Global Cultures and Museums

MSL2115H — Global Cultures and Museums

This course examines museums and other cultural institutions – public memorials, UNESCO heritage sites or national parks – from a global perspective. The course looks at museums as participants within a global network of institutions, communities and practices informed by diverse histories – colonialism, post-colonialism, socialism, apartheid, etc. It explores, deconstructs and challenges both common global trends in museological culture and particularities of local and national practices. The course introduces students to contemporary and historical case studies from around the world including Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, examined through interdisciplinary and international theoretical perspectives borrowing from anthropology, cultural studies, global studies, history, museum studies and memory studies.