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Facing Colonial Pasts in Museums

Volunteers, Volunteering and Critical Pedagogies of Place

Facing Colonial Pasts in Museums cover

Facing Colonial Pasts in Museums

Volunteers, Volunteering and Critical Pedagogies of Place

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Pre-order. Available Jun 24 2027
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Description

Exploring how pursuing decolonisation impacts volunteers and volunteering at museums, this book focuses on three institutions: the British Museum, the Horniman Museum and Fulham Palace.

In recent years there has been a central focus on how to decolonise museums, whether it be returning objects, commissioning and producing new exhibitions that acknowledge their ties to historic colonialism, or by directly challenging their authority and neutrality to provide an authorised view of the world. However, there has been a marked lack of investigation regarding how vital stakeholders, like museum volunteers who are vital for the day-to-day running of museums, feel about their organisation taking a more distinctive stance by attempting to redress their colonial wounds, as well as what changes this may introduce as part of expected critically aligned volunteer practice.

Drawing upon interviews, active participant observation and documentary analysis, this book delves into the experiences and perspectives of public-facing volunteers at the British Museum, the Horniman Museum and Fulham Palace. It explores how they feel about their organisation's attempts to come to terms with their colonial pasts and their reasonings for being pro- or anti-decolonisation; elucidates how this and the ambition to create a critical pedagogy of place may change their social environment of volunteering; and reflects upon how critical pedagogies can be specifically used to best equip, empower and support volunteers to encounter and communicate decolonised histories to various audiences.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Series Preface
Acknowledgements

Introduction
1. Critical Pedagogies of Place, Decolonising Museums, and Volunteering
2. 'So long as there is balance': Resistance, the Bishops of London and Fulham Palace
3. 'Your defence is knowledge, your armour is knowledge, and your armour is the truth': Interrogating Sloane, Repatriation and the British Museum
4. I don't want to have hand to hand combat with someone who I know is right': Cha, Chai, Tea, returning the Benin Bronzes and the Horniman Museum
5. So, How Do Volunteers Feel About Decolonisation? How Can Volunteers be Effectively and Meaningfully Engaged with and Supported as Part of Creating a Critical Pedagogy of Place?

Notes
References
Appendices
Appendix One: Dramatis Personae
Fulham Palace
British Museum
Horniman Museum

Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Jun 24 2027
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Pages 224
ISBN 9781350634077
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 25 bw illus
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series Critical Studies in Museums, Material Culture and Heritage Education
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Laurence Maidment-Blundell

Laurence Maidment-Blundell is Post Graduate Teachi…

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