By Marissa Hamm “…the Ziibiwing Center staff, both past and present, hold a collective sense about Ziibiwing’s creation. It is a ‘community project’–a ‘we’ effort instead of an individual one.” (Lonetree 2012, 129) During the first day of class, Dr. Holly Cusack-McVeigh made two things clear: one, we would come to know one another well …
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The 2023 graduating cohort of Museum Studies MA students organized a panel discussion about labor and labor equity in museums and related fields. Panelists: Jamillah R. Gabriel (MSTD MA ’16), Critical Pedagogy Research Librarian, Harvard University Martha Morris, Associate Professor Emerita, George Washington University Anna Smyrl, Museum Assistant, Historical Museum at Fort Missoula; Secretary, Historical Museum at Fort …
Read MoreMuseum Mercenary: A Handbook for Independent Museum Professionals by Rebecca Migdal. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020. REVIEWED BY MARISSA HAMM Every aspiring museum professional has heard about the multitude of difficulties they will face when trying to enter the field. In Museum Mercenary, Rebecca Migdal presents her solution to this issue of limited full-time museum …
Read MoreMuseums as Agents of Change: A Guide to Becoming a Changemaker, written by Mike Murawski. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. REVIEWED BY PEYTON REICHERTS Mike Murawski’s Museums as Agents of Change: A Guide to Becoming a Changemaker is about how museum workers can become changemakers. Murawski has had many roles in the museum profession. Currently, …
Read MoreCurating America’s Painful Past, by Tim Gruenewald. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 2020. REVIEWED BY MADELINE GRIEM The United States is a place of deeply painful pasts. However, there are few prominent spaces in which these subjects are explored where they will contribute to national memory. In his 2020 book, Curating America’s Painful Past: Memory, …
Read MoreMuseum Diplomacy: Transnational Public History and the U.S. Department of State. written by Richard K. Harker. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press. 2020 REVIEWED BY JOHN TERWILLIGER Richard Harker’s Museum Diplomacy: Transnational Public History and the U.S. Department of State gives a detailed critical analysis of the Museums Connect program. Museums Connect, founded in 2008, was …
Read MoreMuseum 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 …
Read MoreMuseum 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 …
Read MoreMuseum 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 …
Read MoreThe 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 …
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