CfP: Special issue entitled “The New Museum: Collections and Expositions Between Memory, Politics, and Technology"

2026-10-14

Call for Papers for a Special Issue:

“The New Museum: Collections and Expositions Between Memory, Politics, and Technology"

Innovations in contemporary museology, both as an academic discipline and as a field of exhibition practice, are now emerging across a wide range of areas. New themes are being introduced, including regional and environmental issues and representations of everyday life in the past. At the same time, increasing attention is being paid to issues of collective memory, identity, and the traumatic experiences of wars and genocides, which are being addressed in approaches to museum practice that range from traditional modes of exhibition to methods influenced by cultural studies and postcolonial theory.

Disputes over museum exhibitions have become increasingly prominent and visible as museums present topics like the legacies of colonialism, military conflicts, genocides, and fraught bilateral relations. Such controversies underline the contentious roles played by national and transnational historical narratives and symbols in both domestic and international politics.

In addition, the latest technological trends are deeply influencing museums and their activities. The transfer of museum content into the world of audiovisual media, digitalization, virtual reality, and computer games is increasingly leading to more openness and interactivity. The tension between the technological possibilities that allow museum spaces to offer new interpretations of past and present realities and pragmatic efforts to promote particular interpretations of those realities while sustaining public interest, is leaving its mark on public debates, educational processes, political controversies, and, last but not least, funding.

The proposed special issue will explore the phenomenon of the new museology across North America, Europe, and post-Soviet Eurasia. This call for papers approaches the topic from several main, often interconnected perspectives, including:

a) museums as instruments of politics and cultural diplomacy;
b) museums as institutions that represent transnationalism and transregionalism;
c) museums as lieux de mémoire that commemorate major conflicts, tragedies, and traumas and transmit their memories across generations;
d) museums as examples of living memory applied to the revitalization of industrial architecture and open-access collection storage;
e) museums as institutions exploring and using digital technologies in curatorial practices and online exhibitions inviting interactive engagement;
f) museums as a new type of community center that mediates social interactions and education through lectures, debates, and public discussions.

Subtopics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Histories of significant collections and museum institutions
  • Digital museum collections and politics
  • Museums recalling totalitarian regimes, dictatorships, and genocides
  • Museum exhibitions, memory wars, and weaponization of the past
  • Museum diplomacy utilizing, for example, traveling exhibitions and museum branches abroad
  • The museum as an arena of contest between national and transnational narratives
  • The transition from traditional displays to interactive formats like virtual reality and computer games
  • Breaking taboos on subject matter in museum exhibitions and public debates
  • Postcolonialism and the repatriation of museum objects from former colonial powers
  • Traumatic pasts and transnational justice
  • The transformation and adaptation of industrial sites and complexes
  • Museum partnerships with civic education projects

Articles must be written in English and ideally should be 6,000 to 9,000 words long (excluding footnotes and abstract). Submissions should be sent to the editorial team at stuter@fsv.cuni.cz or uploaded via the Studia Territorialia journal management system. Authors should consult the journal’s submission guidelines for further instructions and guidance on style. All submitted articles are subject to double-blind peer review.

Deadline for submission of abstracts (no more than 300 words): January 31, 2027.
Notification of acceptance by: February 10, 2027.
Deadline for submission of articles: April 30, 2027.

For further information, please feel free to contact the editors at stuter@fsv.cuni.cz.