HA192CU: Social Justice and Museum Studies
Salvaged: The Hearst Museum, Colonialism, and Caring for the Past was the final project of HA192CU: Social Justice and Museum Studies, the Spring 2021 undergraduate seminar in the History of Art Department taught by Professor Lauren Kroiz, the Faculty Director at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology.
Undergraduate students Chloe Akazawa, Sage Alexander, Keziah Aurin, Daniel Baldauf, Kristin Cammorata, Emily Diehl, Lucero Garcia, Sam Kurtz, Milly Newton, Shannon Roughan, Gillian Rule, Saffron Sener, Isabel Shiao, Ava Whist, and Grace Whitten collaborated on the exhibition throughout the semester.
We came together around a course description.
How can museums become sites for social justice work? In 1793, the National Assembly in France opened the Louvre as an art museum, articulating a Western connection between museums and the spaces of democracy that continues to the present. Some have understood museums as democratic spaces that store and display objects for all. More recently, publics have begun to hold museums to account for the legacies of colonization that undergird those of democracy. In this class we will analyze colonial histories and decolonizing engagements, as well as the potential of museums to be spaces of inclusion, justice, accessibility, and anti-racist action.
Group Projects
In a socially distant semester, students chose to collaborate on group final projects.
Sage Alexander, Gillian Rule, Saffron Sener, and Grace Whitten authored the Institutional Histories and Futures framing texts, as well as Collecting and the Hearst’s Sense of Self.
Keziah Aurin, Shannon Roughan, and Isabel Shiao authored Care & Resistance: A Case Study on the Philippine Revolution from Spanish to American Colonization.
Kristin Cammorata, Lucero Garcia, Milly Newton, and Ava Whist authored Pushing Back Against Salvage Anthropology: In Conversation.
Chloe Akazawa, Daniel Baldauf, Emily Diehl, and Sam Kurtz authored Food, Ecology: Past, Present, Future.
Thank you!
Special thanks to Phenocia Bauerle, Katie Fleming, Mishuana Goeman, Sedonna Goeman-Shulsky, Dan Hicks, L. Frank Manriquez, Susan Moffat, Maria Montenegro, Peter Morin, Victoria Robinson, Melissa Stoner, and Wendy Teeter for taking the time to share their expertise with us!