STS 4634 - [Curating the British Empire]

(crosslisted) ARTH 4720, BSOC 4634, HIST 4634
(GLC-AS, HST-AS) (EC-SAP)

Fall. Not offered: 2023-2024. Next offered: 2024-2025. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with ARTH 6720/HIST 6634/STS 6634.

J. Ratcliff.

During Europe’s colonial era, the modern museum emerged as a site of cultural and scientific authority. This course investigates the history of imperial collections and collectors, with a focus on Britain and the East India Company in the nineteenth century. Examples of topics include: the “supply chain” for artifacts and knowledge resources; changing conceptions of intellectual property, ownership and access; household versus public versus for-profit collections; museums and the narration of social values and cultural identities; debates over the function or aims of museums and related institutions; the collections and the administration of the empire; the collections and the growth of the sciences; the postcolonial legacies of colonial collections.