The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins, by Stefanos Geroulanos. New York, N.Y.: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2024. REVIEWED BY G. BUTLER “Theories of our past have shaped history and the world we live in today”: this is the thesis of NYU history professor Stefanos Geroulanos in his book The Invention …
Read MoreBelitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck, by Natali Pearson. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2022. REVIEWED BY THOMAS CRAIN In Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck, Natali Pearson, an underwater cultural heritage researcher, attempts to untangle the many lives, contexts, and controversies of the Belitung shipwreck by exploring it through a unique contextual framework. The …
Read MoreA New Role for Museum Educators: Purpose, Approach, and Mindset, edited by Elizabeth Wood. Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2023. REVIEWED BY RINI SHIELDS Elizabeth Wood’s A New Role for Museum Educators challenges us to take a critical look at theoretical foundations of museums’ educational purpose as well as new charges towards social justice and community inclusiveness. …
Read MoreThe Museum: A Short History of Crisis and Resilience, by Samuel J. Redman. New York: New York University Press, 2022. REVIEWED BY LAUREN FREIJE Museums exist in the context of the world around them. As museums have evolved to take their place as cultural institutions, they have been forced to respond to a multitude of …
Read MoreCulture: The History of Us from Cave Art to K-Pop, by Martin Puchner. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2023. REVIEWED BY SHANNON SUTTON Culture: The History of Us from Cave Art to K-Pop by Martin Puchner follows the thread of art, religion, and society from paleolithic cave paintings in France to the …
Read MoreMuseum Education for Today’s Audiences: Meeting Expectations with New Models, edited by Jason L Porter and Mary Kay Cunningham. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2022. REVIEWED BY SYDNEY COYNE In the aftermath of 2020, museum professionals responded to drastic shifts in the field, reimaging their uses of technology and approaches to social inequities. Museum Education for …
Read MoreWelcoming Museum Visitors with Unapparent Disabilities, edited by Beth Redmond-Jones. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2024. REVIEWED BY CHLOE OLIVER First and foremost, I would like to make it clear that I am reviewing this book as not only a museum studies student, but also as a person with multiple unapparent disabilities. I am autistic, …
Read MoreThe Contested Crown: Repatriation Politics between Europe and Mexico. Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2022. REVIEWED BY KYLIE BARKLEY During the 16th century, conquistadors stole an Aztec ceremonial feather headdress, now referred to as El Penacho, and brought it back to Europe as part of an effort to colonize modern …
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BY MIC BUCHWITZ AND KYLIE BARKLEY In early October, the Graduate Museum Studies Club and the Native American and Indigenous Studies program (NAIS), under the guidance of Dr. Holly Cusack-McVeigh and Charmayne ‘Charli’ Champion-Shaw, hosted a tribal delegation from the Great Plains region. The delegates spoke to IUI students addressing the question of Why Repatriation …
Read MoreScotland’s Transnational Heritage: Legacies of Empire and Slavery. Edited by Emma Bond and Michael Morris. Edinburgh University Press, 2023. REVIEWED BY SAMANTHA SHEPHERD Edited by Emma Bond and Michael Morris, the collection of articles featured in Scotland’s Transnational Heritage provide an eye-opening introduction to Scotland’s history as an empirical benefactor and contributor to the Trans-Atlantic …
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