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14/09/20
 
About DCNtR:
DECOLONIZING COLLECTIONS – NETWORKING TOWARDS RELATIONALITY   Decolonizing – This blog is aimed at decentering the debate on colonial and ethnographic collections, archives, and museums. Its goal is to rethink colonial knowledges and dominant epistemic practices in an attempt to undo them. We seek to destabilize center-periphery divisions by providing a platform for diverse voices […]
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Richard BußmannMonica HannaMiM Workshop Series
23/03/21
Restitution of Knowledge:
Beyond Nefertiti
“Nefertiti can be a symbol for empowering women and should return to Egypt”, says Monica Hanna. She explains why restitution is about objects and the knowledge about objects. In her interview with Richard Bussmann, Monica Hanna talks about ethnic diversity and the Nubia Museum in Aswan, the future of archaeology in Egypt, Egypt’s positioning between […]
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Matthew Vollgraff
17/03/21
A Response to Horst Bredekamp
In an op-ed entitled “Fanatics of Purity”, published on March 8 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the prominent art historian Horst Bredekamp — a founding director of the Humboldt Forum, and a director of the international research group of which I am a member – declares “postcolonialism” and “political correctness” to be nothing less […]
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Stefanie MichelsMichelle MoydMiM Workshop Series
16/03/21
Centering Indigenous Humanity
Michelle Moyd and Stefanie Michels discuss contentious issues in African history and historiography, such as agency, resistance, and sovereignty and how these interact with current public debates about the colonial past. This interview is part of our new “Museums in Motion Workshop Series”. Contributions in the form of podcasts will be uploaded every Tuesday. The […]
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Richard BußmannMiM Workshop SeriesAlice Stevenson
09/03/21
Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage
Museum Cultures in Context
The heritage of Ancient Egypt is dispersed across the globe, with little recognition of the complex histories implied in objects. In this conversation with Richard Bussmann, Anna Brus, Juliane Hornung, Stefanie Michels, Ciraj Rassool, and Martin Zillinger, Alice Stevenson positions the study of ancient Egypt in the broader context of decolonization, knowledge production and museum […]
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Irene HildenHarriet MerrowAndrei Zavadski
03/03/21
Present Imperfect, Future Intense:
The Digital Opening of the Humboldt Forum
On December 16, 2020, the Humboldt Forum—a major cultural centre in the middle of Berlin—officially opened. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opening took place online and consisted of two events: a press conference and an opening ceremony. Ambitious and expensive, the Humboldt Forum has been fraught with controversy ever since it was conceived. And […]
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Carl DeußenMary Mbewe
03/03/21
DCNtR Debate
The Gender of Ethnographic Collecting
It has long been accepted that colonialism had a distinctive epistemic dimension, which was upheld by disciplines such as social anthropology and other knowledge-making projects. Under this colonial episteme, people and human experiences were hierarchically classified according to racial categories and ethnography and ethnographic collecting were key components in these processes. However, the colonial regime […]
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Mirjam BrusiusUlrike LindnerMiM Workshop Series
02/03/21
On Decolonizing Knowledge Production and the Museum
Telling the Complex Stories of One Museum Object
Mirjam Brusius and Ulrike Lindner talk about new ways to include marginalized voices into the discussion on heritage and museums. They address the importance of acknowledging academic as well as non-academic forms of knowledge in order to tell different stories and to make them more accessible to wider audiences. As a means to move forward […]
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Gertrude Aba Mansah Eyifa-DzidzienyoStefanie MichelsMiM Workshop Series
23/02/21
Setting the Agenda Right:
Restitution Matters in Ghana
Gertrude Aba Eyifa-Dzidzienyo and Stefanie Michels talk about the urgence of material restitution of objects from Western museums to Ghana as a starting point in a longer conversation about the past and its significance for the present. This interview is the first contribution to our new “Museums in Motion Workshop Series”. Contributions will be uploaded […]
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Emmanuel KasarhérouBernard Mueller
08/02/21
The Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
A place to forge new connections to the objects
Interview[1] with Emmanuel Kasarhérou. “When it comes to creating exhibitions, a museum constructs certain approaches, it looks at areas, some of which don’t lead anywhere, it explores them nonetheless. That’s the role of the institution, so let’s explore now”. The new director of the Quai Branly Museum Jacques Chirac, discusses his research design with Bernard […]
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Carl Deußen
02/12/20
The Dangers of a Comfortable Debate
A Review of Across Anthropology. Troubling Colonial Legacies, Museums, and the Curatorial by Margareta von Oswald and Jonas Tinius
I was excited when I first read the announcement for the publication of Margareta von Oswald’s and Jonas Tinius’ edited volume Across Anthropology. Troubling Colonial Legacies, Museums, and the Curatorial. The long list of contributors, ranging from influential voices in the debate on ethnographic museums to positions from art and activism, promised a thorough discussion […]
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