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Making a Collection: The Material Order of Teaching and Research

Heritage collections Collections History of science and knowledge

About

The Faire Collection research programme is part of the recent revival of interest in the history of science and knowledge. It brings together research on collections, which are viewed both as tools and products of research and teaching practices.

This project explores both institutionalised collections (libraries, archives, museums) and invisible collections, consisting of fragmented assemblages that are still poorly documented, such as sociological data sets or biological samples.

Faire Collection is interested not only in well-identified collections, but also in those that have disappeared, are being passed on or are in the process of being assembled. The project also aims to identify the collections needed to document current practices for future research.

Faire collection belongs to the republic of letters and sciences. It is an open space that fosters dialogue. As Anne-Solène Rolland, Director General of the INHA, stated: “a collection is what a researcher makes of it.” Collections are assembled by individuals at a given place and time, yet they will later be examined by researchers from renewed perspectives, allowing for new ways of seeing the objects.

Main areas of research

History of collections: analysing the institutionalisation, transmission and disappearance of collections.
Contemporary collecting practices: exploring the intellectual, material and political dimensions of current collecting practices.
Role of collections in education: studying how collections contribute to teaching and the transmission of knowledge.
Creation and transformation of scientific communities: examining how collections promote the emergence of new communities and dialogue between disciplines.