Up until recently, cultural institutions such as museums, libraries and archives, were considered as places for the conservation of tradition, often disconnected from the actual needs of society at large and therefore far away from the urgent issues of the present. Nowadays the awareness of their social responsibilities towards current inequalities, disparities and discrimination is higher than ever, also in the light of a lively international debate on accessibility, which has contributed to repositioning the attention on people’s needs and their diversities.
In recent decades, several publications on activism in the context of heritage organizations have highlighted multiple possibilities for action on complex and politically controversial issues in the present, such as climate change and migration. They have emphasized how silences and positions of presumed neutrality result in complicity in creating inequalities. The 34th number of Roots-Routes focuses on LGBTQ+ issues in this scenario of nascent activism that invests with responsibilities contexts and institutions traditionally more reluctant to take position.
How can institutions devoted to training (such as schools of all levels, museums, libraries and archives) play a role in challenging stereotypes around gender, sexualities and love?
What forms of violence against Queer and LGBT + people are there in media narratives and mainstream visual culture? What are the responsibilities of language?
How to identify and contrast different forms of violence and discrimination against diversity through activism in art and culture?
What silences, stereotypes and omissions of points of view are there in the representations and interpretations of cultural contents in museums, libraries and archives?
Which stereotypical imaginaries and which discriminatory formalisms in the world of performing arts?
What are the possible contaminations and collaborations between bottom up cultural productions, cultural institutions and the world of education?
How to encourage diversity in the approach to themes around the expression of gender identity, affectivity, sexuality and the body as diversified and identity aspects in the life of everyone?
roots§routes is a magazine with an editorial vision announced by its editorial board, which guarantees the quality and coherence of its contents. We consider it crucial to maintain an ongoing receptivity towards any submission of quality, provided it corresponds with the final vision shared among the editors. We therefore not only solicit work from artists and scholars, but also encourage submissions from contributors working in contexts that we do not know directly.
Next issue
Year X, n°34, September – December 2020
+ Fluid Heritage
curated by Nicole Moolhuijsen e Viviana Gravano
roots§routes announces a Call For Proposals, asking artists and scholars to submit proposals, beginning with the magazine’s theme for the upcoming quarter. Submissions should be sent in the form of an abstract, with a maximum of 350 words, to the following email address: redazione@roots-routes.org, with the subject heading “Article Submission.” Abstracts written in English, Italian, French, Portugues or Spanish are acceptable. In case of interest on the part of the editorial board, an email requesting the full paper will be sent to the author of the abstract. The paper is to be written in the language of the author’s choosing. The editorial board, upon receiving the full paper, reserves the right to request partial edits, or to reject the piece, in the case that it does not align with the earlier proposal.
For those interested in submitting materials, the themes for the upcoming issue of the magazine will be announced on this section of the website.
