Learning at the Museum Frontiers: Identity, Race and Power

In Learning at the Museum Frontiers, Viv Golding argues that the museum has the potential to function as a frontier - a zone where learning is created, new identities are forged and new connections made between disparate groups and their own histories. She draws on a range of theoretical perspectives including Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, Foucauldian discourse on space and power, and postcolonial and Black feminist theory, as well as her own professional experience in museum education over a ten-year period, applying these ideas to a wide range of museum contexts. The book offers an important theoretical and empirical contribution to the debate on the value of museums and what they can contribute to society. The author reveals the radical potential for museums to tackle injustice and social exclusion, challenge racism, enhance knowledge and promote truth.

Viv Golding is Lecturer in Communication and Education in the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. Before entering academia on a full-time basis, she worked for ten years developing educational opportunities at the Horniman Museum in London and a further 12 years developing Arts Education Programmes in London.