Partnership
The Contained Memory Conference 2010 is presented by:
Massey University, School of Visual and Material Culture, College of Creative Arts, New Zealand
in partnership with
Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts, New York, United States of America
Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand
Public Memory Project
Syracuse University has been heavily involved in the study of public memory and visual culture for the past seven years. The university has previously hosted three major interdisciplinary conferences devoted to the themes of “Framing Public Memory” (2001), “Contesting Public Memories” (2005) and “Visible Memories” (2008). As a result of these efforts, the Syracuse University “Public Memory Project,” housed in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, has become a hub for collaboration among scholars from over a dozen departments and has hosted numerous individual scholars while supporting specific memory-related projects within the Syracuse community.
Syracuse University Humanities Center
Founded in June of 2008, the SU Humanities Center is an interdisciplinary center for research, events and exhibitions, and critical programming in the arts and humanities. The SU Humanities Center is home to three respected programs previously housed in The College of Arts and Sciences: Syracuse Symposium, an annual semester-long intellectual and artistic festival; The Andrew W. Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an interdisciplinary collaboration with SU, Cornell University, and the University of Rochester; and The Jeanette K. Watson Professorship and External Fellows Series. The SU Humanities Center also sponsors major research initiatives, supports fellowships and public programming, and assists with procuring external funding for humanistic research activities. A key objective of the SU Humanities Center is to create a dialogue about the public possibilities of humanistic inquiry, as they pertain to innovative thinking and real-life problems. Gregg Lambert, Dean’s Professor of the Humanities, is Founding Director of the SU Humanities Center and Project Director/Principal Investigator of the Andrew W. Mellon CNY Humanities Corridor.
Collaborative and interdisciplinary, the SU Humanities Center prioritizes “connectivity”—extending academic interchange and innovative thinking beyond academic walls—to serve as an academic-community bridge for anchoring dialogues about the public possibilities of humanistic inquiry. This mission is actualized according to principles (or “core values”) that are the basis of all our programs and activities.
MATTER (School of Visual and Material Culture)
The MATTER Research Initiative is developing New Zealand’s only Centre for Material Culture Research. It will be the leading centre for historical and contemporary analysis of materiality within an interdisciplinary framework. MATTER is home to an exciting group of scholars and postgraduate research students who, in a variety of cutting edge ways, explore and develop histories, theories and methodologies of material culture in, but not restricted to, Aotearoa New Zealand.
The MATTER initiative hosts New Zealand and international visitors, facilitates symposia, conferences and public lectures. The rapidly expanding number of postgraduate students benefit from the opportunity to meet experts in the field and are able to take advantage of conferences, outside speakers and other events.
The Centre will aim to identify possible research projects by liaising with partners on an individual and institutional basis and hold events and scholarly activities with them. It also aims to seek funding for collaborative research projects in conjunction with relevant host Schools/Institutes across Massey University.
To date MATTER has hosted a public history conference attended by delegates from New Zealand and overseas, a national symposium on South Pacific material culture, and a symposium with international keynotes on the material turn in contemporary scholarship. Currently, MATTER is supporting the international, multidisciplinary Contained Memory Conference organized in partnership with Syracuse University (US) and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, to be held at Te Papa in Wellington, 9-11 December 2010. MATTER also sponsors an annual seminar series with speakers from within and outside Massey University, including visiting fellows.
Conference Organising Committee
Co-Convenors
Associate Professor Kingsley Baird (SVMC, CoCA, MU)
Professor Kendall Phillips (Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, CVPA, SU)
Members
Associate Professor Tony Whincup (HOS, SVMC, CoCA, MU)
Professor Jeremy Diggle (HOS, SoFA, CoCA, MU)
Associate Professor Ross Hemera (SVMC, CoCA, MU)
Associate Professor David Cross (SoFA, CoCA, MU)
Professor Anne Noble ONZ (Director of Research, CoCA, MU)
Dr. Claudia Orange DCNZM OBE (Collections and Research Group Director, Te Papa Tongarewa)
Dr. Anne Demo (Professor, CRS, School of Art and Design, Department of Transmedia, SU)
Associate Professor Joanna Spitzner (Chair, Art and Design, SU)
Dr. Caroline Campbell (Lecturer, School of Design, MU)
Mark Bradford (Senior Lecturer, School of Design, CoCA, MU)
Heike Ulrich (Executive Administrator, SVMC, CoCA, MU)
Marcus Moore (Lecturer, SVMC, CoCA, MU)
Matthijs Siljee (Lecturer, School of Design, CoCA, MU)
Hannah Edmunds (Conference Administrator)
