THE ANNUAL WILLIAM FAGG LECTURE 2019
will be given by
Professor James Leach, CNRS – CREDO Aix-Marseille Université and the University of Western Australia
Monday 30 September at 6.15pm, in the BP Lecture Theatre, Clore Education Centre, the British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG. Followed by a reception.
Relationships in the making: negotiating knowledge through documentation
Museums these days work hard to document their collections through field research. They also work hard to negotiate the meaning and implications of holding their collections. Conventional Enlightenment conceptions of knowledge form part of the context for these negotiations. These sometimes result in outcomes that are inaccessible or unusable to the people we claim to know about, potentially perpetuating inequalities.
Reite villagers on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea practice ‘knowledge as relationship’. Drawing on field experience with them, the lecture will reflect upon documentation itself as a process and a relationship, and ask a question about how we might approach the practice in a manner that is responsive to different conceptions of knowledge and its value.
The event is free, but places must be booked. RSVP to aoa@britishmuseum.org
Location: BP Lecture Theatre, Clore Centre
British Museum
Great Russell Street
London
WC1B 3DG
United Kingdom
