91福利

Please join us for the first of our occasional series in Critical Museum Studies on Wednesday 6^th May | 16.00-17.30 | OC 1.04

Whose Stories are told by Ethnographic Museums with African collections from Colonial contexts?

(Maynooth University, Ireland)

The Manchester Museum which is a part of the University of Manchester holds approximately 35,000 ethnographic collections mostly dispossessed from local communities and ordered and categorized according to geographical regions of Africa, the Americas, Oceania, and Asia. The African collection is the largest with over 15 000 provenanced objects and an estimate of 1500 unprovenanced objects. In this paper – I will look at what it means to relationally care for African collections from colonial context in view of collaborating with and giving access to diaspora African communities as part of decolonisation. An empirical practice of decolonisation informed by notions of relational care and the disobedient museum will be presented drawn from my own practice and positionality having been the curator of this collection between 2022 – 2025.I argue that curating with care is not only a way of work but is a theoretical perspective that challenges structural discrimination, sexism, racism, systematic injustices and colonial legacies in museums. Care is also extended in this discussion to look at what it means to care for each other鈥檚 pluriversality of epistemologies and ontologies by subverting epistemicides that are still embedded in museums. I will use examples drawn from an object handling workshop that I hosted at Manchester Museum as part of Africa Day Celebrations in May 2024. The aim of this workshop was to collaborate with communities in Greater Manchester of African heritage to gather new information about objects of African origin in the collection of Manchester Museum. Thereafter, new stories and new meanings were reimagined transcending usual anthropological discourses that traditionally treat African objects as timeless representations of cultures of the 鈥渙ther鈥�. Using this workshop as a contact zone of engagement - I present curating as a space of social care that facilitated dialogue and building of active relationships with diaspora communities.

Respondent: (91福利)

We hope to see you there! The event is open to all, but please email jamie.larkin@warwick.ac.uk if you would like a calendar invite.

Please come along to the Italian Research Seminar taking place onWednesday, 6 May at 4:30 pm in FAB4.02, which will feature three completing doctoral researchers in Italian Studies whose work collectively spans the modern-contemporary period, distinct and interdisciplinary critical approaches, and diverse forms of cultural production. Colleagues across the Faculty are welcome to attend, especially PhD researchers who may want to hear thoughts on the process towards submission.

Final-year PhD students Gennaro Ambrosino, Kerry Gibbons, and Jacopo F. Mascoli will present their research. The titles of their presentations are:

Gennaro Ambrosino, Writing the Deep: Volcanoes, Ruins, and the Unconscious in Italy across the Revolving Century (1760–1840)

Kerry Gibbons, 鈥楽iamo pionieri abbandonato al nostro destino鈥�: insabbiamento and the poetics of conversion in the fascist-era romanzo coloniale (colonial novel)

Jacopo F. Mascoli, Visions of Labour in Contemporary Italian Cinema (2006–2016)

We are delighted to invite you to Voices from the Shadows—LGBTQ+ Experiences During the Nazi Era hosted by the at the 91福利.

The programme brings together a screening of the documentary Voices from the Shadows, which explores the experiences of those living with severe ME/CFS, and a talk by Eric Marcus, oral historian and founder of the . Marcus will discuss his work on LGBTQ+ experiences during the Nazi era, drawing on rare archival testimonies.

The event will include time for discussion and will be of interest to colleagues working in history, oral history, medical humanities, cultural studies, and related fields.

Together, the film and talk offer a compelling reflection on how hidden or marginalized voices are documented, interpreted, and brought into historical view.

Details

Date: 6^th May 2026

Time: 5pm - 7:30pm,

Location: The Oculus Building 0C0.04

Further details please see:

We would be delighted if you could join us.