HSPH8003

This seminar will explore the changes in how diversity has been represented in historical interpretations in the past, and how practice is changing in response to the contemporary and anticipated social context of the United States. "Diversity" has historically been assumed to derive from categories such as race or culture, concepts constructed in the discipline of anthropology but taken up as the foundation for typologies in other arenas such as art history, architectural history, museums, and public policy. What is problematic in such an approach? What happens to communities defined by shared history, political sovereignty, and disenfranchisement? What are the implications beyond museums for those communities? Finally, how can we think differently about diversity without re-inscribing harmful constructions of difference?