Iniziative del CROMA

The subject of the conference is the Museums of the City, those which offer a reconstruction/description of the city’s history, including ones which may offer only a partial view, limited to a chronological, thematic or spatial aspect. The purpose of the conference is to further a wide range analysis of the origins and the various characteristics assumed by the Museum of the City between the second half of the nineteenth and the twentieth century. The diversity of the examples reflects the objective differences of cities’ histories, but it is also tied to the variety of projects and cultural models, to the characteristics of the premises and the relationship between the institution and the city. Special attention will be paid to international examples, giving particular consideration to capital cities, regarded as such also those of regional macro areas and antique States. The conference will provide an opportunity to reflect on past experiences, on innovations which have been carried out or which are in progress and on new projects, with an eye to the possibilities offered by information technology. On these bases it will be possible to open a discussion, which will necessarily involve scholars from various fields, on the function carried out today by a Museum of the City (or a network of institutions) and on methodologies and instruments to be used in order to offer an efficacious representation of the complex stratification – material and cultural – and of the varied urban dynamics.

The topics for discussion will be the following: • Origins of the model and outstanding examples • International comparisons. The case of capital cities • The variety of the Italian examples (types, chronologies, housing and organization, didactics, exploitation of the peculiarities, spaces, documentary collections, temporary exhibitions, types of management) • Between real and virtual: new technologies, innovations, projects.

The conference will close with a round table discussion on the theme: “A museum between preservation of memory and laboratory for the city”.

The Annual Assembly of the members of the AISU-Associazione Italiana di Storia Urbana (Italian Association of Urban History) will be held at the conclusion of the conference and a guided tour of the Museum of Rome will also be organized.

Call for papers: Proposals for participation are welcome. The proposal should contain the title and a brief summary (max 200 words) and must be received within 20 June 2005 at the following e-mail address: c.travaglini@uniroma3.it. Notification of acceptance will be given within June; the speakers must send the text of their papers or an abstract of at least 1,000 words by 15 November. The official languages of the conference will be Italian, French, English and Spanish. The contributions will be published.

Organizers: AISU (Associazione Italiana di Storia Urbana), CROMA (Centro di Ateneo per lo studio di Roma – Università Roma Tre). Further information may be obtained from Prof. Carlo Travaglini: c.travaglini@uniroma3.it or from Ms. Sabrina Gremoli at the CROMA office, piazza Camipitelli, 3 – 00186 Rome – tel. 06.6786099 – e-mail: croma@uniroma3.it Websites: http://host.uniroma3.it/centri/croma/ http://www.storiaurbana.it/