Integrating Project Seminar (395-0-20)

Topic

Global Heritage: Museums & Repatriation

Instructors

Felipe Gutierrez

Meeting Info

Locy Hall 213: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Course title: Global Heritage: Museums and Repatriation

Instructor: Felipe Gutierrez

During 19th and early 20th century, looting of cultural sites became an extended practice throughout the territories colonized by European imperial forces across the world. Archaeologists, intellectuals, and imperial authorities worked together in the assemblage of important collections of all kinds of objects and treasures to be shipped, studied, and exhibited in Europe. Under the premise of scientific inquiry, a Western authorized network of experts and institutions provided the legal and academic framework to justify the permanency of those collections in European and North American soil. After World War II, the rise of UNESCO and the origin of the concept of "World Heritage" drastically transformed the ways of relating to cultural heritage and the notions of legal and historical ownership, favoring the European custody of spoiled collections. Nowadays, contemporary attempts by communities of former colonies to reclaim stolen objects have destabilized these authorized discourses of heritage.

The course will explore the relationship and interaction between the Global North and the Global South around the categories of cultural heritage, particularly through the ongoing debates surrounding the repatriation of objects and collections from elite museums and institutions in Europe and North America to Latin America and Africa. Through several case studies including the Benin bronzes, the Quimbaya treasure, and the Parthenon marbles among others, students will be encouraged to critically engage with current discussions on heritage and museum studies, decolonial theory and international politics and diplomacy, as to find and do research on cases of their own interest from around the world.