Full Description
Challenging History in the Museum explores work with difficult, contested and sensitive heritages in a range of museum contexts. It is based on the Challenging History project, which brings together a wide range of heritage professionals, practitioners and academics to explore heritage and museum learning programmes in relation to difficult and controversial subjects. The book is divided into four sections. Part I, 'The Emotional Museum' examines the balance between empathic and emotional engagement and an objective, rational understanding of 'history'. Part II, 'Challenging Collaborations' explores the opportunities and pitfalls associated with collective, inclusive representations of our heritage. Part III, 'Ethics, Ownership, Identity' questions who is best-qualified to identify, represent and 'own' these histories. It challenges the concept of ownership and personal identification as a prerequisite to understanding, and investigates the ideas and controversies surrounding this premise. Part IV, 'Teaching Challenging History' helps us to explore the ethics and complexities of how challenging histories are taught. The book draws on work countries around the world including Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, South Africa, Spain and USA and crosses a number of disciplines: Museum and Heritage Studies, Cultural Policy Studies, Performance Studies, Media Studies and Critical Theory Studies. It will also be of interest to scholars of Cultural History and Art History.
Contents
Introduction: Challenging History in the Museum, Jenny Kidd; Part 1 The Emotional Museum, Alex Drago; Chapter 1 The Emotional Museum: The Case of National Museums Liverpool, David Fleming; Chapter 2 Telling Hard Truths and the Process of Decolonising Indigenous Representations in Canadian Museums, Bryony Onciul; Chapter 3 Ripples in the Pebble Pool: Dark Narrative as Maxim, Metaphor and Memorial, Alix H.J. Powers-Jones; Chapter 4 Making Them Laugh, Making Them Cry: Theatre's Role in Challenging History, Judith Bryan; Chapter 5 The Stiftelsen Arkivet Experience: A Second World War Gestapo Regional Headquarters in Norway, Bjørn Tore Rosendahl, Ingvild Ruhaven; Part 2 Challenging Collaborations, Amy Ryall; Chapter 6 Challenging Ourselves: Uncomfortable Histories and Current Museum Practices, Bernadette Lynch; Chapter 7 Contemporary Challenges: Artist Interventions in Museums and Galleries Dealing with Challenging Histories, Miranda Stearn; Chapter 8 Coffee and Cigarettes: On Trust-Building Processes between the Norwegian Government and the Romani Traveller Community, Åshild Andrea Brekke; Chapter 9 Fieldnotes from a Challenging History, David Gunn, Victoria Ward; Part 3 Ethics, Ownership and Identity, Miranda Stearn; Chapter 10 Vicissitudes of Representation: Remembering and Forgetting, Juliet Steyn; Chapter 11 Realms of Memory and the Recovery of the Historical Memory of the Spanish Civil War and Franco's Dictatorship (1936-2012), Mikel Errazkin Agirrezabala, Rosa Martínez Rodríguez; Chapter 12 'Unseen Women: Stories from Armagh Gaol': Exhibiting Contrasting Memories of a Contested Space, Jolene Mairs Dyer; Chapter 13 Borders of Belonging: The UK Border Agency Museum as a Nation-Building Site, Claire Sutherland; Chapter 14 Perspectives on the Far East: Understanding War through Veterans' Eyes, Amy Ryall; Part 4 'Teaching' Challenging History, Samantha Cairns; Chapter 15 Controversies around the Teaching of Brazilian 'Black History', Verena Alberti; Chapter 16 'To Kill a King?' Interpreting the Execution of a Monarch, Amanda Shamoon; Chapter 17 Frames of Meaning: Young People, Historical Consciousness and Challenging History at Museums and Historic Sites, Ceri Jones; Chapter 18 Challenging Histories - Challenging Memorialisation: The Holocaust, Judith Vandervelde;
