American Studies 220 - COLQ:CURATING AMERICAN MEMORY

Topics course. Enrollment limited to 20. Which histories become part of national memory, and which do not? This course will interrogate the intellectual, political, and pedagogical bases of museums and public history collections in the US from the eighteenth century to today. We will devote part of our time to the theoretical readings that will ground our inquiry: texts will range from museum studies, anthropology, and sociology, to history, literary studies, and cultural studies. The other part will focus on specific historical and present-day case studies, such as PT Barnum's American Museum, Wanamaker's Hiawatha Shows, the President's House, and the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History. Enrollment limited to 18 (E).