Traveling Histories: Tourism and Transnationalism in the US and South Africa Open Access

Melton, Sarah Van Horn (2017)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/n870zr72j?locale=en
Published

Abstract

In this study, I seek to better understand the resonances of local and global histories of oppression, segregation, and violence. Through a multi-sited ethnography of three museums in the US and South Africa--the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Apartheid Museum, and the District Six Museum--I ask four main questions: 1) How do these histories travel, and how are they changed in new contexts?; 2) How do specific exhibition strategies mediate and express particular interpretations of complex and violent histories of race and segregation?; 3) How do the pressures and realities of a global system of cultural tourism affect these exhibitionary strategies and visitor interpretations of sites?; and 4) How do these sites challenge or uphold the category of museum?

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1

Toyi-toying in Birmingham: The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute 44

Chapter 2

The Apartheid Museum: Making a Global Tourism Site 89

Chapter 3

Curating and Contesting at the District Six Museum 143

Conclusion 187

Bibliography 204

About this Dissertation

Rights statement
  • Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.
School
Department
Degree
Submission
Language
  • English
Research Field
Keyword
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor
Committee Members
Last modified

Primary PDF

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Actions
Traveling Histories: Tourism and Transnationalism in the US and South Africa () 2018-08-28 16:23:38 -0400

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Actions