MOVING THINGS: Ethnographically Accompanying an Exhibition Project on (Forced) Migration Course held in Winter Semester 2021/2022

The museumization of migration is a topic that has, through recent events as well as through critical migration studies, become a pressing issue. The self-conception of European countries as "countries of immigration" is changing, at times violently. On this, migration museums and exhibitionists have a particular societal function and responsibility. Museumization does not mean, in this case, distancing and aestheticization. Rather, taking a stance in such an emotionalized debate is unavoidable. It is at this point that socio-cultural anthropological skills are particularly required. How can socio-cultural anthropologists transmit their knowledge engagingly to a non-academic public? How is it possible for an exhibition to convey a clear and engaging understanding of the complex relationships - even of humanitarian catastrophies, promote solidarity and contribute to social change? What possibilities and challenges are linked to forms of exhibition? And are exhibitions even an appropriate format at all?

This course was a researching-teaching project linked with the collaborative research project "On the Materiality of (Forced) Migration)". This was brought to a close with the temprorary exhibition in Forum Wissen, University of Göttingen titled MOVING THINGS.

Lecturers

• Prof. Dr. Andrea Lauser
• Friedemann Yi-Neumann, M. A.

Course syllabus as PDF (in German)

Outcomes of the course: academic posters from students

Re-/Production and Critique of National Discourses in Migration Museums. An exhibition analysis

Von Eva Neubert

Design Thinking meets Ethnology. SPEAKING DRAWERS – Ein museales Ausstellungskonzept für mehr Diversität & Inklusion.

Von Mei Ju Huang

„Museum als Kontaktmittel

Von Leah Frese