Course ID#: G49.3330
Section: 4
Topics in Museum Studies:
Cultural Property, Rights and Museums
Elective. 4 points.

What does it mean to own or have a culture? Are all cultures the same? Is owning your culture a basic human right? This course will investigate the growing discussions about cultural property rights that have emerged in the context of museum practices, from collection and display to conservation and archiving. A general analysis of concepts of culture, property, and rights related to these materials and social domains, will be offset by sessions that examine how different understanding of entitlements may be negotiated within museum spaces and how museum objects (broadly defined) may be understood as cultural resources. Special focus will be the impact of legislation; political events such as war; indigenous rights movements; international conceptions of intellectual and cultural property; and the commodity transaction and the marketplace, and on their impact on museum practice.