Museums, Architecture, and Heritage

Art and architecture are part of the cultural archive. Because they store collective memories and provide identity people endow them with value and meaning. But preservation is not the only response to the past. Destruction and obsolescence are equally prominent answers. Faculty members examine these processes and explore how values and meanings get (im)materialized, represented, negotiated, displayed, explained, contested and circulated within the public sphere. What forces are driving these processes? How do they affect and alter notions of memory and value? What are the effects in the built environment and world of museums? How do they shape and change the appearance of public spaces?

Current Faculty Research

• Peter Probst - World Heritage and the Globalization of Memory
• Adriana Zavala - Mexican State's articulation of Cultural Heritage
• Andrew McClellan - Collection history and the issue of restitution
• Diana Martinez