Beyond the nature/culture divide: Reimagining human-environment relations in museums

Beyond the nature/culture divide: Reimagining human-environment relations in museums

International Workshop, LMU Munich
23.4.2026, 16:00-18:00
Room 151, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Oettingenstraße 67
80538 München

Convener:
Philipp Schorch (LMU Munich)

Invitees:
Thiago da Costa Oliveira (University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar)
Nicholas Thomas (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge)

Given the dramatic impact of human action on the environment, evidenced in climate change and biodiversity loss, it has been widely recognised that humanity needs to reimagine its environmental relations. Yet, the deeply entrenched separation of concepts of ‘culture’ and ‘nature’ in Western thought and museums forms a major impediment. Western institutions and legal frameworks define and govern sites of ‘natural’ and/or ‘cultural’ significance; meanwhile, museums promote ‘cultural’ and/or ‘natural’ heritage. Reflecting recent and ongoing efforts to deconstruct the ‘nature/culture’ divide, and to creatively reimagine museum collections as archives of environmental knowledge, a project based at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at LMU Munich considers how the museums of the future might lead the way in reimagining and reconceptualising human-environment relations. 

https://www.indigen.eu/projects/affiliated-projects/beyond-the-nature-culture-divide

This workshop invites the input of two important museum scholars and curators, Thiago da Costa Oliveira and Nicholas Thomas, followed by discussion. The event is open to interested university and museum scholars as well as students.

Download (270 KB)