Co-Making Memory? Participatory Research and the Postmigrant Museum
Museums are sites of knowledge production and transmission, but also spaces of reflection and negotiation. The stories preserved and presented within them are often incomplete or fragmentary and frequently shaped by dominant national narratives. In recent years, these narratives have increasingly been challenged by actors from the postmigrant society whose perspectives have long remained unheard or marginalised. This contribution examines the relationship between museum research, participation, and memory within this context, focusing in particular on multiperspectivity as both a guiding principle and a methodological approach. It addresses the question of participation in museum research: who remembers, who narrates, and whose voices become visible or remain excluded. Attention is given to the institutional structures, power dynamics, and decision-making processes that shape participation and determine whose knowledge is recognised. Drawing on experiences from several participatory projects in museum contexts, the talk reflects on the structural conditions necessary for meaningful involvement of actors from the postmigrant society. It considers participatory methods that move beyond symbolic inclusion and explores how such approaches can reshape research practices within museums. Particular attention is paid to the tensions and possibilities that emerge when curatorial knowledge intersects with lived experience. By examining these dynamics, the contribution reflects on museums as spaces of negotiation and shared authorship in diverse, postmigrant societies, highlighting both the potential of participatory research to foster belonging and agency and the challenges it raises for institutional practices and knowledge production.
Sandra Vacca (she/her) is a historian and curator focusing on participatory museum practices. Her career has taken her to the St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum (UK) as well as to the University of Cologne. Between 2013 and 2025, she played a key role in shaping the work of the Documentation Centre and Museum of Migration in Germany (DOMiD), where she led the model project “DOMiDLabs: Making Museum Design Participatory.” She serves as an advisory board member of the Museumsverband NRW and is internationally active as Secretary of ICOM Collecting.
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