Thesis Post #6: Parting is Such Sweet "Sorrow"

I think I speak for everyone when I say I'm relieved to be done (or almost done). I'm a creature of fear, so now I have one less thing to be scared of. XD I'm still editing the thesis in preparation to submit the final document. It's been nerve-wracking and stressful, but I learned valuable things about my topic and scholarly writing. Thanks to my peers for the feedback you gave in class. I'm sure your theses are great, and I'm looking forward to reading them. :) Good luck in this final stretch!

Thesis Post #5: Bitter Nectar

I was combining my lit review and thesis pages today, and I thought, "This is long." But then, I remembered that there were people last year who had over one hundred pages. :/ I suppose I should consider myself fortunate. Maybe people will be more likely to read it.

I hope people enjoy it. It's not the most innovative thesis, but at least, it's interesting to learn about how cultural institutions in another country work.

Stay safe, everyone. Here's a poem to cheer you up:

Thesis Post #4: All This

Well...

I'm pretty sure we're all on the same page. This is a very confusing time for everyone. It's hard to get into the swing of things with all the craziness going on, but I've been trying to do coursework throughout.

A couple weeks ago, I sent some emails to request contact information for the BCM, but there's been no response so far. If they don't get back to me by the time the thesis is due, at least I have some pictures of the exhibits from the Internet. I'm thinking about changing my thesis outline to narrow the scope, since I've gotten advice from a few professors about limiting how much I am trying to cover. It makes sense.

Hope everyone is staying safe and enjoying the remaining days of the extended break.

Thesis Post #3: Oceans of Longing

Even though I've already passed the minimum page count for the thesis when I add together the body pages and the lit review, I feel like I haven't gotten anywhere. There are still subjects that I want to discuss that I have not gotten to yet in my paper. There are also subjects that I want to expand on. When I look at my content outline, I have only been writing for the case study section, which is at the end. My next writing goal is to zoom out to the national scale. I'm looking forward to talking about how Zimbabwean museums use technology.

Thesis Post #2: We Live in a Society

Right now, I want to start focusing on ideas related to sociology and power dynamics. I received a lot of feedback from my advisors and Dr. Lent to look into the relationship that the Tonga people have with the dominant ethnic groups of Zimbabwe, so my next step is to do that. One source that my secondary advisor recommended explains what happens when an ethnic group has to commoditize its culture for economic gain. It is possible that the BaTonga Community Museum - a state-sanctioned museum - may be contributing to generalizations about the Tonga people or making local artisans only show off traditional arts rather than contemporary ideas. I don't know what the case is yet, but I'll see as I do more research.

Thesis Post #1: Back Into the Fold

So, I've started to write the thesis, just like everyone else. I'm not as prolific as some other people, but we're getting there, I suppose. I've decided to start with the section on the history and culture of the Tonga people, since that is what I am most comfortable with. I will add citations after I finish writing, because if I try to cite as I write, it will slow me down so much that I barely accomplish anything.

I've looked into how to make contact with the BaTonga Community Museum (BCM). There's no way that I can find to make direct contact with them, but I have the name of the curator and site manager, Joshua Chikozho. Unfortunately, I cannot find an email or phone number for him. I did find his Facebook page, however. I felt that might be too informal of a way to reach out. Alternately, I tried to find the email of the author of a monograph about the BCM, Dr. Munyaradzi Mawere. He teaches at Great Zimbabwe University, so I looked for his faculty email on the website. Again, nothing. So, I will attempt to contact the BCM through the national organization, by emailing Dr. Mawere's department for his email, or by messaging Mr. Chikozho on Facebook.

Post #5: The Light of Knowledge Shone Upon the Topic

Before saying what I have learned, I'll start with restating my research question, which has been recently revised, “How can African and Asian museums identify the European influences within their professional practices, deconstruct those influences, and form new models that better serve to reaffirm their native cultures?” Firstly, I have learned that Non-European museums are more willing to tackle controversial topics related to imperialism than European museums. For example, even in the French overseas territory of Reunion Island, in the planned Maison des Civilisations et de l’Unité Réunionnaise (MCUR), the staff was prepared to interpret the history of slavery on the island. Secondly, Non-European museums tend to interpret native cultural patrimony and ethnographic objects differently than European museums traditionally do. European museums have displayed these cultural objects as primitive or in such a way as to imply that the cultures that produced them are historical rather than modern. Museums in the countries/territories themselves, however, interpret their cultural objects as part of an ongoing story about the people -- the past informs both the present and the future. They want to distance themselves from a view that their cultures are primitive or dead.

Thirdly, I have learned about some of the challenges museums face in Africa and Asia. The MCUR was never ultimately created because of political backlash from the French mainland. Funding is a big problem in developing countries, where the central government does not have much money to spare to support cultural institutions. In recently independent countries, many museums face the struggle of convincing the public that they are no longer puppets of the former imperialist governments. Local communities often distrust museums because of the theft and appropriation of their cultural artifacts, and the apparent pandering to tourists. The National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) is attempting to counteract these historical tensions and build relationships with communities by establishing "community museums" that promote local culture, including arts, language, and crafts. Because of the NMMZ's decolonizing efforts and culture affirmation, I have chosen one of their community museums, the BaTonga Community Museum as my case study.

I still need to learn about the sociological/anthropological reasons why it is important for a cultural group to have agency over the presentation of their own culture. It could also be interesting to look more into why communities distrust institutions. There may be some psychological and political aspects there. I also have to do more research about the history of European globalization and colonization, especially of the British in Zimbabwe.

