2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Mar 15, 2026

2024-2025 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

CMLT 210 - The History and Politics of Modern Museums

In this course we will discuss the history and the politics of museums from the formation the private collections and seemingly eclectic and arcane “Cabinets of Curiosity” of the early modern period to contemporary museums, exhibits, and monuments. This includes not only what people decided to collect and display, but how people choose to curate displays as expression of cultural and national identity. In addition to fostering a better understanding of museum architecture, the power of place, and other formal and spatial contexts in and around museums, this course considers issues of representation, repatriation, and how museums shape public perceptions of culture and identity. In this course, you will read texts from historical, psychological, sociological, and literary sources, such as Thomas Bernhard’s novel “Old Masters” to understand the emergence of modern museums and the politics and practice that shaped them. This course will involve day trips to local Museums and other regional venues.

Course Designation/Attribute: HP

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offerings will vary