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 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
LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND TEACHING METHODS:
The course’s learning activities will comprise problem-oriented classroom discussions. They will also include a varied program of visits to museums and exhibition spaces, providing students with direct contact with cultural professionals and museum experts.
Evaluation method
ASSESSMENT:
1.) Class Participation and Discussion: because this course is organized as a seminar and meets only once a week, it is particularly important that students be in attendance and prepared to participate. Therefore, part of the final grade grows from students' active participation in both museum and classroom sessions, including active engagement in the proposed discussion topics, museum-related readings, and case studies. (30%)
2.) Final Monograph Essay Assignment: students will hand in a 4,500-5,000 word-final essay focused on one of the main topics of the course contents. (70%)
Subject matter
The course focuses on the role of museums as knowledge-based institutions that create time-framed narratives associated with the construction of national identities and collective memories. It will examine the museum's historical discourses in terms of their narratives and forms of curatorship and display. The analysis will also include using resources such as museum writing and storytelling technologies (e.g. films) as mechanisms for creating engaging and meaningful interpretive settings. The course will further explore how people relate to heritage, particularly movable heritage, and how objects are displayed as historical documents, functioning as material and semiotic texts. Through the reading, discussion and analysis of different texts and case studies, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the historical background of the museum, its main challenges in the present and how it is positioning into the future, the theoretical framework of the field of Museum Studies and the historical agencies of the institution.
The course is structured in the following main topics:
1. Museum in Theory: Past, Present and Future
2. On Collecting: practices and thinking
3. Museums, Knowledge and Memory
4. Objects as knowledge, identity and memory
5. Museums, Post-Colonialism and Activism