Museums and Difference (21st Century Studies)

Museums, modern concepts of culture, and ideas about difference arose together and to this day remain inextricably entwined. Relationships of difference-gender, ethnicity, nationality, race-have become equally important concerns of scholarship in humanities and contemporary museum practice. Museums and Difference presents the perspectives of scholars and museum professionals in tandem, using the concept of difference to reexamine how museums construct themselves, their collections, and their publics. Essays consider a wide range of examples from around the world and from the nineteenth century to the present, including case studies of special exhibitions as well as broad surveys of institutions in Europe, the United States, and Japan.