Societies today are confronted by many sociopolitical and ecological challenges ranging from climate change to intertwined forms of oppression and sociocultural upheaval. In such a time of polycrisis, museums are faced with new dilemmas that call them to re-think their societal role and agency, both in the past and in the present. Therefore, tools for emotional sustainability are needed. Emotional sustainability is a dimension of social sustainability, and it refers to the capacity to maintain and support emotional well-being within social environments. It involves the ability to recognize and manage emotions to foster healthier, more resilient individuals and communities.
This conference invites you to thought-provoking discussions and presentations on how museums can address affective polarization, strengthen individual and collective resilience, navigate the emotional labour of museum professionals, and to reflect on the broader societal impact of emotional sustainability. The invited keynote speakers are professor Angela Failler and Marzia Varutti, PhD.
We now invite abstracts for seminar presentations, posters and workshops that engage with different dimensions of emotional sustainability and museums. Papers can address either the societal level of emotional sustainability or focus on museum’s internal dynamics. The deadline for the abstracts is April 30. For more information and further instructions, please see the conference website:
The conference is organized in co-operation by the research projects "Touching Collections - Museums as Emotional Arenas" (University of Helsinki) and "Uncomfortable Museum - Towards Safe, Brave Spaces" (University of Jyväskylä), with the support of the SIEF Working Group on Museums and Material Culture and the Finnish Antiquarian Society. The research projects have received their funding from the Kone Foundation.