Curating Religion: Museums, Monuments, and Memorials
RELI 313
Spring 2024 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
ANTH 314, CJST 314 |
Museums, monuments, and memorial sites have long been important sites for public reckoning with the past. But they are not only about the past, they represent present struggles about the meaning of history and the possibility of imagining different futures. In this multidisciplinary class, we will work as a group to examine diverse case studies in which religion and memorial culture intersect in acts such as curation, representation, conservation, and repatriation. Visiting exhibitions and working with Wesleyan's collections, some of the questions we will ask include: What are the ethics of the treatment of objects in museums and of repatriation? How does space shape religious experience in an arguably secular setting? How do monuments invoke religious imagery and symbolism in their construction of history? In what ways does placing something behind a glass case give it a religious aura, and in what ways does it drain an object of its sacrality? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS RELI |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ANTH) |
Major Readings:
Crispin Paine, RELIGIOUS OBJECTS IN MUSEUMS: PRIVATE LIVES AND PUBLIC DUTIES
Michael Rothberg, MULTIDIRECTIONAL MEMORY: REMEMBERING THE HOLOCAUST IN THE AGE OF DECOLONIZATION
Clint Smith, HOW THE WORD IS PASSED: A RECKONING WITH THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY ACROSS AMERICA
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, DESTINATION CULTURE: TOURISM, MUSEUMS, AND HERITAGE
Cara Krmpotich, THE FORCE OF FAMILY: REPATRIATION, KINSHIP, AND MEMORY ON HAIDA GWAII
Various selections from exhibition catalogues
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly responses, object research, exhibition review, final paper. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course satisfies the "Thematic Approach" and "Method & Theory" requirements for the Religion major. |
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