The Rethinking Relationships project is hosting MEG’s annual conference this year. The project has been building partnerships with communities and stakeholders in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria, as well as African diaspora partners in the UK, to provide meaningful access to the collections. In the spirit of Rethinking Relationships, we want this year’s conference to reflect this ethos.

The conference theme will reflect the project’s focus on equitable collaboration, community-engagement and revisiting the ways in which collections are acquired, interpreted and shared. This year we’re rethinking what a conference can be. Before opening the main Call for Papers, we’re inviting ideas for formats that make MEG more participatory, creative, and engaging.

Do you have an idea for how to shake up the conference structure, get people involved, or try something new? We’d love to hear from you.

Possible formats could include practical workshops, performances, participatory discussions, wellbeing sessions, museum object “speed dating,” or micro-papers and posters- but we’re open to any proposal that encourages exchange, collaboration and critique.

To submit, please send a short proposal (200 words) describing your session, along with brief bios, format, and space or equipment needs to rethinkingrelationships@prm.ox.ac.uk by 19 January 2026

If you have an idea and you’d like to discuss it, then please contact us via rethinkingrelationships@prm.ox.ac.uk.

Further details and the full Call for Papers will follow; key themes in the call will be:

• Equitable partnerships – barriers, possibilities, sustainability
• Rethinking access
• Multiple perspectives in interpretation
• Navigating institutional barriers and colonial legacies
• Supporting creative responses