Questioning our Collections: a colloquium on the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology's Teaching Collections

We wish to draw your attention to the following colloquium, 'Questioning our Collections: a colloquium on the Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology's Teaching Collections'

Please register so we know the numbers for catering:  https://questioningourcollections2022.eventbrite.co.uk

The School of History and Cultures at the University of Birmingham (SHaC) has access to thousands of artefacts from cultures that span the breadth of human history. We are in an enviable position to access objects from cultures that form the basis of our research and teaching. However, the history of our collections is not complete, even though some artefacts have been in our care for over one hundred years, nor have our collections been fully published. This provides an opportunity to rethink and reshape our understanding of our collections. Recently, the collections in the care of SHaC have received renewed attention from academic colleagues. We are at a new stage in our collections' history where we can implement a forward-looking and innovative approach to our recording, research, and teaching using our collections.

This is a one-day hybrid colloquium organised by Dr Maeve McHugh and Dr Leire Olabarria, with support from Birmingham Research Institute for History and Cultures (BRIHC), that brings together speakers who have experience researching and publishing institutional collections. The colloquium includes talks by Prof. Henry Chapman (Birmingham), Dr Jim Harris (Oxford), Dr Campbell Price (Manchester), Dr Nicholas Salmon (Baden), Prof. Amy Smith (Reading), and Dr Susanne Turner (Cambridge), as well as a final roundtable discussion.

Provisional programme: 

10:30-11:00 – Registration and Zoom set up.

11-11.15:  Welcome and Opening Remarks

11.15-11:55: Prof. Henry Chapman (University of Birmingham): Opportunities and challenges of digitisation – reflections on the Eton Myers collection

11.55-12:30: Dr Susanne Turner (Classical Archaeology Museum, University of Cambridge): 'Maker’s marks and gaps in the record: what does provenance look like in a cast collection?’

12:30-13:05: Dr Jim Harris (Ashmolean, University of Oxford): 'Krasis: teaching about teaching with objects at the Ashmolean Museum'

13:05-13:40: Lunch 

13:45-14:20: Dr Campbell Price (University of Manchester): 'Challenging constructions of 'Ancient Egypt' at Manchester Museum'

14:20-14:55: Dr Nick Salmon (Baden): ‘Rhodes and the collecting of antiquities’

15:00-15:35: Prof. Amy Smith (Ure Museum, University of Reading): 'Gendering, Queering, & Sexing artefacts. A variety of different approaches to the Ure Museum's collections'

15:35-16:00: Final discussion and concluding remarks

Any queries to Dr Leire Olabarria (L.Olabarria@bham.ac.uk) or Dr Maeve McHugh (m.mchugh@bham.ac.uk)