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CHIMERA

News and Events

Social Anthropology and Chimera special guest seminar: 'Xenophobia and the memory of Moroccan Migration: new forms of relatedness'

Professor Vanessa Maher (University of Verona), Friday 25th March: 4-6, Arthur Lewis Building: G19

Everybody welcome!

Abstract

It is difficult to view migratory experience within a conventional frame of social memory, such as, for example, that of national history, emblem of the twentieth century. On the other hand the experience of  "double absence" (the term which  Abdelmalek Sayad  used to refer to the way the  migrant lacks a  recognized social role both in his country of origin and in that to which he has emigrated) makes it difficult for the migrant to feed his personal recollections  into a shared memory which can be transmitted to others. For some authors, this processing of personal recollections is a function and necessary aspect of kinship ties (Carsten, 2008). Life in a new country may make a migrant's recollections more incoherent, giving rise to the sensation of living in  parallel temporalities. This paper will focus on the way new kinds of  kinship are constituted in the country of immigration, acting through new ritual forms and ways of conferring meaning on places and events. Such new forms of relatedness merit consideration as workshops of memory in which experience can be interpreted and construed,  permitting  new connections to emerge between individual recollections and social memory. Even the anthropologist may sometimes be called upon to contribute to this process.

'Places, people, stories 2011' Conference

Places, people, stories an interdisciplinary & international conference. Linnaeus University, Kalmar 28-30 September 2011

This conference investigates the relations between people and places, focusing on the role of stories in constructing meaning and affecting human emotions. Both rural and urban landscapes contain numerous locations that become meaningful places through their association with stories. These stories may be told orally by narrators or by material design; they may be permanent or temporary. The stories may be linked, for example, to the vegetation, the geology, the wild life, the cultural heritage, the mundane built environment, or metaphysical creatures. Whether such stories are historically accurate, purposefully invented or created entirely in residents' or visitors' minds is however less important than their potential to touch human beings.

Find out more


CREATING GLOBAL CITIZENS? Museums, The Nation, and the World

Peggy Levitt,  Wellesley College and Harvard University, 

Thursday 3rd February 2011, 4pm-6pm, 

Hanson Room, Humanities Bridgeford Street Building

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama told an adoring crowd gathered in Berlin's Tiergarten that he was speaking to them as a citizen of the United States and as a citizen of the world. A strong commitment to the global community, he said, must go hand and hand with national citizenship. Obama's rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to the fierce nationalism and anti-immigrant fever plaguing Europe and the United States. Tea-party candidates won resounding victories in the U.S. mid-term elections. Far Right parties in the Netherlands, France, and Sweden are also gaining popularity. Last summer, Angela Merkel declared Germany's multicultural experiment a failure. 

What do we make of these seemingly irreconcilable trends? Museums might seem like unlikely places to look for answers. But ever since the doors of the Louvre opened in 1793, artistic and cultural institutions have shaped our national imaginary. In today's global world, do museums see themselves creating global citizens too? Where do museums fall in the battle between globalism and parochial nationalism? Why do some cities create outward looking institutions, while others remain inwardly focused? 

Professor Levitt will present findings from museums in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, with a particular focus on Sweden and Denmark. 

A seminar jointly organised by:
CHIMERA Cultural Heritage, Identity and Memory Research Area
Institute for Cultural Practices, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures

EVERYONE WELCOME!

Re-Visiting the Contact Zone: Museums, Theory, Practice

17-21 July 2011, Scandic Linköping Vast, Linköping, Sweden

Chaired by:
Sharon MacDonald, University of Manchester, UK

Co-Chaired by:
Cilly Kugelmann, Jewish Museum Berlin, DE

Museums form an important part of the cultural heritage of all European countries. As institutions, however, they have remained focused on the nation state for historical, political and often for financial reasons, but many of the issues museums face today transcend national boundaries. This international European Science Foundation funded conference seeks to provide a platform for exchange, reflecting on the new EU-wide interest in museums as spaces of cultural encounter that occupy a unique position at the junction between 'the local', 'the national' and 'the global'. Ten years ago James Clifford formulated his influential concept of museums as 'contact zones', highlighting museums as spaces of cultural encounter and drawing attention to the crucial interaction of researchers and practitioners. Find out more

*Save the Date* - Postgraduate Open Day Wednesday 9th February 2011

If the answer to any or all the above is 'Yes', then why not join the Postgraduate Open Day at the University of Manchester on Wednesday 9th February 2011? You will have the chance to:

Register for the Postgraduate Open Day and further information

Read a brief report on 'Making European Heritage - A CHIMERA Workshop'

Visualising and Exhibiting Fascism. Inhabiting the Colonial City

Friday 30 April 2:30 to 4:30 pm. University Place: Room 6.207.

An event organised by the Institute for Transnational Studies at the University of Manchester. For further information please contact francesca.billiani@manchester.ac.uk or lara.pucci@nottingham.ac.uk

Poster

Poster for Chimera launch lecture

CHIMERA Launch 

18 March 2010, 5pm, Manchester Museum, Kanaris Lecture Theatre.

'Ubiquity and Eternity: Heritage and Corruption in the Eurocentric Imagination',  CHIMERA Inaugural Lecture of Professor Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University

Listen the CHIMERA Inaugural Lecture of Professor Michael Herzfeld


This will be followed by an official launch of Chimera and reception at approximately 6.45, also in Manchester Museum.

Both events are free but spaces are limited.

To ensure your place, please reply as soon as possible to: m.c.rostron@manchester.ac.uk.

Making European Heritage

19th and 20th March 2010

The workshop will explore some of the hopes, dilemmas, struggles, negotiations and implications of defining certain cultural heritage as 'European'; and some of the consequences of materializing 'Europe' through heritage.

To register or for more information contact Sharon.macdonald@manchester.ac.uk

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