2017 - European academic heritage day - UNIVERSEUM European Academic Heritage Network

18 November 2017

European Academic Heritage Day

The theme for 2017 is "Colonisers and colonised"

For 18 November 2017, Universeum encourages reflection and the development of initiatives around the theme “colonisers and colonised” in its broadest sense, opening up for a wide range of possibilities for public engagement.

Artefacts and documents in collections, if not entire collections and museums relate directly or indirectly to colonial enterprises. The accumulation, organisation and study of artefacts, narratives, data and representations from the colonies were central to projects to exploit and dominate the colonies intellectually, politically and economically. In the colonised regions, the establishment of universities, museums and archives became part of the colonising mission and the colonial state. As much as these collections and institutions meant to represent a colonial order, they developed a life of their own. The circulation and transformation of objects and knowledge systems frequently challenged and even contradicted the hierarchies between colonisers and colonised that they were built upon.