First-Year Research Seminar: Museums: Power & Politics

(4 Credits)

Western museums are in a state of crisis. From calls for decolonization and repatriation to protests over human remains collections and unethical donor policies, museums and related cultural institutions find themselves at a crossroads, reckoning with their violent colonial histories while handling ongoing concerns about labor practices, systemic inequality, and their role in shaping knowledge in the public sphere. Whether addressing climate change policy, Black Lives Matter, or fights for unionization, it’s clear that museums are rich sites for research, critique, and writing, especially in the cultural hub of New York City. Beginning with early modern cabinets of curiosity and moving through nineteenth century encyclopedic museums, anatomical collections, the most recent rise of repatriation movements, and more, we will investigate how museum politics and power produce knowledge, from the depths of their archives to the most sensational of their exhibits. Amidst ongoing debates over controversial objects like the Benin Bronzes, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2023 admission of looting practices, the American Museum of Natural History’s apology for its eugenic history, and, perhaps most significantly, calls for the return of hundreds of thousands of human remains for proper burial, the role of museums have expanded beyond the bounds of the academy, stoking universal struggles around human rights, international policy, and the politics of preservation, display, and loss. Drawing on readings by historians, theorists, and practitioners like Foucault, Haraway, Lonetree, Quereshi, and Tuck, this course will train students in practical research and writing skills while introducing in-depth analysis of primary sources – including hands-on work with objects from museum collections. We will visit several museums, archives, and collections over the course of the semester, and guest speakers will bring practical skills training into the classroom that students can draw on for future research projects, demystifying archival work while expanding their conceptualization of what “counts” as a primary source. * Fulfills math/science requirement, could fulfill critical race theory requirement