No prerequisites are needed.

Lectures

The lectures will provide historical knowledge, highlight the intellectual contexts of the required readings, spell out key concepts and outline analytical implications.

Classroom discussions on readings and visits

Students are expected to be engaged in discussions and debates, guided by the instructor. The participation in discussions, based on readings and visits, is a must.

Papers on assigned topics

Students will write one individual paper based on the course readings and the experience made on the field.

Individual presentation

Students will be asked to give a public presentation, providing a critical evaluation of the proposed topic.

Museum collections are often perceived as static entities hidden away in storerooms or trapped behind showcases. By focusing on the dynamic histories of museum collections, new research reveals their pivotal role in shaping a wide range of social relations. Over time and across space the interactions between these artefacts and the people and institutions who made, traded, collected and exhibited them have generated complex networks of material and social agency. This class will draw on a broad range of source materials to explore the cross-cultural interactions which have created museum collections.

As European nation-states came of age in the nineteenth century, museums and archaeology played critical roles in constructing each nation’s ideas of its distinctive heritage and identity. A theoretical overview of those historical elements will be at the basis of a more conscious reflection on the role of contemporary museums, both in Europe and in the Gulf area. How museums deal with their history? How to define their identity? What is their future? How should a museum tackle ethical issues?

Recommended textbooks

At the end of the course the students will give a presentation and write a paper on a topic of their choice. The broad bibliography here listed covers the variety of subjects that will be presented during classes and the students are required to read part of the books before classes according to a schedule that will be given during our first meeting.

Macdonald, A Companion to Museum Studies, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011

Bernice L. Murphy (edited by), Museums, Ethics and cultural heritage, Routledge, 2017, chapters 1,2,5,10,12,20,21,30,32, appendix I, appendix II,

A. Stevenson, Egyptian Archaeology and the Twenty-First Century Museum, Cambridge 2002

J. Thompson, Wonderful Things. A history of Egyptology 1. 1: From Antiquity to 1881, American University in Cairo press, 2015

J. Thompson, Wonderful Things. A history of Egyptology 2. The Golden Age: 1881–1914, American University in Cairo press, 2016

J. Thompson, Wonderful Things. A history of Egyptology 3. From 1914 to the Twenty-first Century, American University in Cairo press, 2018

Non attending students are required to get in touch with the lecturer (Christian.greco@museoegizio.it) to get further instructions.

Partecipation in discussion forms a vital part of the course. The students should be prepared to discuss. By the middle of the class term the students should select a research topic for the final paper and for the in class presentation.

The paper will be graded paying attention to the following elements: familiarity with the topic, critical thinking, independent thinking, ability to read and understand literature, ability to write accurately  on an academic topic in a rigorous manner.

Classes will start on Friday September 30th. Their timetable will be communicated as soon as it is announced by the Department.

The first class, scheduled on Friday, 30th September, will take place in the classroom till 4:30 pm

Then we all move to the “Biblioteca di Antichistica”, where we will take part to a symposium organized by Prof. dr. Betrò. I will talk about the dawn of Egyptology and the role of Francesco Salvolini.

The participation to this second part of the class is compulsory and it is an integral part of the course.