Call for Papers

The 15th Annual Conference for Scientific University Collections 2024 will be held jointly by ETH Zurich, theUniversity Zurich and the Society for University Collections e.V. (GfU) from 13–15 June 2024 in Zurich.

In a rapidly changing world, university collections are currently facing numerous challenges and influencing factors.

The role of science in political debates has become particularly clear, not least in the corona pandemic or in the debate about climate change. Scientific findings and recommendations influence political decisions and measures. Political decisions are based not only on scientific findings, but also on other factors such as social values, economic considerations, and political interests.

Against this backdrop, we are exploring the following questions at the 15th Conference for University Collections:

• How do university collections interplay with research, finances and politics?
• Should university collections contribute to political debates and if so, how?
• How can they simultaneously ensure that they carry out basic research and continue to fulfill their role as knowledge repositories, research and teaching infrastructures?
• How do university museums and collections restructure themselves in order to adequately respond to the changing roles and goals that are being presented to them?
• What effects does the image change that is usually associated with this have on the central idea and branding of a university museum or collection.
• Asked from a historical perspective - what role did the personal experiences and perspectives of the curators and curators, researchers and teachers play in the compilation, interpretation and preservation of university collections?
• Which social and political issues have a particularly significant impact now and how does it manifest itself in the daily work with collections?
• How do the needs and perspectives of different target groups (students, scientists, the public, sponsors, donors) impact collection work both analogue and digitally?

The following formats are planned:

The lectures should not exceed 20 minutes in length. Please send us your proposal for a presentation in form of an exposé of max. 1500 characters together with a short CV by February 16, 2024.

The poster session offers the opportunity to present current projects and the latest research results and put them up for discussion. Please send us your proposal for a poster in form of an exposé of max. 500 characters together with a short CV by March 1st, 2024.

Workshops with a hands-on character can be held to present a methodological development, a concrete approach or a tool that can be tried out together with the conference participants (the workshop lasts one or two hours). Please send us your proposal for a workshop by February 16, 2024 in form of an exposé of max. 1500 characters, including the length of the workshop together with a short CV.

A separate film session is being planned this year. Films that deal with university collections from a documentary or artistic perspective can be submitted. Student work is explicitly called for to be submitted. Films should not exceed 30 minutes in length. After the session, the films will be discussed and it is desired that the filmmakers be present. Possible video formats are MP4, WMV and AVI.

By submitting the film for the 2024 collection conference, you agree to the following:

Please send us your proposal for a film by March 1st, 2024 in the form of an exposé of max. 500 characters together with a short CV.

The conference languages are  German and English

Please send your documents by email to the following address
sammlungstagung_2024@library.ethz.ch by the specified deadline.

For contributors from abroad, we apply for financial support for travel and accommodation costs from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

The Society for University Collections (GfU e.V.) awards up to 20 scholarships for travel and accommodation costs of a maximum of EUR 250/scholarship to conference participants, primarily to young scientists who make a substantial contribution to the conference (lecture, poster, workshop, film).

The application should be submitted informally by May 12, 2024 to the secretary of the GfU, Prof. Dr. Ernst Seidl: sekretariat@museum.uni-tuebingen.de

Call for Papers (PDF, 71 KB)