Course description
This course explores how museums in socialist and postsocialist contexts shape, contest, and negotiate historical memory. Focusing on the transition from socialism to postsocialism, we will examine how museums have constructed official narratives, how these narratives have
been challenged or reinterpreted, and how museums function as social and political spaces.
We will start by reflecting on the role of museums as social institutions that produce and
mediate historical memory. How did socialist regimes use museums to craft official histories?
What happened to these narratives after the fall of socialism? How have postsocialist
museums reinterpreted or challenged those legacies? Throughout the course, we will engage with key theoretical frameworks from new museology and memory studies, focusing on how museums function as sites of memory, politics, and social conflict. We will pay special attention to how museums have transformed in their mission, language, and social roles
during the transition from socialism to postsocialism.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
• Critically assess the role of museums in socialist and postsocialist contexts.
• Apply key theoretical concepts and approaches from new museology and memory studies.
• Engage in informed discussions about the challenges and opportunities museums face in representing contested histories and diverse social perspectives in postsocialist societies.
• Develop practical skills to critically assess museum exhibitions, programs, and interpretive strategies within the political and cultural frameworks of socialism and postsocialism.

Evaluation
Class participation 30%
Oral presentations 15%
Reflective essays 15%
Final paper 40%

Readings:
Benett, Tony (1995). The Birth of the Museum (Ch. “The exhibitionary complex”. P. 59-88)
Brown K., Cummins A., Rueda G., eds. (2024). Communities and museums in
the 21st century: shared histories and climate action. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge
Candlin, Fiona (2016). Micromuseology: An Analysis of Small Independent Museums. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic
Crooke, Elizabeth (2007) Museums and community: ideas, issues and challenges. London; New York: Routledge, 2007.
Levin, Amy, ed. (2007) Defining memory: local museums and the construction of history in America's changing communities
Duncan, Carol Art museums and the ritual of citizenship // Pearce Susan (ed.) Interpreting Objects and Collections. 1994 (This paper first appeared in I.Karp and S. Lavine (eds) (1991) Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display, Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution, pp. 88–103).
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge. London: Routledge, 1992 (Ch. 7 “The disciplinary museum”. P. 167-190)
James, Mark. Containing Fascism. History in Post-Communist Baltic Occupation and
Genocide Museums // Past for the Eyes East European Representations of Communism in Cinema and Museums after 1989. Edited by Oksana Sarkisova and Péter Apor. 2008. P. 335-369
Kidd Jenny, Cairns Sam, Drago Alex, Ryall Amy, Stern Miranda Challenging History in the Museum: International Perspectives. 2014
Lépinay V. A. Art of memories: curating at the Hermitage. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
McKenzie Brent. Soviet tourism in the Baltic states: Remembrance versus nostalgia – just different shades of dark? // Dark tourism and place identity: managing and interpreting dark places / Ed. by Leanne White and Elspeth Frew. 2013. P. 115-128
National Museums: New Studies from around the World / edited by Simon J. Knell, Peter Aronsson, Arne Bugge Amundsen, Amy Jane Barnes, Stuart Burch, Jennifer Carter, Viviane Gosselin, Sarah A. Hughes and Alan Kirwan. London, New York: Routledge, 2011.
Sodaro Amy. Exhibiting Atrocity: Memorial Museums and the Politics of Past Violence. Rutgers University Press, 2018 (Ch. 1 “Memorial Museums: The Emergence of a New Form”)
Staf, Vladislav. 2019. “The Tomsk NKVD Prison Museum: Issues of the Memorialisation of Gulag.” Quaestio Rossica 7 (3): 791–800
Watson, S. (2017) 'Emotional communities and Museums' in T. Saar (ed) Community
Involvement in Theme Museums, Proceedings of the Estonian Maritime Museum, 8, 12 – 21

Last updated: June 12, 2025