Critical Reflections
Asynchronous Session
Featured Decolonizing Museum Narratives: Counter-Histories, Memory Politics and Challenging Eurocentrism at the Lahore Museum
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Samavia Zia
The Lahore Museum stands as a poignant site for interrogating the colonial legacy embedded in its narratives and displays. This study explores the process of decolonizing the museum's narratives, focusing on how they shape and mediate collective memory formation. Engaging with decolonial theory, the narrative perpetuates the politics of amnesia by silencing indigenous epistemologies and disassociating artifacts from their cultural and historical contexts. The study situates the Lahore Museum within the broader framework of memory politics, investigating how colonial-era curatorial practices continue to influence contemporary interpretations of South Asia’s past. By introducing counter-narratives that reclaim indigenous perspectives, the research highlights the potential of the museum as a space for resisting Eurocentric hegemony and fostering decolonial memory formation. Central to this analysis is the concept of epistemic disobedience proposed by Mignolo, which challenges the universality of Western knowledge systems. Similarly, Fanon’s critique of the colonial psyche underscores the imperative to dismantle the cultural alienation perpetuated by colonial institutions. Through a critical analysis of exhibitions, archival practices, and visitor engagement, the research seeks to illuminate the museum's role in either perpetuating or disrupting the colonial matrix of power. It advocates for a participatory curatorial approach that foregrounds marginalized voices, contextualizes artifacts within their lived histories, and addresses the erasures inherent in colonial historiography. By doing so, this study contributes to the ongoing efforts to decolonize cultural institutions, offering a framework for reconstructing memory politics in ways that counteract Eurocentric biases and promote a pluriversal understanding of South Asia’s rich and diverse heritage.
Featured Broadening Belonging Without Othering
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Marianne Ingheim
A problem that lies at the core of much of the world’s violence and inequality is the idea of separateness, and with it, the demonization of what is considered the Other and the dividing of people into a “good us” versus a “bad them.” As humans, we have a deep desire for belonging, but this often comes at the expense of othering and hardening of borders. Narratives of belonging can connect us to each other, but they can also separate us. This study examines and complicates what is meant by belonging and borders, and it explores ways of expanding our horizons so that we include more and more of humanity and living systems in our fields of concern. It presents various concepts and strategies for broadening belonging, such as “intraconnection” and “identification with all humanity,” and it emphasizes the role that the humanities can play in providing narrative alternatives to the idea of separateness.
