Wednesday, March 05, 2008

ICOM-ICME Meeting Information

CALL FOR PAPERS

"Migration, Diaspora, Pilgrimage"

ICOM-ICME annual meeting, Jerusalem

November 17-19, 2008

ICME (the ICOM International Committee for Museums of Ethnography) will hold its 2008 annual conference “Migration, Diaspora, Pilgrimage” in Jerusalem on 17-19 November, 2008. The meeting will be hosted by The Isaac Kaplan Old Yishuv Court Museum and the Jerusalem Foundation in collaboration with ICOM-Israel, L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem, and U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art. Final details are still being confirmed, but the general format of the annual meeting will consist of paper and discussion sessions, museum visits including discussions with staff, and walking tours with community scholars.

The conference will be preceded by a one-day walking tour of pilgrimage sites in Jerusalem and will be followed by a two-day post-conference tour of pilgrimage sites in northern Israel.

Registration forms, registration fee information, hotels, post-conference tour costs and other details will be available on the ICME web site in early February at http://icme.icom.museum

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

PRE-CONFERENCE
Sunday, November 16 – Pre-conference walking tour and reception at The Isaac Kaplan Old Yishuv Court Museum(ilmuseums.com/museum_eng.asp?id=23

CONFERENCE
Monday, November 17 – Museum visit & Paper sessions at Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem, visit to the Armenian Museum, reception at Mishkenot Shaananim, sponsored by The Jerusalem Foundation.

Tuesday, November 18 – Visit Yad Vashem & Paper sessions at L.A.Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Middle Eastern dinner will be followed by a nighttime tour through Rehavia and Talbieh.

Wednesday, November 19 – Museum visit & Paper sessions at U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art Museum, visit the Museum of the Jewish Underground, walking tour of the Mea Shearim neighborhood and historic Nevi'im Street, "Street of the Prophets" (http://wikitravel.org/en/Jerusalem/Chareidi)

Thursday, November 20 – Departure, or participation on the post conference tour

POST-CONFERENCE
Thursday, November 20-Friday, November 21 - Post Conference Tour of northern Israel including visits to museums, pilgrimage sites and communities in Kibbutz Gesher, Kibbutz Ginossar, Tiberias, Tabgha Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, Tel Hai, Kibbutz Giladi, Safed, Nebi Shueib, Haifa

CONTACT:
Annette Fromm, ICME President

3060 Alton Road, Miami Beach, Florida 33140, USA
Tel: +1 305 532 3530
Fax: +1 305 535 8083
email: president@icme.icom.museum
http://icme.icom.museum

CALL FOR PAPERS: "MIGRATION, DIASPORA, PILGRIMAGE"

People move. Some movement is voluntary – better economic and political situations are sought. Other movement is involuntary. Through the processes of migration and in the diaspora, many people keep alive their identity through the continuity of language, social structure, traditional culture, and belief systems. Part of this latter cultural expression leads people to return to their places of origin to reverence sites they consider to be holy or to hold power. Many as individuals and as groups return from the diaspora to their places of origin in the process of pilgrimage. The sites to which they return might be sacred or they might be secular. Nonetheless, pilgrimage is a process that crosses many lines of meaning.

Museum of ethnography and ethnology hold material culture, which speaks to the origins of many peoples.

What is the role of museums of ethnography and ethnology in these processes – migration, diaspora, pilgrimage?

Do research and collecting policies and public programs bring light to these processes with reference to communities in which the museums are located?

On the other hand, have museums become sites of pilgrimage for those who cannot make return visits home?

Do museums of ethnography and ethnology work with community leaders to help members keep alive their traditional culture, beliefs and memories?

ICME invites papers discussing “Migration, Diaspora, Pilgrimage” for the 2008 Annual Conference. Paper proposals of up to 300 words should be submitted to: president@icme.icom.museum by April 31, 2008.

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