Presentation by Heidi Hilliker, PhD student in Middle Eastern Studies

In recent years, there has been a movement to decolonize Western museums, calling for a practice of self-reflection and transparency paired with a recognition of their Western-centric and criminal foundations. This has led institutions with collections of ancient Egyptian art and artifacts to revisit the ways in which they classify, interpret, and display their collections. These shifts in museum practice have revealed many competing interests, exposing the complex ways in which inclusion, identity, and ownership are deeply intertwined. I witnessed these competing interests first-hand this summer during my MSP internship when a new exhibition highlighting the influence of ancient Egypt and Nubia in contemporary black music debuted at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquity in Leiden, the Netherlands.

In this talk, I will discuss this and other curatorial and institutional case studies that reflect current trends and the complicated discourses developing from them. Additionally, I will consider the future of these movements and how they may affect museum practices.