Conveners:
Germana Barone (Università di Catania)
Piergiulio Cappelletti (Università di Napoli)
Fabrizio Nestola (Università di Padova)
Marilisa Yolanda Spironello (Università di Catania)
The session is dedicated to scientific museums, with particular emphasis on university museums, understood as spaces for research, conservation, interpretation, and communication of heritage, with specific attention to contemporary museological models and their implications for education and cultural mediation.
The aim is to investigate the role of scientific museums—university-based but not exclusively—in the production and transmission of knowledge, by discussing theoretical approaches and operational practices that influence exhibition design, collection organization, exhibition languages, and interpretive devices. Within this framework, accessibility is addressed as a cross-cutting and essential dimension of museum quality, to be integrated into design processes alongside other fundamental aspects such as scientific rigor and reliability, communicative clarity, and attention to the diversification of audiences.
The session welcomes contributions focused on museological experiences and case studies in the field of scientific museums, addressing historical and contemporary collections, mediation strategies, museum education, the use of analog and digital tools, educational laboratories, and interpretive pathways. Specific focus will be placed on research highlighting the role of the scientific museum as a cultural and educational infrastructure capable of engaging in a structured dialogue with universities, schools, and society at large.
Through the comparison of theoretical models and applied practices, the session aims to reflect on current processes of renewal in scientific museology, demonstrating how museums can strengthen their educational, social, and cultural functions through conscious, inclusive, and scientifically grounded design approaches.