particular interests of a sub-set of architectural historians for whom listing post-war buildings (notably of the reconstruction years) was a clear focus. Archaeologists are also now taking an active and enthusiastic interest in the modern period; the only surprise is that it has taken so long. After a steady start, and an almost inevitable concentration on industrial and military sites and landscapes, it has quickly become more than the fringe interest it perhaps once was, a side-show to the main attraction. In local planning authorities, archaeological units and trusts, as well as national agencies and universities, the heritage interest in contemporary and historical archaeology has now emerged with strength and alacrity. English Heritage’s Change and Creation programme, in partnership with Atkins Heritage, and the universities of London and Bristol is evidence of this, as is the Images of Change book (Sefryn Penrose 2007), the recent Modern Times issue of Conservation Bulletin (2007), numerous published articles and several entries in the Heritage Reader (Fairclough et al. 2008). A head of steam is quickly building.
CHAT (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory) is a dynamic forum for innovative critical discussion that seeks to challenge and push the limits of archaeological thinking. To date this has been achieved through five annual conferences, publications and an active email discussion group. This year’s conference takes CHAT in a new direction, exploring connections between these theoretical perspectives and ideals and the more traditional concerns of heritage management practice. What can CHAT offer heritage practitioners, and vice versa? How much of heritage management practice holds relevance to CHAT? Should the heritage sector retain its focus on that which is ‘old’ and ‘special’, or should we feel comfortable with a broader remit, accepting that what we have today (inherited from the past, and what we create and manufacture ourselves) is part of the longer-term process of change with which we, as archaeologists, are closely familiar? CHAT presents particular challenges for heritage practitioners and agencies: Value judgements for that which is new and unfamiliar, amongst culturally diverse communities, and the attendant issues of migrant heritage; traditional conceptions and practices for recording buildings versus the aesthetic and the evocative; the archaeology of the ephemeral, the intangible and the un-built, all things that are harder to trace in earlier periods; and how inter- or cross-disciplinary should we be? In a world of accountability, research frameworks and national research agenda, where should our priorities actually lie? What should a research strategy for contemporary and historical archaeology contain? And who is best qualified to do this work: archaeologists, or anthropologists, cultural geographers … artists and writers even?
Heritage CHAT provides an opportunity to examine some of these issues at close range, through plenary sessions that will contain theoretical and methodological perspectives on contemporary and historical archaeology, and examples of work in progress that address relevant themes. Papers are encouraged that challenge the very notion of heritage, and the commercial and corporate strategies that go with it, as are papers describing work on contemporary and historical archaeology which operate within more conventional heritage frameworks. Short (450 word) abstracts should be submitted to any of the organising committee (below) by email, by the end of May 2008.


Charlotte Frearson (charlotte.frearson@atkinsglobal.com)
Sarah May (sarah.may@english-heritage.org.uk)
Hilary Orange (h.orange@ucl.ac.uk)
Sefryn Penrose (Sefryn.penrose@atkinsglobal.com)
John Schofield (john.schofield@english-heritage.org.uk)

Omeka software for museum exhibits and collections

From: Sheila Brennan sbrennan@gmu.edu

Greetings,

Below you will find some information announcing the public beta release ofthe Center for History and New Media's latest software project, Omeka(http://omeka.org) -- the free and open-source software that providesmuseums, historical societies, libraries and individuals with an easy to useplatform for publishing collections and creating attractive,standards-based, interoperable online exhibits. We're very excited about the software and building a strong community ofusers and developers, and we hope that some of you decide to download it andtry working with it at your institution. We are very interested in feedback, so please send an email(omeka.support@gmail.com) or log into our Forums to comment and discuss yourexperiences with Omeka.
Thanks for your time.
Sheila A. Brennan

Senior Digital History AssociateCenter for History and New MediaGeorge Mason University703-879-8366sbrennan@gmu.eduhttp://chnm.gmu.edu The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and theMinnesota Historical Society are pleased to announce the public beta releaseof Omeka , the free and open-source software that providesmuseums, historical societies, libraries and individuals with an easy-to-useplatform for publishing collections and creating attractive,standards-based, interoperable online exhibits. Omeka is designed to satisfythe needs of cultural institutions that lack technical staffs and largebudgets. Bringing Web 2.0 technologies and approaches to small museum,historical society, and library websites, Omeka fosters the kind of userinteraction and participation that is central to the mission of thosecultural institutions. Omeka's development is the result of ten years ofdigital public history work, experimentation, and technology development onprojects such as The September 11 Digital Archive <911digitalarchive.org>and Object of History: Behind the Scenes with the Curators of the NationalMuseum of American History .