Post #4: Repentance (Revised Statement of Topic)

My research question is, "How can African and Asian museums identify the European influences on their professional practices, techniques, and standards, deconstruct those influences, and form their own models of practice?" For the purposes of my research, I will define practices to include curation, exhibition design, interpretation, education, architectural design, and administration. For ideologies, I will include the valuation of art, selection of subject matter, judgement of what is appropriate to be preserved or accessioned, what should be displayed and how, and other topics. The ideologies of a museum inform its practices, and the standardization of practices can further endorse the ideologies. The themes I plan to explore in my research are European imperialism, globalization, and decolonization. In order to narrow the scope of my research, I will select one African or Asian museum to use as a case study. I will also examine global museum trends and trends within the country in which the case institution is located. The ideal case study candidate would be a museum that has a staff and administration that largely consists of people of color who are native to the country.

Sources:

• Ford, Caroline. “Museums after Empire in Metropolitan and Overseas France.” The Journal of Modern History 82, no. 3 (2010): 625–61. https://doi.org/10.1086/654828.

I will use this essay to research the relationship between French museums and museums in France's former colonies, including the socio-political tension created by French's possession of art acquired during the colonial period.

• Wandibba, Simiyu. "Museums in Africa." In Media and Identity in Africa, edited by Kimani Njogu and John Middleton, 245-57. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r2b0x.24.

This text is a useful source for information about museums in pre-colonial Africa and the transformation to a European model during and after colonialism.

• Mawere, Munyaradzi, and Genius Tevera. “Zimbabwean Museums in the Digital Age: A Quest to Increase Museum Visibility in Public Space through Social Media.” In African Museums in the Making: Reflections on the Politics of Material and Public Culture in Zimbabwe, edited by Munyaradzi Mawere, Henry Chiwaura, and Thomas Panganayi Thondhlana, 247–68. Mankon, Bamenda: Langaa RPCIG, 2015. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh9vwmh.13.

I will use this chapter to research how some African museums use engagement techniques compared to European museums.

• Mawere, Munyaradzi, and Tapuwa R. Mubaya. “‘A Shadow That Refuses to Leave’: The Enduring Legacy of Colonialism in Zimbabwean Museum Governance.” In African Museums in the Making: Reflections on the Politics of Material and Public Culture in Zimbabwe, edited by Munyaradzi Mawere, Henry Chiwaura, and Thomas Panganayi Thondhlana, 137–62. Mankon, Bamenda: Langaa RPCIG, 2015. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh9vwmh.9.

The chapter will provide insight into how museums in Zimbabwe endeavor to decolonize their administrations in order to become socio-politically relevant to the Zimbabwean public, as well as tourists.

Post #3: And Lo, The Mist Took the Form of a Statement of Topic

For my thesis, I will research how Western museum's practices and ideas have influenced non-Western museums. Practices include curation, exhibition design, interpretation, education, architectural design, and administration. Ideas include, but are not limited to, valuation of art, selection of subject matter, judgement of what is appropriate to be preserved or accessioned, and what should be displayed and how. "Ideas" is essentially an exploration of the ideologies behind the "practices," or what leads to the practices. The anticipated themes are colonialism, imperialism, globalization, Western paternalism, decolonization, and national identity.

My research question is, "How have the practices, standards, and traditions of Euro-American, or Western, museums influenced those of non-Western museums, and how can non-Western museums deconstruct those influences?" I define non-Western museums as those operated in countries in which the majority of the population is not of predominantly European ancestry. In order to narrow the scope of my research, I will select one non-Western museum to use as a case study, although I will also examine larger global trends and trends within the country that the case institution is located in. The museum's staff and administration should largely consist of people of color who are native to the country.

(Almost) done!

As of right now, my thesis is basically done.  We've been given an extra week to work on it, but I'm debating just handing it in as it is right now so I can be done with it. 
I feel like if I really wanted to I could find things to fix, but I'm also in a good enough place where I feel okay submitting it and letting it be.  It's definitely not flawless, but I think when you write big papers like this you never really feel done writing it.  You can have it done, but still feel like there's just one tiny thing that if you fixed, it would all be so much better.  Realistically though, me holding onto this paper for another week just means that I would have another week where I probably didn't look at it, and let the assignment hang over me instead. 
I'm really proud of the work I put into this paper, and I feel like I learned a lot in the process of writing it.  I'm excited to let it out into the world and see what happens, and to be done with my senior thesis!

Visitor Studies Completed!

Since the last blog post update, I have not only been able to create a final print of my visors, but have also conducted three days worth of visitor observations!  After printing my first version of the visor, I made adjustments to the shape of the nose hole and the size, but my second ended up being a little too small.  I ended up reprinting it for a third time using brown filament, and this time the size was almost perfect.  I sanded and then airbrush painted this version of the visor, which made it look more like the original and also changed the texture to feel less like a 3D print.
The next part of my project was to actually conduct the visitor survey.  I went to the RMSC on Monday 2/18, Friday 2/22, and Saturday 2/23, and was able to collect a total of 71 survey responses.  I also tracked on paper how many children and adults stopped to look at the setup, handled the visor, and tried it on.  These numbers aren't as exact and don't say anything about the desire of the visitors, but since not all the visitors took the survey it gives me a sense of how many people interacted with the visor. 
I haven't gotten to go through the data in-depth yet, but from a preliminary glance it seems that people enjoyed their experience with the visor, and found it satisfying to touch.  I might go back to the RMSC to try and collect more data, but I have to talk to my advisers and see if 71 responses is enough.  I'm excited to go through the data more and see what conclusions I can draw, and to keep working on my project!