Facing Colonial Pasts in Museums
Volunteers, Volunteering and Critical Pedagogies of Place
Facing Colonial Pasts in Museums
Volunteers, Volunteering and Critical Pedagogies of Place
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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
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
| 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 |













