Asia and Africa On Display

This module will complement the aims and objectives of the MA Curating Cultures degree by providing teaching which focuses on the physical spaces for works of art/artefacts across cultures.

It will also be object based, providing students studying any region with transferable skills. It will further use a wide range of displayed objects, including those in SOAS collections and the Brunei Gallery as the primary teaching resource.

It will thus provide students of the MA Curating Cultures programme with direct experience of diverse contemporary and historical display practices in museums, galleries and commercial spaces, as well as digital modes of display.

Objectives and learning outcomes

At the end of the module, students should be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes

• The development of object analysis and interpretation skills.
• Acquire knowledge and understanding of critical concepts of reception, presentation and transculturation.
• An understanding of issues associated with culturally defined categories of objects.
• An ability to evaluate critically museum exhibitions and their interpretative frameworks.

Workload

• 3 hour per week  

Method of assessment

• 1,000-word display report (worth 40% of marks)
• 2,000-word research essay (worth 60%)

Suggested reading

• Greenberg, R., Ferguson, B. W., and Nairne, S. (eds) (1996) Thinking about exhibitions, London: Routledge.
• Macdonald and Basu (eds) (2007) Exhibition Experiments, Oxford: Blackwell.
• Marstine, Janet (ed.). (2010) New museum theory and practice. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
• Obrist, H. (ed) (2008) A Brief History of Curating, Zurich: JRP/Ringier.
• Preziosi and Farago (eds) (2004) Grasping the world: the idea of the museum, Aldershot: Ashgate.

Disclaimer

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules.