Museum Studies
Citation
Wallen, L. (2023) ‘Museum studies’, in L.M. Bietti and M. Pogacar (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Memory Studies. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–5. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_55-1.
Abstract
The term “museum studies” came into use in the late 1960s and early 1970s predominately in English-speaking countries, whereas the older term “museology” is more commonly used worldwide. Over the past few decades, it has developed into a broad, yet distinct, area of study and its continuously expanding knowledge base consists of a wide range of specialized and generalized journals, books, and textbooks. There is an extensive body of work addressing the relationship between museums and memory, particularly in museums’ role in memory production. For example, such work has focused on the role of museum institutions in knowledge construction, the use of museum collections in prompting memories, and how visitors engage with museum exhibitions.