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H2020Staff exchange2021–2025

SciCoMove · Scientific Collections on the Move: Provincial Museums, Archives, and Collecting Practices (1800-1950)

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2021-05-01 → 2025-04-30
EU contribution
€726,800
Participants
16
Scheme
MSCA-RISE

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Scientific Collections on the Move: Provincial Museums, Archives, and Collecting Practices (1800-1950)

Concern about provenance and calls for repatriating museum objects have increased considerably in recent years. In this context, the EU-funded SciCoMove project studies the history of some scientific collections in paleontology, anthropology, botany and related applied sciences. Drawing on the most recent historiography of science and scientific collections, the project shifts focus from major to smaller museums in order to demonstrate a more complex, less centralised and less hierarchical, vision of international scientific exchanges. As a result, SciCoMove will provide a more accurate account of the many dimensions of science collecting practices and multilateral contacts between Europe and Latin America. The generated knowledge will enable museums to better respond to social demands, especially concerning object provenance, and scientists to make better use of historical collections in their research. This project is based on: 1 – the shift of focus from major to smaller museums in the “provinces” or “peripheries” in order to outline a more complex, less centralized, and less hierarchical vision of scientific exchanges; 2 – a conception of collections as nodes in networks of circulation and as structures producing knowledge, rather than as heritage and conservation institutions; 3 – an ambition to better connect the collections’ archives with the objects exhibited or conserved and provide a wider historical and social meaning to these objects. The overall methodology is based on the material analysis of objects combined with the analysis of archives recording their circulation, dispersion, exchange, and application. This project promotes collaborations between historians of science, scientists, and museum professionals from nine countries in Latin America and Europe. In line with its objective to better account for the multiple dimensions of science collections and for multilateral interchange between Europe and Latin America, SciCoMove encourages collaborations on equal terms between Latin American and European teams.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

SciCoMove promotes international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaborations between historians of science, scientists and museum professionals from 9 countries in Latin America and Europe with a view to trace the history of scientific collections in paleontology, anthropology, botany and related applied sciences. Its ambition is to reassess their significance and to develop new historical knowledge applicable to their curatorship, utilization by researchers and communication to the public. Drawing on the most recent historiography of science and scientific collections, SciCoMove focuses on the past, but it addresses current issues faced by science museums regarding repatriation demands and the dialogue with “source communities”. Its originality is based: 1 – on the shift of focus from major to smaller museums in the “provinces” or “peripheries” in order to outline a more complex, less centralized and less hierarchical vision of scientific exchanges; 2 – on a conception of collections as nodes in networks of circulation and as structures producing knowledge, rather than as heritage and conservation institutions. Accordingly, SciCoMove focuses on objects “on the move” and on the scholarly practices and sociability of the agents who made these moves possible. In line with its objective to better account for the multiple dimensions of science collections and for multilateral interchange between Europe and Latin America, SciCoMove promotes collaborations on equal terms between Latin American and European teams, in a multilateral and multilingual context of mutual training and sharing. The team has a majority of women. The research combining the material study of objects and investigations in archives will be carried out through case studies and workshops on crosscutting themes. It will feed into training seminars. A digital exhibition will communicate research results, in line with EU policy promoting the public understanding of science and citizen science.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSITE DU MANS · Le MansCoordinatorFrance
  • AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · MadridSpain
  • AGENTSCHAP PLANTENTUIN MEISE · MeiseBelgium
  • CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION Y DE ESTUDIOS AVANZADOS DEL INSTITUTO POLITECNICO NACIONAL · MexicoMexico
  • COMMUNE DU MANS · MANSFrance
  • CONSEJO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS Y TECNICAS (CONICET) · Buenos AiresArgentina
  • CONSORCI DEL MUSEU DE CIENCIES NATURALS DE BARCELONA · BarcelonaSpain
  • MUSEUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE · ParisFrance
  • REPUBLIQUE ET CANTON DE NEUCHATEL · NEUCHATELSwitzerland
  • RHEINISCHE FRIEDRICH-WILHELMS-UNIVERSITAT BONN · BonnGermany
  • RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG · HeidelbergGermany
  • UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA METROPOLITANA · MEXICO CITYMexico
  • UNIVERSIDAD DE LA REPUBLICA · MontevideoUruguay
  • UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE LA PLATA · La PlataArgentina
  • UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO · TorinoItaly
  • UNIVERSITE D'ANGERS · Angers Cedex 01France

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union