Challenging History in the Museum

Challenging History in the Museum explores work with difficult, contested and sensitive heritages in a range of museum contexts. It is based on the Challenging History project, which brings together a wide range of heritage professionals, practitioners and academics to explore heritage and museum learning programmes in relation to difficult and controversial subjects. The book is divided into four sections. Part I, ΓÇÖThe Emotional MuseumΓÇÖ examines the balance between empathic and emotional engagement and an objective, rational understanding of ΓÇÖhistoryΓÇÖ. Part II, ΓÇÖChallenging CollaborationsΓÇÖ explores the opportunities and pitfalls associated with collective, inclusive representations of our heritage. Part III, ΓÇÖEthics, Ownership, IdentityΓÇÖ questions who is best-qualified to identify, represent and ΓÇÖownΓÇÖ these histories. It challenges the concept of ownership and personal identification as a prerequisite to understanding, and investigates the ideas and controversies surrounding this premise. Part IV, ΓÇÖTeaching Challenging HistoryΓÇÖ helps us to explore the ethics and complexities of how challenging histories are taught. The book draws on work countries around the world including Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, South Africa, Spain and USA and crosses a number of disciplines: Museum and Heritage Studies, Cultural Policy Studies, Performance Studies, Media Studies and Critical Theory Studies. It will also be of interest to scholars of Cultural History and Art History.