Museums and Sites of Persuasion

Politics, Memory and Human Rights
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-138-56535-7
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 520 g

Reihe: Museum Meanings

Museums and Sites of Persuasion examines the concept of museums and memory sites as locations that attempt to promote human rights, democracy and peace. Demonstrating that such sites have the potential to act as powerful spaces of persuasion or contestation, the book also shows that there are perils in the selective memory and history that they present.

Examining a range of museums, memorials and exhibits in places as varied as Burundi, Denmark, Georgia, Kosovo, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam and the US, this volume demonstrates how they represent and try to come to terms with difficult histories. As sites of persuasion, the contributors to this book argue, their public goal is to use memory and education about the past to provide moral lessons to visitors that will encourage a more democratic and peaceful future. However, the case studies also demonstrate how political, economic and social realities often undermine this lofty goal, raising questions about how these sites of persuasion actually function on a daily basis.

Straddling several interdisciplinary fields of research and study, Museums and Sites of Persuasion will be essential reading for those working in the fields of museum studies, memory studies, and genocide studies. It will also be essential reading for museum practitioners and anyone engaged in the study of history, sociology, political science, anthropology and art history.

Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Apsel, Joyce

Sodaro, Amy

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Bibliothekswesen, Informationswissenschaften Bibliothekswesen, Informationswissenschaften, Archivwesen
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunst, allgemein Kunstsammlung, Museen, Ausstellungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part 1: Museums as Sites of Persuasion
1. Introduction: Museums as Sites as Persuasion (Joyce Apsel and Amy Sodaro)
2. Selective Memory: Memorial Museums and the Politics of Victimization (Amy Sodaro)
Part 2: Writing National Histories
3. Coolness and Colonialism: Danish and the Greenlandic Museums (Astrid, Nonbo Andersen)
4. Between Remembering and Studying the Past: The Politics of Morality in Museums of Georgia (Malkhaz Toria)
Part 3: Displaying Difficult Pasts
5. 'Inspiration Lives Here': Martyrdom and Redemption in the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta Georgia (Joyce Apsel)
6. Memorial to the My Lai Massacre: Reconciliation, Social Healing, and Redemption (Roy Tamashiro)
7. Memory as Persuasion: Historical Discourse and the Moral Messages at a National Museum in Peru (Joseph P. Feldman)
Part 4: Reclaiming the Past
8. Making Healing and Reconciliation Public and Transparent in Kenyan Sites, Museums and Communities (Timothy Gachanga)
9. Memory, Mourning and Resistance in Mexico: From the Dirty War to the Drug War (Benjamin Nienass and Alexandra Delano)
10. Politics, Memory and the Legacies of Genocide in Burundi (Douglas Irvin-Erickson and Sixte Vigny Nimuraba)
11. Conclusion: Politics, Memory and Human Rights: Promises and Perils (Elazar Barkan)

Über Autor(innen)

Joyce Apsel is Clinical Professor in Liberal Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences at New York University and President of the Institute for the Study of Genocide. She is author of Introducing Peace Museums (2016) and co-edited publications include: Genocide Matters: Ongoing Issues and New Perspectives (2014) and Museums for Peace: Transforming Cultures (2012). Her research interests include comparative genocide, human rights, pedagogy, and peace and museum studies.

Amy Sodaro is Associate Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College/City University of New York. Her research focuses on memorialization of atrocity, particularly in memorial museums. She is co-editor of Memory and the Future: Transnational Politics, Ethics and Culture (2010) and is author of Exhibiting Atrocity: Memorial Museums and the Politics of Past Violence (2018).