Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
Reading British Identity in London's Museums
Instructor(s): Susan Bender, Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
Museums are powerful sites of learning, but do they teach more than just 鈥渇acts鈥� about history? Students will engage this question through visits to a number of London鈥檚 most remarkable museums, learning in this process how to pose and answer questions that might yield the more subtle, but potent messages that underlie these institutions鈥� exhibitions. Students will learn to read the ways in which museums combine visual images with text to create stories that both reflect and create a community鈥檚 sense of its identity. Here they will uncover some of the most potent stories that the citizens of London and Great Britain tell about who they are.