The fifth EDGES Symposium will happen in St Andrews, UK, between 8–10 July, with the theme “Unsettling the Museum: Thinking through Indigenous Entanglements”. The symposium will focus on the pressing questions reshaping museological practice in our time.
Pressured by social and political claims for reparation and the redistribution of authority in decision-making processes, some museums have recognised their entanglements with Indigenous cultures and the erasure produced by the appropriation of collections and the imposition of classificatory systems. In the present century, museums of different typologies — ethnographic, natural history, science museums, or art museums — have made efforts to include a greater diversity of voices and representations, positioning themselves as institutions engaged with the transformation of societies. But how are they also being transformed by Indigenous agency and curatorship? What are the potential uses assigned to museums by Indigenous curators, creators and artists in the present? And what are the ethical challenges observed in these collaborations?
These are some of the grounding questions constituting the basis of the debates we wish to undertake at the University of St Andrews in July 2026. By critically examining museum practice, methods and colonial legacies, our symposium is interested in unsettling established frameworks and perspectives based on the Western canon informing museum work.
Conference dates: 8th July – 9th July
Workshop date: 10th July
Registration close: 23rd June
Deadline for submissions: 10 April 2026.
For more information regarding the event visit the website.
Questions? Contact us at edgessymposium@gmail.com