Omeka is funded by theInstitute of Museum and Library Services and the Alfred P. SloanFoundation . The theme-switching process and plug-in architecture at the heart of Omekawill be familiar to users who are accustomed to working with popularblogging software, but Omeka includes a number of features that are directedspecifically at public history users and other humanists. First, the systemfunctions using an archive built on a Dublin Core metadata scheme, allowingit to be interoperable with existing content management systems and allother Omeka installations. Second, Omeka includes a process for buildingnarrative exhibits with flexible layouts. These two features alone providecultural institutions with the power to increase their web presence and toshowcase the interpretive expertise of curators, archivists, and historians.But Omeka's plug-in architecture also allows users to do much more to extendtheir exhibits to include maps, timelines, and folksonomies, and it providesthe "hooks" and APIs (application programming interfaces) that open-sourcedevelopers and designers need to add additional functionality to suit theirown institutions' particular needs. In turn, a public plug-ins and themesdirectory will allow these community developers to donate their new toolsback to the rest of Omeka users. The Omeka team is eager to build a largeand robust community of open-source developers around this suite oftechnologies. Available in private beta since September, Omeka has already accrued over150 test users, and a number of successful projects are using the software: The Light Factory and Cultural Heritage & Museums in South Carolina areusing Omeka for an online collecting site to accompany their physical show,River Docs <http://www.catawbariverdocs.com/>, in which contemporary artistsdocumented their personal interactions with the Catawaba River over thecourse of a year. Omeka has enabled the curators to collect images andreflections from the public, extending the reach of the physical exhibit anddeepening the connection of the visitors to the project. The New York Public Library is testing Omeka for an online overview of itsmost popular collections, Treasures of the New York Public Library<http://labs.nypl.org/labs-projects/exhibits/>. Virginia Tech has used Omeka to collect remembrances and memorials of thesad events of last Spring, The April 16 Archive .Omeka's flexible design and architecture enabled the launch of this sitewithin days of the tragic shootings. Other projects using Omeka include:Object of History: Behind the Scenes with the Curators at the NationalMuseum of American History Hurricane Digital Memory Bank A Look Back at Braddock District

Omeka is now available for download and includes thefollowing features:Basic themes that are easy to adapt with simple CSS changes (more themesavailable at )Exhibit building with 12 basic page layoutsTagging for items and exhibitsRSS feed for new items Drop box plug-in for batch adding items (available at)

Contribution plug-in for collecting items from visitorsCOinS plug-in making all Omeka content readable by Zotero Geolocation plug-in for displaying items on a mapBilingual plug-in for adding language fields to item metadataSite notes plug-in for administrators to leave instructions for users

System Requirements:Linux operating systemApache server (with mod_rewrite enabled)MySQL 5.0 or greaterPHP 5.2.x or greaterImageMagick

Call for Papers HERITAGE AND PRACTICES OF PUBLIC FORMATION

A Special Issue of the International Journal of Heritage Studies

The International Journal of Heritage Studies invites submissions for a special theme issue devoted to a critical consideration of the implicationsof heritage practices in regard to the re-articulation of existing publics and the formation of new ones. Those who think heritage is only about the past have got it wrong. Practices of heritage are always about the future. Such practices are inherently implicated in enduring questions regarding the viable substance of social life, questions which include the problem of human connection acrosshistorically structured differences of time and place. Heritage practices present an arena of social participation. They not only offer meanings and affect that help consolidate exiting social solidarities, but they also offer the possibility of new connections among diverse people, connections essential for the continual renewal of democratic life and the attainment of environmental sustainability in an increasingly complex and interdependent world.

