Alice Borchi

funded quants x cultural policy x sociology PhDs don’t come up very often. this looks great! please circulate!

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The front cover of a book. The title reads Deconstituting Museums: Participation's Affective Work. The image is of old rope, enwtined for strength but now fraying.

The image is primarily text. The text reads: Over the past 30 years, museums have turned to participation in the hope that direct involvement of non-museum staff would serve their claims to be accessible, inclusive, representative and diverse. And yet, adding participation to museums has often generated conflict, disappointment and anger. Deconstituting Museums argues that the difficulties produced by adding participatory practice arise from political incompatibility. In the representational liberal logics that underpin museum decision-making, trustees and professionals make decisions ‘on behalf of’ future generations and the public. This is a political infrastructure the book names ‘museum constitution’. Conversely, participation arises from ideas and practices from direct and horizontal political traditions, drawing those who act as facilitators into new relationships and expanding political imaginations. Through sustained engagement with theories of affect, materialism, and feminist and decolonial praxis, Helen Graham identifies techniques for deconstituting museums. She uses experimental writing as a method to turn away from the desire to right institutional wrongs and towards relational and directly negotiated ways of organising. In doing so she locates participation not as engagement but as a mode of governance that is enabled by, and enables, variant political ontologies. This is an alternative named ‘participatory worlding’. The affective work of facilitating participation has long tugged at and frayed museums’ constitutional liberal logics. Deconstituting Museums envisages how participation and its affects might be activated in reworking the politics of heritage.

I'd had quite a bit of trouble working out why facilitating participation in museums was tricky so I wrote a book about it. @uclpress.bsky.social @fahacs.bsky.social

The Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations in the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto invites applications for a full-time tenure stream position in Palestinian Literature and Culture.

Please relay widely.

jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

The rise of the commons, cultural spaces and policy in Southern Europe: why did this happen and why do we care? Having long symbolised the inefficiency of shared ownership, the commons are re-emerging as an effective principle of social and cultural struggle against neoliberalism. The commons are also at the...

New paper with Matina Magkou and Maud Pélissier! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The rise of the commons, cultural spaces and policy in Southern Europe: why did this happen and why do we care? Having long symbolised the inefficiency of shared ownership, the commons are re-emerging as an effective principle of social and cultural struggle against neoliberalism. The commons are also at the...

New paper with Matina Magkou and Maud Pélissier! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Mass tourism, heritage, music, and debt: the curious case of opera and urban planning in Florence - Centre for Cultural Value Researchers Alice Borchi and Carlo Alberto Petruzzi examine recent events in Florence, a city caught between the pressures of mass tourism and the need to preserve its cultural identity.

As the summer tourism season gets underway, we spotlight this think piece by @aliceborchi.bsky.social‬ & Carlo Alberto Petruzzi, highlighting recent events in Florence, a city caught between the pressures of mass tourism and preserving its cultural identity.

www.culturalvalue.org.uk/the-curious-...

Teaching Fellow in Religious Studies at University of Leeds Apply for the Teaching Fellow in Religious Studies role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.

Teaching Fellow in Religious Studies
University of Leeds - School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNJ296/t...

The Participation Research Group at PCI invites you to a panel discussion on art and participation in difficult times: 'Participatory Arts in a Time of Political Crisis: Provocations and Reflections'
Banham Theatre, Leeds, Thu 26th June 2025 2:00PM
www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/lee...

Lecturer in Photography at University of the Arts London, London College of Communication An academic position as a Lecturer in Photography is being advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Click now to find more details and explore additional academic job opportunities.

Lecturer in Photography Permanent, Part Time “A key part of your role will be helping students define their creative voice, build relationships with brands &industry partners…understand how image-making works in the context of the creative sector.” #AcademicJobs www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNF254/l...

CFP reminder: Commons and commoning in/for cultural production,Athens, Greece, 4-5 September 2025
Deadline June 30th glammons.eu/2025/02/25/c...

Research Fellow in Global Health History x2 at University of Leeds Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Research Fellow in Global Health History x2 on jobs.ac.uk!

And two Research Fellow posts at the University of Leeds on the 4-year project ‘The Soviet Union, the WHO and Global Health, 1957-91’, which looks superb.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNE369/r...

CFP reminder: Commons and commoning in/for cultural production,Athens, Greece, 4-5 September 2025
Deadline June 30th glammons.eu/2025/02/25/c...

Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia We call on all trans-inclusive feminist academics and educators to sign this statement: ‘Not In Our Name’ We are non-trans feminist academics and educators. We write in support of trans rights, tran...

STATEMENT: 'Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia'
Read the statement online here: tinyurl.com/mud7va29
Co-sign the statement, fill in this form: forms.gle/oDYgnobrMiSc...

👇👇👇👇👇👇

Negotiating between national and local policy on participation: local authority arts offices in Ireland Focusing on the participation agenda, this paper explores the definitions, negotiations and implementation of cultural policy at the intersection of national policy aims and local level strategy. R...

Sharing new(ish) article by Dr Victoria Durrer UCD and me www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

PLEASE NOTE
If you don't have institutional log in first 50 downloads free but please leave for those who need them www.tandfonline.com/eprint/IUERY...

Thanks and feedback welcome

I forgot to add - the deadline is June 30th!

CFP! GLAMMONS Conference: Commons and commoning in/for cultural production, 4-5 September 2025, Romantso, Athens, Greece. See you there?

glammons.eu/2025/02/25/c...

Abstract vs actual paper

a man and a woman are dancing in an office and the man says let 's get ethical ! ethical ! Alt: a man and a woman are dancing in an office and the man says let 's get ethical ! ethical !

Thanks for a great lecture this morning @dotfinan.bsky.social in @aliceborchi.bsky.social module on researching the global cultural industries. We had a very interesting conversation in seminar about the different domains of research ethics and where researcher integrity fits in.

@1000plateaus.bsky.social 's lecture on repatriation was such a high point in the module - it was great to have someone who has first-hand experience of these processes and a nuanced understanding of the power relations that shape them!

AND new @creativepec.bsky.social report dropped today too, with ind with analysis of the employer skills survey and detailed policy recommendations too pec.ac.uk/state_of_the...

Mass tourism, heritage, music, and debt: the curious case of opera and urban planning in Florence - Centre for Cultural Value Researchers Alice Borchi and Carlo Alberto Petruzzi examine recent events in Florence, a city caught between the pressures of mass tourism and the need to preserve its cultural identity.

A short think piece co-authored by Carlo Alberto Petruzzi and me for @valuingculture.bsky.social 's blog: "The curious case of opera and urban planning in Florence"
www.culturalvalue.org.uk/the-curious-...

Mass tourism, heritage, music, and debt: the curious case of opera and urban planning in Florence - Centre for Cultural Value Researchers Alice Borchi and Carlo Alberto Petruzzi examine recent events in Florence, a city caught between the pressures of mass tourism and the need to preserve its cultural identity.

In this think piece, researchers @aliceborchi.bsky.social and Carlo Alberto Petruzzi shine the spotlight on recent events in Florence, a city caught between the pressures of mass tourism and the need to preserve its cultural identity.

www.culturalvalue.org.uk/the-curious-...

Mass tourism, heritage, music, and debt: the curious case of opera and urban planning in Florence - Centre for Cultural Value Researchers Alice Borchi and Carlo Alberto Petruzzi examine recent events in Florence, a city caught between the pressures of mass tourism and the need to preserve its cultural identity.

A short think piece co-authored by Carlo Alberto Petruzzi and me for @valuingculture.bsky.social 's blog: "The curious case of opera and urban planning in Florence"
www.culturalvalue.org.uk/the-curious-...

Two postdoctoral positions in cultural policy research at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen

Two postdocs positions in cultural policy studies! employment.ku.dk/all-vacancie...

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Director of Cultural Collections and Curatorial Practice The University of Leeds Libraries’ Cultural Collections are of international quality and underpin a wide range of teaching, research, and engagement activities across many disciplines. This is an oppo...

Come and work with us in this critical role as Director of Cultural Collections and Curatorial Practices jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

🥁 Announcing the Public Domain Image Archive! 🥁

We are v excited to share our new sister-project, the Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA), a curated collection of 10k+ out-of-copyright historical images, all free to explore and reuse: pdimagearchive.org @pdimagearchive

A new special issue of CPCL co-edited by Filippo Fimiani, Francesca Sabatini, Enrico Chinellato and me: Public Art, Urban Arts: on Aesthetics, Practices and Languages in the City cpcl.unibo.it/issue/view/1...