Museums and Cultural Politics

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Museums are not only caretakers of cultural artifacts; they are also microcosms that reflect a society’s beliefs about the order of the world and, in turn, teach us about our place within it. This seminar considers the museum from its origins in individual collections and cabinets of curiosity to the rise of the modern public museum and its role in the present day. We will investigate how these institutions—including art, ethnography, natural history, and local history museums—have preserved, constructed, and erased cultural memory, identity, and knowledge. We will pay particular attention to recent efforts to reckon with the imperialist legacy of museums, including repatriation, artists’ interventions, and the inclusion of narratives, objects, and voices traditionally excluded from museum spaces. This course includes visits to campus and area museums and discussions with museum professionals.