Dear ICOM Members,

ICOFOM, the ICOM International Committee for Museology, is pleased to send you, below, the Call for Papers for ICOFOM's 35th Annual Symposium to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10 - 17 August 
2013.  The topic is:  The Special Visitor: Each and Every One of Us, and included in this document is a brief topic description.  In addition, some Suggestions in writing for the ICOFOM Study Series are also included below.  Please note that the deadline for the submission of papers is, without exception, 16 March 2013.  French and Spanish versions will be posted on the ICOFOM website when 
they are available. We look forward to receiving your papers and to 
seeing you in Rio!


Lynn Maranda
ICOFOM Secretary (corresponding)on behalf of the ICOFOM President, Ann Davis, 
and the ICOFOM Executive Board



35thAnnual ICOFOM  Symposium
 
The Special Visitor : Each and Every One of Us
 
Rio de Janeiro, August 2013
 
 
CALL
FOR PAPERS
 
Deadline
for submission of papers:  16 March 2013
 
 
Topic Description 
 
With this topic
authors are asked to explore a theory or theories of the individual visitor.
Here writers may consider the concept of the unique visitor as opposed to the
system of categorizing visitors in groups by education or age. As in all ICOFOM
work, this exploration of visitor individuality is not so much a study of “how”
but much more an examination of “why.” One germane museum
theory might be the work of John Falk. Another might be that of Michel
Foucault, who, in The History of Madness, took issue with Western
civilization’s willingness to demonize difference. Jean Vanier, in Becoming
Human, made the case for equality. Other theories of individuality in education
and communication, including social media, can be pertinent and fruitful. This
topic is not about museum visitor studies, satisfaction rates and
demographics.  Papers on those topics do
not address the issue of the individual and will be rejected. Those seeking
examples of excellent articles based on theory might consider the work of Bruno
Soares and Jennifer Harris in the last two issues of ISS, numbers 40 and 41,
available on line at the ICOFOM website. In each of these papers a theory or
theories have been identified and analysed and examples given of their museum
application.
 
 
Every visitor brings
to the museum his or her individual characteristics, histories, needs and
desires. Museum visitors are unique and special in many ways. All visitors come
with assets and liabilities, some of which might include cognitive, emotional
or physical characteristics; interest or disinterest
in the museum’s subject mater or focus; and amount of previous museum
experience. Added to this each visitor carries the baggage, be it positive or
negative, of her past and present, her language, religion, and culture; his
education, knowledge and interests. This effort to identify and work with the
individual, as opposed to the group, is increasingly recognized in a variety of
fields. Educators are struggling with the reality and importance of
individuality among students, acknowledging the need to treat each student as a
distinct person.  Might museums do the
same thing? What theories can be identified and used to help museums recognize
the unique characteristics of each visitor? 
 
Ann Davis
15 November, 2012
 
 
Procedure
The papers will be submitted to a
evaluation committee chaired by André Desvallées for selection. The selected
papers will be published in ICOFOM Study Series 42 (ISS 42). The papers will be
posted on the ICOFOM web site, open to the public, for perusal prior to the
symposium to allow time for participants to read the essays and to prepare for
the discussions. 
 
Specifications:
Papers must be submitted in electronic
form, written in software compatible to MS Office (MS Word), in one of the ICOM
working languages: English, French or Spanish. Text must be saved as .doc or
.docx.
                        
Papers should be between 3000 and 6000
words, including the main text, the bibliography, footnotes, and one abstract
(the other language abstract(s) can be added to the total number of words). The
abstracts should be between 150 to 200 words, and be written in both the lead
language and at least one of the other two ICOM languages.
 
ICOFOM
cannot provide editing or translations. The most frequent reason for a paper being
rejected is that the text is unclear or poorly expressed. If the authors are
not writing in their mother tongue, they must take care to have editorial and
translation assistance from a native language speaker for both the text of
their essay and for the abstracts.
 
ISS readers are both experienced
specialists, and newcomers to the field. To reach the broadest public, we
recommend taking note of the writing guidelines of George Orwell, from his
essay “Politics and the English Language”. Although these guidelines were given
for English, using no more words than necessary, not repeating, choosing simple
phrases and precise words apply to all languages:
 
1.    Never use a metaphor, simile, or other
figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 
 
2.    Never use a long word where a short one
will do.
 
3.    If it is possible to cut a word out,
always cut it out. Omit words that do not contribute directly to the idea you
are expressing. 
 
4.    Never use the passive where you can use
the active.
 
5.    Use foreign words with
great caution, recognizing that many readers will not understand your foreign
word. Avoida scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday equivalent. 
 
