Overview

The explosive popularity of museums has made museum studies one of the most productive and exciting intellectual and pedagogical sites for historians and art historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and critical theorists. Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of approaches to museums and their relation to history, culture, philosophy, and their adoring or combative publics. An indispensable text for teaching museum studies in today's classroom, Museum Studies brings together for the first time a wide array of texts that mix contemporary analysis with classic, historical documentation. Offering encyclopedic coverage of the issues critical to the rise and role of the museum - history and development: relation to society: the ethics of classification, exhibition, and exclusion: the representation of cultures: property and ownership: the poetics of display: material culture and historical documentation: tradition, innovation, and self-reflexivity in museum practice - this is the most comprehensive and ambitious volume available on museum studies. The Anthology opens with an introductory essay that provides vital background and situates museum studies in a truly interdisciplinary context. Each section includes an opening essay that guides the reader through the selections while the volume's bibliography provides a list of resources devoted to museum studies.

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9780631228301

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Reviews

"Combining important historical texts, classic critical analyses, and current commentary on the museum, this anthology is a unique resource for Museum Studies. It is especially useful in assembling sophisticated discussions of many kinds of institutions, including museums of art, history, anthropology, and natural history." Bruce Altshuler, New York University "The rich diversity of contexts and commentaries in this collection reveals the fascination of the museum not only for curators and museologists, but also for anthropologists, architects, politicians, historians, critics, and poets. The breadth of the survey is a timely reminder that the condition of our museums is - and has always been - a barometer of social attitudes and change." Helen Rees Leahy, University of Manchester

Combining important historical texts, classic critical analyses, and current commentary on the museum, this anthology is a unique resource for Museum Studies. It is especially useful in assembling sophisticated discussions of many kinds of institutions, including museums of art, history, anthropology, and natural history. Bruce Altshuler, New York University <!----end----> The rich diversity of contexts and commentaries in this collection reveals the fascination of the museum not only for curators and museologists, but also for anthropologists, architects, politicians, historians, critics, and poets. The breadth of the survey is a timely reminder that the condition of our museums is -- and has always been -- a barometer of social attitudes and change. Helen Rees Leahy, University of Manchester

Author Information

Bettina Messias Carbonell has recently joined the faculty of the Department of English, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. Prior to this she taught interdisciplinary seminars in visual cultures, museum studies, American studies, aesthetics, and ethics at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. She also taught in the Graduate Program in American Studies / Museum and Communities concentration at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.

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