Thesis Topic

My thesis topic will be examining how museums handle displaying culturally sensitive objects. My thesis will focus specifically on the Rochester Museum and Science Center and will be a case study of how they go through the process of handling and exhibiting the Charlotte carousel panel. I do not yet have a working title title for my thesis, but have been attempting to throw some ideas around about that and should have one worked up by next week. The research question my thesis will address is "What are the best practices museums should abide by when exhibiting culturally sensitive objects?" I will attempt to answer it by doing the case study of the RMSC and by doing research on other institutions that have experienced similar issues. I will also be looking at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture to see how they have attempted to handle this problem. This is still a working question, and may be a bit broad, but for the moment, I think broad is good because it will encompass more research, and I can always narrow it down at a later point if necessary. As for research, I have found a number or journal articles that deal with this subject matter, and have compiled many newspaper articles and online commentary dealing with the carousel panel directly. I have attempted to make contact with some staff members at the NMAAHC and am currently waiting for their replies.

Potential Thesis Topic

As I stated in class, I am fairly certain I want my thesis topic to be on museum ethics and cultural sensitivity within exhibitions. I would like to do a case study of the Rochester Museum and Science Center and how they handle exhibiting the Charlotte carousel panel. I have a description of the situation in my first post, but if you are unfamiliar with it, you can read up on it here. I, of course, still need to clear this idea with the RMSC and get permission to pursue it, but I am planning on beginning my research for this topic now. I aim to use all the newspaper articles and news coverage of this I can gather, as well as finding journal articles about other case studies of similar situations for comparison. Because I am an intern at the RMSC, I have access to the panel itself, as well as the staff handling the storage, care and exhibition of the panel. I plan to use the staff as references as well, through interviews and conversations I have with them. I think I have a good handle on my potential topic, and am very excited to see where this research takes me.