Museums and Mass Violence (Rethinking Memory, Representation and Human Rights)

Museums and Mass Violence examines the varied ways in which museums around the world address – or fail to address – the problem of mass violence and severe human rights abuses.

Bringing together a diverse group of scholars and practitioners and a transnational set of case studies, this volume explores the potential of museums to contribute to social justice in the contemporary era. At the same time, it directs attention to the perils these institutions face when they curate and exhibit “difficult” knowledge concerning genocide, mass killing, and other kinds of atrocity crimes. The question of how museums shape historical understanding of political oppression, particularly within the political, social, and economic contexts in which they operate, is another major issue addressed by this volume. Asking for whom, exactly, “difficult histories” are difficult, contributors to this volume also ask the hard question of what museum professionals should do when the “terrible gift” they offer visitors through exhibits detailing historical episodes of mass violence are met not with horror, but with indifference – or worse, approval.

Providing comparative discussion of the perils and potential of exhibiting atrocities in countries as diverse as Sweden, Argentina, Rwanda, and Canada, Museums and Mass Violence will be essential reading for academics and students engaged in the study of museums, memory, ethics, genocide, trauma, heritage, social justice, culture, and human rights.

Dr. Paul Morrow is a visiting researchfFellow in the School of Philosophy at University College Dublin, Ireland.

Dr. Amy Sodaro is professor of sociology at the Borough of Manhattan Community College/City University of New York, USA.

Dr. Leora Kahn is the Executive Director of PROOF: Media for Social Justice,a non-profit organization that uses visual storytelling for social change.