6.    We add: Never use acronyms unless
universally known (e. g. UNESCO).    
 
In emphasising a statement or a word,
avoid overusing use quotation marks, italics, underlining, bold writing,
capitalisation and upper case. Foreign language words should be put in italics,
followed by a translation or explanation in parentheses. Quotes must be
translated. 
 
Format:
                        
	* ISS is printed in A4 format. 
	* Texts should be single-spaced with margins as follows: 2.5 cm (top), 2.5 cm (bottom), 3 cm on both sides (.98” and 1.18”)
	* There must be a space of one line between paragraphs
	* The paragraphs are not indented  
	* A quote of more than 20 words should be  set in its own paragraph, without quotation marks, and be indented by 1.25 on both margins. 
	* Body texts must be written in font Arial size 11.  
	* Headline: Title, in upper case in font Arial 14, black, centred with the
name of the author, institution and
country, in initial caps and font Arial size 12.
Example:
 
THE SPECIAL VISITOR : EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US
 
John Smith
Fine
Arts Museum – United Kingdom
 
Style:
 
	* English language spelling can be either US or UK. 
	* Footnotes (not endnotes), with consecutive numbering, are used to refer to works mentioned in the text, and other additional information. Do notuse author-date in-text references in brackets that are used extensively for papers in natural and physical sciences, such as (Smith 2008). 
	* All references should be listed at the end of the paper, and include only works cited. 
 
Bibliographic style for footnotes and works cited:
 
	* Order of elements - Author family name, followed by first name and initial if given (for works cited, for footnotes the family name comes last), with following authors also entered by last name; title of work; city of publication; publisher’s name; date; pagination. Elements are separated by commas.
	* Titles of English language books are written with initial capitals and in italics, as are titles of periodicals. French and Spanish language titles are written in lower case. Titles of articles or a chapter in a book are written in lower case, in quotes, with an initial capital on the first word only. 
 
Examples of footnotes
Note that the difference between footnote
references and bibliographical references is that the author’s first name
precedes the last name, as on a title page of the work. 
The footnotes are listed numerically. 
       
Reference to a book:
 
1.     Peter Van Mensch , Towards a Methodology of Museology, PhD thesis, University of
Zagreb, 1992, p. 192.
 
2.   François
Mairesse et André Desvallées (dirs), Vers
une redéfinition du musée?  Paris,
L’Harmattan, 2007.  
 
Reference to a chapter in a book by the
same author or editor:
 
1.  Jaime Balmes. “Diferencias entre
las sensaciones y las ideas” Capítulo I, Ideología pura, in: Curso de filosofía elemental. Paris,
Librería de Bouret y Morel, 1849.
 
2,  Martin
Heidegger, “The origin of the world of art”, in: Poetry, Language, Thought, New York, Harper and Row, 1971.  
 
Reference to a chapter in a book by
another author or editor
 
1.   Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “Indirect
language and the voices of silence”, in: Galen A. Johnsson, and B. Michael
Smith (eds), The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics
Reader, Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1993.
 
 
2.   Beth Lord, “From the document to the
monument: museums and the philosophy of history”, in: Simon Knell, Suzanne
MacLeod, Suzanne and Sheila Watson (eds), Museum
Revolutions: How Museums Change and are Changed, London, Routledge, 2007,
p. 358-359. 
 
Reference to an article in a journal:
 
1.   Wan-Chen Chang, “Esquisse d’une
histoire du concept chinois du patrimoine”, Publics
et Musées, no. 14, 1999, p. 81-118. 
 
2.   Chiara Bortolotto,
“Les enjeux de l’institution du patrimoine culturel immatériel”, Culture et Recherche, no. 116/117,
printemps-été, 2008, p. 32-34. 
 
Examples
of works cited
 
Works cited listed at the end of the
article are entered alphabetically by editor/author.  The second line is indented. They are not
numbered. 
Balmes, Jaime. “Diferencias entre las sensaciones y las ideas”,
Capítulo I, Ideología pura, in: Curso de
filosofía elemental. Paris, Librería de Bouret y Morel, 1849.
Bortolotto,
Chiara. “Les enjeux de l’institution du patrimoine culturel immatériel”, Culture et Recherche, no. 116/117,
printemps-été, 2008, p. 32-34. 
Chang,
Wan-Chen, “Esquisse d’une histoire du concept chinois du patrimoine”, Publics et Musées, no. 14, 1999, p.
81-118. 
Lord,
Beth, “From the document to the monument: museums and the philosophy of
history”, in: Knell, Simon; MacLeod, Suzanne and Watson, Sheila (eds), Museum Revolutions: How Museums Change and
are Changed, London, Routledge, 2007, p. 358-359. 
Mairiesse,
François et Desvallées, André (dirs), Vers
une redéfinition du musée?  Paris,
L’Harmattan, 2007.
Merleau-Ponty,
Maurice, “Indirect language and the voices of silence”, in: Johnsson, Galen A.
and Smith, B. Michael (eds), The
Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader, Evanston, Northwestern University Press,
1993.
Van
Mensch, Peter, Towards a Methodology of
Museology, PhD thesis, University of Zagreb, 1992, p. 192.
 
Dictionaries, from which quotes are
taken, are not listed in works cited, but articles from encyclopaedias should
be listed and entered by author of the text, if known; by title of entry if the
author is not known, followed by the identification of the encyclopaedia as
above.
 
 
Submitting
papers:
                        
Papers should be sent by e-mail – in an
attached file – to the address:
 
André Desvallées,
[log in to unmask]
ICOFOM Advisor
Chair, Editorial Committee
 
 
The ICOFOM Editorial Committee chaired
by André Desvallées, is composed of a  group
of English, French and Spanish speaking ICOFOM experts. We seek to ensure a
double-blind peer review. 
 
Some Suggestions in writing
for the ICOFOM STUDY SERIES
 
Various
people have asked us for suggestions on how to write for ICOFOM. The thoughts
below are a few ideas that university students have found helpful. These are
not intended to restrict or limit your creativity and imagination, but rather
to be a gentle methodological guide if you so wish.
 
ICOFOM Study Series is the chief publication of ICOFOM, the Museology Committee of the
International Council of Museums.  Any
writer submitting a manuscript to the ICOFOM Evaluation Committee for peer
review addresses first and foremost a theoretical aspect of museum work. 
 
A theoretical perspective on museum work starts from a
process of reflection. This reflection will be removed from an old view of
museums which sees them as transparent, as being fundamentally self-evident.
For a long time, working in museums, and writing about museums, more or less
proceeded from the unarticulated assumption that to place objects in a space
for viewing was philosophically unproblematic. From the vantage point, however,
of several vibrant decades of theoretical investigation of wider aspects of culture,
we can now see that museums are massively complex and requiring intense theoretical
analysis. This is the task of writers for ICOFOM.
 
Examples in the past few decades of theoretical approaches
which have led to exciting discussions on museums include theories of museums
that see them as manifestations of nationalism, theories that see them as
places where part of the formation of a citizen’s self-image is formed,
theories that see them as appropriately oriented to community development and
so on.
 
If you plan to write for ICOFOM, the first question you
should ask yourself is “what is my question?” within the outlined topic, that is,
if you have found an aspect of museums in the delineated topic that interests
you enough to wish to write about it, you must have a question to answer - or you are in danger of writing a
simple description which will not be appropriate for ISS. If for example,
you are intrigued by a museum exhibition, key questions that might emerge for
analysis include:
 
What does this tell me about the museum’s mission?  
How are visitors addressed in this exhibition?
Who is empowered by this exhibition?  
Who is disempowered by this exhibition?  
Who is absent from this exhibition, but ought to be
present?  
How is the nation implicitly imagined in this exhibition?
How does the museum imagine itself in this exhibition?
Is the museum in a position of fostering community
development?
What do the public programmes accompanying this exhibition
tell me about the meanings of the exhibition? 
Does the exhibition contain meanings that appear to escape
curatorial control?
What is understood to be the correct role for women?
Where are children in this exhibition?
Where are community minorities?
Does this exhibition appear to foster community cohesion,
but does so via propaganda?
 
Having found your key question for analysis your next
question should be “what theoretical insights will I bring to bear on this
particular question?” Your second task, therefore, is to decide what theory or
theories will be most useful in helping you to answer your subject. At this
point, the best writers read very widely searching for theoretical and philosophical
insights to their topics. They find useful theories because their key questions
are sharp. If your question is
a good question and appropriate for a paper for ISS you will begin to see
theoretical aspects emerging. 
 
You might find appropriate theory or theories in all sorts
of disciplines, not just museums or museum work. Certainly discipline specific
museums, including archaeology, history, science and art history, can all draw
on the theories of those specific disciplines. But, beyond that, it can be very
useful to seek theories by crossing disciplines, or by going outside the narrower
museum ambit to such areas as philosophy, political science, or education.
 
Given that ICOFOM is the museology committee, it is
appropriate for you to highlight the theory in your paper by opening the paper
with a discussion of the theory or philosophy which most helps you to
understand the topic and the question which emerges from it. Then find museum
examples to support your theory.
 
A good paper for ISS prioritizes theory over example.Your museum databecomes an illustration of the theory.Perhaps a final thought: delight in your work; have fun with
your paper.
 
 
Good luck  

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