Enrolments for 2023 have closed.
Collecting Power: Museums, Colonialism, and Restitution
Undergraduate | LTU-ART2002 | 2023
Course information for 2023 intake View information for 2024 course intake
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Entry requirements
- Prior study needed
- Duration
- 12 weeks
HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Collecting Power: Museums, Colonialism, and Restitution
About this subject
- Gain an understanding of the role that collecting art and visual culture plays in broad political and historical developments.
- Develop and strengthen understanding and engagement with ethical debates that apply to collecting, ownership and censorship within historical and contemporary arts contexts.
- Expand skills in research, critical and reflective thinking, and writing by evaluating key ideas and concepts.
- • The relationship between museums, theft of cultural heritage and colonialism.
- • The case of the Elgin Marbles.
- • The case of Nazi looting.
- • The cases of terrorist destruction of cultural heritage.
- • First Nations campaigns for restitution and repatriation of cultural heritage.
- • How museums have changed in response to First Nations advocacy.
- • How contemporary art contributes to the decolonising of museum collections.
Museums are widely considered the custodians of what our cultures deem most valuable. Yet what is collected, and how, tells us a great deal about the ongoing violence of colonialism. In this subject, you explore the relationship between collecting, conflict and power, and how the role of art in conquest, nation-building and religious conflicts can lead to its destruction or censorship. You will consider several case studies drawn from a Western context, such as the Elgin marbles, Nazi looting and terrorist destruction of cultural heritage, and explore the wider ethical and legal context of collecting, destruction and theft. You will also explore broad cultural responses to redressing this legacy in ‘decolonising’ actions that include the restitution and repatriation of cultural objects and the transformation of institutional practices in response to First Nations advocacy. You will be introduced to the ethical, moral and legal issues involved in the circulation of art around the world to facilitate the development of your global and cross-cultural thinking.
- Case Study 1, 1000 words (25%)
- Research essay, 2000 words (50%)
- Case study 2: written report 1000 words (25%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
Others
Past La Trobe University students who have previously completed ARH2LIC (Looting, Iconoclasm and Censorship) are ineligible to enrol in this subject.
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
UndergraduateLAT-BUS-DEG
UndergraduateLAT-ART-DEG
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