New UF grad course ‘dismantles Traditional/Western’ museum practices.
A new grad course set to start in spring will teach University of Florida students how to address museum curation through the lens of social justice.
The course description promises that it “dismantles” traditional “methods of museology.”
For the first time graduate students at the University of Florida will have the opportunity in spring 2020 to use “activist-scholarship” to address issues of “social justice” and “intersectionality” within museum studies.
According to University posters announcing the Museum Studies class, ARH 6930: Social Justice, Race, Intersectionality, and Cultural Heritage Spaces “dismantles Traditional/Western methods of museology” by analyzing “dominant narratives in public spaces, reparations, decolonization, LGBTQIA histories/movements, Indigenous and First Nation repatriation efforts”.
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Tentatively scheduled to be taught by UF instructor Porchia Moore in the College of Art and Art History, the course will, in part, utilize “activist-scholarship” to name, identify, and solve problems within the realm of cultural heritage documentation.
Students enrolled in the course will also be required to engage in what is described as “radical archival studies” and “radical library studies” to promote frameworks for “inclusion” and “equity” among source information. According to the poster announcement, students will be asked to answer three “critical” questions: “What narratives are missing? Who has the power? What next?” The course will provide 3-9 academic credit hours for graduate students.
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“This is just the latest in a long line of inane, far-left courses that have been pushed by UF, all of which attempt to propagandize to students,” said UF chapter President of Young Americans for Freedom Philip Smith told Campus Reform. “The course description describes how they will use ‘sense-making mechanisms’, but they must not see the irony in using these for such senseless topics.”
“This looks like the University of Florida took a bunch of Leftist buzzwords and made a class out of it. It doesn’t surprise me that the University has made yet another attempt to appease modern-day Leftists; however, the joke’s on them because no matter what the University does, Leftists will never be satisfied with their efforts,” UF chapter President of Turning Point USA Ashley Stultz told Campus Reform.
Campus Reform reached out to Moore for further comment on the course but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @TonyDLeonardi
