University Museums as Laboratories for Experiential Learning and Engaged Practice

Abstract

This article describes how faculty in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Denver have used collections and exhibitions in the Museum of Anthropology as a pedagogical tool to provide students with experiential and socially engaged learning opportunities and to show how anthropologists use different forms of tangible and intangible culture to investigate and represent topics of anthropological interest. I discuss how the renewal of material and sensory engagement in anthropology as well as anthropologists’ growing interest in the turn in contemporary art practice toward the use of ethnographic fieldwork methods have inspired me to experiment with new pedagogical methods. On the whole, the article highlights not only the things one can do with objects in university museums but also the importance of animating the agency of both objects and exhibitions through experimentation with participatory, multisensory, and dialogical approaches. [museum pedagogy, material culture, public anthropology, social practice art]