Museum Studies Blog

Museum Objects, Health and Healing, edited by Brenda Cowan, Ross Laird, and Jason McKeown. New York: Routledge, 2020. REVIEWED BY ELISE DAUGHERTY   Humans interact with and value objects in every aspect of our lives. In many interactions, objects hold meaning and power, impacting our health and wellbeing. Brenda Cowan, Ross Laird, and Jason McKeown …

Museum Development in China: Understanding the Building Boom, edited by Gail Lord, Guan Qiang, An Laishun &  Javier Jimenez. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. REVIEWED BY CAMILLE COMBAUD This book, compiled by three museum planners with plenty of experience, aims to explore the recent changes in museum development in the country of China: through four …

Museum Activism, edited by Robert R. Janes and Richard Sandell. London, New York: Routledge, 2019. REVIEWED BY PIA SCHWAIGER   The anthology Museum Activism gathers contributions from museum actors from all over the world and from a variety of professional groups. The book contributes to the discussion on the changing social, political and cultural significance …

The Whole Picture: The Colonial Story of the Art in Our Museums & Why We Need to Talk About It, by Alice Procter. London: Cassell, 2020. REVIEWED BY MORGAN COFFMAN   How many times have we wandered through the halls of museums, marveling at the art hanging upon the walls and squinting to read the …

Heritage Management: The Natural and Cultural Divide. Edited by Heleen van Londen, Marjo J. Schlaman, and Andrea Travaglia. Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing, 2020. Reviewed by Mathilde Sbinne   Nature and culture are often seen, perceived, and studied as two opposite and separate poles – especially in the Western world. Edited by landscape, archeology and heritage experts …

Cataloguing Culture: Legacies of Colonialism in Museum Documentation, by Hannah Turner. Vancouver-Toronto: University of British Columbia Press, 2020. Reviewed by Sarah Terheide Museum documentation practices have had a central role in reinforcing colonialist knowledge and ideologies in collections’ records and interpretation. This may be surprising to some considering how mundane systems of documentation can appear …

By Karen Breece, IUPUI Museum Studies MA student Halfway through the first semester of my internship, the Indianapolis Zoo’s Director of Education, who had been my acting mentor since I started, told me that my actual mentor who had been on maternity leave all this time was not coming back. She had been laid off. …

By Ross Edelstein, IUPUI Museum Studies MA student Sometimes, you wonder why something hasn’t been done before.  Sometimes, your realize things haven’t been done for a good reason. Sometimes that good reason isn’t good enough. Many museums like to offer sensory kits – usually with fidgets and tools.  But the Eiteljorg, where I have been doing …

By Michael Rice, IUPUI Museum Studies MA student  Interning at the Indiana Medical History Museum has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Being transported back to a different era every time I crossed the threshold was humbling. One of the tasks that comes with the internship is the opportunity to lead tours. This did not come …

By Olivia Underwood, IUPUI Museum Studies MA student In a crowded tray lies hundreds of loosely piled baggies, their contents shining out to any researcher or volunteer visiting the storage space of the Masonic Library and Museum of Indiana. Lapel pins, badges, awards, and other pin fastened objects clink against each other and their own …