The aim of the Decolonizing Museums Cluster is to convene a community of scholars and artists interested in exchanging knowledge about the topic of decolonizing museums. Our goal is to examine and develop frameworks for the critical examination of the decolonization process in museums, including but not limited to topics about art interventions as well as the use of technology by Indigenous groups as part of their decolonizing methodologies, especially when related to museum collections and practices. For the Fall of 2022 we will meet once a month for an hour as a reading group to build collaborative conversations around these frameworks and methodologies are enacted in each of our regions. We will use funds to invite guest scholars and museum curators to these discussions, as well as organize a public virtual workshop in the Spring of 2023 to share our explorations with students and faculty that are part of the EHCN and OSUN network. Funds will also be used to supplement the potential costs of reading materials not available from library servers. Our overarching goal is to help bridge institutional, creative and community approaches to decolonizing museums around the world


May 17, 2023

Guest: Dr. Christine Checinska, Senior Curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion at the V&A Museum in London

Readings:

• Museums Equality and Social Justice Chapter: MUSEUMS, AFRICAN COLLECTIONS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
• Africa Fashion: Introduction
  

Apr 12, 2023

Guest: Genner Llanes-Ortiz, Canada Research Chair in Digital Indigeneities at Bishop’s University in Canada

Readings: Museum Temporalities: Time, History and the Future of the Ethnographic Museum - Genner Llanes-Ortiz

Mar 15, 2023

Guest: Alexander Herrera, Professor of Prehispanic Archaeology, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Readings: Mapping a New Museum: Personal journeys through the politics and practice of Latin American research with the British Museum (read in spanish)