This issue of IJHS will be devoted to discussions of heritage practice that move beyond the notion of a public as an identifiable pre-existing set of people who form the potential audience for any given heritage event and who are then reminded of their connections to each other through their collective attention. In these circumstances, previously constituted identities and/or interests are often invoked to explain the thoughts and feelings that tie people toeach other, establishing their willingness to accept a given normative basis for shared values and institutions. Differently from this concern with how heritage practices are implicated in the reproduction of existing social relations, for this issue we are encouraging explorations that start with the idea that as plural formations, publics may be initiated and consolidated when strangers come to recognize new shared interests and affinities. Thus our focus is the way diverse sets of people engage with various forms of both tangible and intangible heritage forging relationships that were not pre-existing. When heritage practices are implicated in this moment of the making (orre-making) of collectivities, something of what Hannah Arendt called"world-making" happens. In such moments, through engagements withrepresentations of the past and each other, varied people may come tounderstand themselves in new ways as members of a public in formation. Animportant consequence of considering heritage practices on such terms is that it extends the manner in which such practices may be understood to be both political and pedagogical. More concretely stated, heritage practices within but not limited to museums, urban landscapes, internet web sites,tourist sites, monuments and memorials, as well as engagements with music,dance, drama, craft and art may all contribute to the formation of new publics and hence social and political re-formation of everyday life.

For this special issue IJHS we are calling for papers concerned with how heritage practices provoke the conditions that enable the existence of publics, and contribute to their plurality, historicity,stability/instability, and relationship with each other. Such papers would likely consider not only what it means to be with others in new public formations but as well, they may address the material and spatial conditions that enable and limit their coming into being. Further, consideration might also be given to the substantive relation of new public formations to existing State forms and global ideologies. IJHS calls on scholars to consider the potential of heritage practices for enriching public landscapes, engendering collective experience and insight, inciting debates and democratic practices, and creating new forms of human solidarity.

Papers should aim to reevaluate and reposition ideas of the public, placing heritage within contemporary contexts and concerns. Please submit paper proposals (abstracts of up to 300 words) by June 1, 2008 to the issue's editors Roger I. Simon (rsimon@oise.utoronto.ca) and SusanAshley (sashl@yorku.ca). Completed manuscripts will be due September 30,2008. Potential contributors will be interested to know that Routledge has expressed an interest in publishing the special issue in book form once it has been published by the IJHS.

THE EDITORS: Roger I. Simon is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and EquityStudies at the University of Toronto. He is the Faculty Director of the Centre for Media and Culture in Education and Director of the Testimony and Historical Memory Project at OISE/UT. Simon has written broadly on critical approaches to cultural pedagogy most recently focusing on the areas of public history and museum studies. His research and writing addresses questions of the pedagogical and ethical dimensions of practices of cultural memory. This work is part of Simon's on-going exploration of the intersections of social and political theory, cultural practice, and pedagogy in regard to the project of securing a public sphere enabling ajust and compassionate society. His recent publications include articles inMuseum and Society, Museum Management and Curatorship, and the Journal ofMuseum Education. His most recent book is The Touch of the Past:Remembrance, Learning and Ethics published by Palgrave MacMillan2005.mailto:rsimon@oise.utoronto.ca Susan Ashley is a SSHRC-CGS doctoral candidate in the Communication andCulture program at York University in Toronto. She has had 20 years ofexperience in the heritage field as a front-line interpreter, program andexhibit planner, and consultant, working with public heritage sites acrossCanada. She has published in IJHS, Museum & Society, the Canadian Journal ofCommunication, and various heritage professional journals.

New heritage blog: The other Acropolis

An interesting photoblog on the Acropolis.

http://www.theotheracropolis.com

An extract from the blog's introduction:
This photoblog is the first stage of a series of projects by The Other Acropolis Collective.

This project is an attempt to undermine the monolithic discourse on the Acropolis as an exclusively classical site, by bringing into the fore its other lives, from prehistory to the present (the Mycenaean, the Medieval, the Ottoman, the Muslim, the Christian, the contemporary.), especially through their material traces that still survive, despite the extensive processes of archaeological, but also photographic purification.

We hope that the thoughts and the material generated here will lead to other projects and interventions, some on site, some printed, some virtual, with more immediate a printed, portable alternative tourist guide for The Other Acropolis. We invite you to post your comment, share your thoughts, and if you are an artist or a researcher already working on a similar project, get in touch with us.