Date and Time: April 2, 2019 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Room: 3301
Location: Coor Hall
Campus: Tempe
Price: Free
This presentation focuses on the challenging process of researching and developing exhibitions on difficult and controversial topics and the ways that academic training can serve a crucial role in transforming difficult content into something accessible and engaging for museum visitors. The curator of the exhibit, Cannibals: Myth and Reality (San Diego Museum of Man, ongoing), will share how even as a Japanese historian with no experience with this fraught topic, she was able to successfully organize an exhibit that continues to draw visitors. She will also discuss other projects she’s worked on to show the different ways it is possible to connect academic research and training to the diverse world of museum exhibits. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of practical strategies and approaches.
Emily Anderson is an independent researcher and curator. Having received her PhD in modern Japanese history from UCLA in 2010, she was assistant professor of Japanese history at Washington State University (Pullman, Washington) from 2010-2014, and postdoctoral fellow at University of Auckland in 2014. She is the author of Christianity in Modern Japan: Empire for God (Bloomsbury, 2014) and the editor of Belief and Practice in Imperial Japan and Colonial Korea (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017) as well as a number of articles and book chapters on religion and imperialism in Japan and the Pacific. She also has extensive experience developing museum exhibits, most recently Cannibals: Myth and Reality (San Diego Museum of Man, 2015-ongoing), and On My Honor: Scouting in American Concentration Camps (Japanese American National Museum, opening summer 2020).
Department: School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies