This is a collection of videos I created for the course, MUSM 5021, which encouraged me to, “analyze structural racism and other forms of exclusion and oppression (e.g. sexism, classism) that are embedded in museum practices.” (from the syllabus created by Dr. Dulce Aldama) I took this class because I wanted to understand more fully the concepts of colonialism, coloniality, scientific and cultural imperialism and decoloniality. The course also covered identity including gender, race, ethnicity.
- Assignment 1: Museums and the shaping of knowledge – For this assignment we read Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins” and used the work from Eileen Hooper-Green to consider how museums are shaped by and shape Western logic.
- Assignment 2: Coloniality and Decoloniality – For this assignment we watched ‘The Problem with Museums’ from PBS Origins and analyzed it with concepts from Quijano and Mignolo
- Assignment 3: Center of calculations, collecting, contact zones, museums as part of the representational machine – We watched the movie, “The Embrace of the Serpent” and analyzed using ideas from Latour, Aguirre, Salvatore and Clifford
- Assignment 4: A Couple in a Cage – This assignment analyzed Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez Peña’s video ‘The Couple in the Cage.’ It was amazing that many American viewers couldn’t tell this was satire.
- Assignment 5: Gender and Museums – For this assignment, I analyzed two works from the exhibit, “Transamerica/n: Gender, Identity, Appearance Today” with the concepts and ideas presented by Dr. Macías and the readings from the week on Queer Theory.
- Assignment 6: Feminist exhibitions and feminicides in the US… what is the role of museums? – In this video I analyzed an article from the Guardian, “Femicides in the US: the silent epidemic few dare to name Download Femicides in the US: the silent epidemic few dare to name” by Rose Hackman, and watch the video“Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 – Conversation with Guest Curator Cecilia Fajardo-Hil” through the lens of feminist theory.
- Assignment 7: Human Zoos – This video is a response to the documentary Human Zoos: America’s Forgotten History of Scientific Racism
- Assignment 8: Analyzing an online exhibition of African Art – In this video, I analyzed the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art’s exhibition “Visionary: Viewpoints of Africa’s Arts” website. Specifically, I looked at the narrative used to describe the collection and how artists were represented.
- Assignment 9: Decolonizing Museums Part 1 – This video is a response to the documentary ‘What Was Ours’, directed by Mat Hames. In the documentary, they follow the story of repatriation of objects stolen from Indigenous Peoples.
- Assignment 10: Decolonizing Museums Part 2 – This video was a response to the ICOM Webinar on Indigenizing Museum Practices. It compares and contrasts the Haida Gwaii Museum with Museo de la Mujer – both excellent examples of community museums.