Museums as spaces of memory, identity and activism
Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will:
- have theoretical knowledge about the historical development of museums and the main challenges for the future;
- be able to demonstrate critical awareness of the role of museums in culture, as institutions embedded in historical contexts and as sites of cultural production and construction of historical narratives, collective memory and identity; - have the ability to critically discuss the role of museum collections as testimonies of knowledge, identity, and memory, and perform a reflexive narrative analysis of the different topics of the course.
General characterization
Code
02106261
Credits
8.0
Responsible teacher
Alexandra Curvelo da Silva Campos
Hours
Weekly - 3
Total - 224
Teaching language
English
Prerequisites
Available soon
Bibliography
BENNETT, Tony (2004). Pasts Beyond Memory. Evolution, Museums, Colonialism. Routledge
CHAMBERS, Iain; et al (2014). The Postcolonial Museum. The Arts of of Memory and the Pressures of History. Ashgate EVANS, Jessica; BOSWELL, David (Eds.) (1999). Representing the Nation: A Reader: Histories, Heritage, and Museums.
Routledge
HOOPER-GREENHILL, Eilean (1992). Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge. Routledge
MACDONALD, Sharon (Ed.) (2006). A Companion to Museum Studies. Blackwell Publishing
MESSAGE, Kylie (2013). Museums and Social Activism. Engaged Protest. Routledge
PEARCE, Susan (1994). Interpreting objects and collections. Routledge
PREZIOSI, Donald; FARAGO, Claire (Eds.) (2004). Grasping the World: The Idea of the Museum. Ashgate
WOOD, Elizabeth; LATHAM, Kiersten (2014). The Objects of Experience. Transforming Visitor-Object Encounters in Museums. Left Coast Press, Inc.
ZERUBAVEL, Eviatar (2003). Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past. University of Chicago Press
Teaching method
Class Participation: because this course is organized as a seminar and meets just once a week, it is particularly important that students be in attendance and be prepared to participate. This seminar emphasizes student participation and therefore a part of the final grade grows from student participation in class discussion (15%); Required Readings and Discussion Participation Assignments: course readings are required and students are expected to prepare written seminar discussion participation notes (20%);
Discussion Facilitation: students will facilitate one seminar discussion of a PDF assigned article/book chapter reading made available by the Professor by providing a 20-minute overview of the core ideas, concepts, and theories of the author(s) and posing initial question(s) for discussion (20%);
Final Essay Assignment: students will hand individually a 4,500-5,000 word-final essay focused on one of the main topics of the course contents (45%).
Evaluation method
Método de Avaliação - Class Participation: because this course is organized as a seminar and meets just once a week, it is particularly important that students be in attendance and be prepared to participate. This seminar emphasizes student participation and therefore a part of the final grade grows from student participation in class discussion (15%), Final Essay Assignment: students will hand individually a 4,500-5,000 word-final essay focused on one of the main topics of the course contents (45%), Required Readings and Discussion Participation Assignments and Discussion Facilitation:(40%)
Subject matter
The course will focus on the role of museums as knowledge-based institutions that create time-framed narratives and that are associated with the construction of national identities and collective memories. It will highlight the historical discourses of the museum in terms of both narratives of display and space/architecture. The analysis will also include the use of resources such as museum writing and technologies of storytelling (e.g. films) as mechanisms for the creation of engaging and meaningful interpretive settings. The course will further explore the way people relate to heritage, particularly movable heritage, and how objects are displayed as historical documents.
The course will be structured in five topics (each corresponding to two sessions): 1. Museum in Theory: Past, Present and Future
2. The Historical Discourses of the Museum
3. Museums, Knowledge and Memory
4. Objects as knowledge, identity and memory 5. Museums, Post-Colonialism and Activism