Description
Book SynopsisThe Museums Connect program stands at the intersection of transnational public history and international diplomacy. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and administered by the American Alliance of Museums, this program partners U.S. museums and non-U.S. museums in projects designed to foster community collaboration and engagement.
Museum Diplomacy focuses on three Museums Connect projects arranged between the United States and South Africa, Morocco, and Afghanistan, respectively. Utilizing a diverse range of oral interviews, Richard J. W. Harker explores how museums negotiate national boundaries, institutional and local histories, and post-9/11 geopolitical interests. Working in different political and professional contexts, museum partners have built community-driven collaborative exhibitions and projects that tell transnational stories.
As more historic sites and museums seek to surmount social, cultural, and economic barriers between themselves and their communities in their exhibitions and programming, the Museums Connect program provides important lessons on how to overcome entrenched hierarchies of power in public history.
Trade ReviewMuseum Diplomacy is highly original because of its focus on transnational public history. There really is nothing like it, which is why it's so valuable to the field." —Thomas Cauvin, president of the International Federation for Public History and author of
Public History: A Textbook of PracticeTable of Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- Note on Quotations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 ""State Department Museums""?: The Convergence and Divergence of Public Diplomacy and Public History
- Chapter 2 ""Afghan on top and American on bottom"": Exploring Minority Identity through Dialogue with War-Torn Afghanistan
- Chapter 3 Beyond an Imperialist Undertaking?: Negotiating Transnational Public History Pedagogy
- Chapter 4 Activating Sites of Conscience: Addressing Shared Silences within Parallel Public Histories
- Conclusion
- Statement on Methodology
- Appendix: Museums Connect Projects, 2008--2016
- Notes
- Index
