CFP: Re-Exhibiting the Museum – New Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Exhibition, Collection, and Display

To be held at the Library of Birmingham on 12 November 2025, this single day conference aims to shift the academic conversation away from the dominant narratives of nineteenth-century museum-making, too often centred around major national museums and galleries based in London, and instead seeks to bring together researchers on museums across and beyond the UK, bringing new perspectives and centring new narratives. It will explore diverse aspects of nineteenth-century museum formation, including colonialism, municipal and regional museums, and non-museum spaces, to bring a fuller picture of museums and exhibitions – their displays and their visitors – to the historical record. This focus will allow for broader, underrepresented perspectives in the field and contributions from a diverse range of scholars.

We particularly welcome papers discussing the following topics:

• Development and innovation in nineteenth-century museums
• Strategies of display in museum and non-museum spaces in the nineteenth century, including temporary exhibitions and international exhibitions
• National, regional, and municipal museums
• Methods and mechanics of nineteenth-century collecting
• Collections of societies and mechanics institutes
• International connections between nineteenth-century museums (influences, models, or collaborations)
• Movement and transport of museum objects and artworks across spaces
• Colonialism and the nineteenth-century museum
• British museums’ links to Empire
• Museums in the colonies

We encourage submissions from PhD candidates, early career researchers, and established scholars. We welcome submissions for individual papers of 20 minutes (followed by up to 10 minutes of discussion and questions); themed sessions (90 minutes for three papers or 60 minutes for two paired papers, including discussion and questions); round tables or workshops (maximum 90 minutes). Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words together with a brief biography as an e-mail attachment to reexhibitingthemuseum@gmail.com no later than 12 July 2025. For round tables or workshops, please include a description of the proposed form and content (300 words maximum). Successful applicants will be notified by 12 August 2025.

This conference will be held on Wednesday 12 November 2025 at the Library of Birmingham, Centenary Square, Birmingham B1 2ND. Bursaries for travel and accommodation will be available for speakers. We are committed to ensuring that our symposium is accessible to all participants. If you have any specific accessibility needs or require accommodations, please contact us at reexhibitingthemuseum@gmail.com. We will make every effort to provide the necessary support to ensure your full participation in the event.
Conference website: https://rtmconference.wixsite.com/info

Organising committee: Mary Clayton-Kastenholz (PhD candidate, Warburg Institute and Victoria and Albert Museum), Maialen Maugars (PhD, University of Warwick and Birmingham Museums Trust), Amalia Wickstead (PhD candidate, UCL and Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford).

This event is made possible thanks to activity funding from the AHRC.