Critical race museology: a case study of educational voices and leaders at the DuSable Museum of African American History

This research contributes new scholarship on the teaching and preservation of African American history, public history, and broader transnational diasporic histories. As a case study, I contextualize the educational experiences of museum founders, educators, leaders, and historians who impacted the growth and development of African American museums from the 1960s to the early twenty-first century. More specifically, I explore life histories that influenced the “birth and building” of the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, Illinois. Often forgotten, overlooked, or simply unknown, these narratives reveal living histories and hidden legacies. Through a phenomenological lens, I examine critical historical archives and transitions in oral history research. I also introduce Critical Race Museology (CRM) as an intersectional framework and contextualize what I term oral history shifters and torch-sharing. Undergirding this study are larger questions of how African American history is taught and interpreted in public institutions and historic sites serving national and transnational audiences. Adopting a critical race framework, this scholarship exemplifies how museums and historic sites are poised to tell, re-tell, and interpret African American history in the twenty-first century and beyond.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• West, Lori Michele

Contributors dc:contributor

• Span, Christopher M.
• Pak, Yoon K.
• Anderson, James D.
• Bresler, Liora

• Critical Race Museology
• African American Museums
• DuSable Museum of African American History
• Oral History
• Black Museums Movement
• Museum Education

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Lori Michele West

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113236

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/113236