Introduction:

In his book A different mirror: a history of multicultural America, Professor

Ronald Takaki challenges the Master Narrative of American History, the powerful and

popular but inaccurate story declaring that our country was settled by European

immigrants, and Americans are white. In his work, Professor Takaki highlighted the hopes

and struggles of immigrant men and women working and living in America, dispelling the

many negative stereotypes marginalized as the Other.

Objective: The goal of this assignment is to identify how the official history is represented in

repositories of human civilization, spaces that are also known as museums. Pay particular

attention to the spatial management of the exhibit, the order in which the artifacts are

displayed, and how they present the participation of certain groups of individuals in the

official history. Your paper should be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman size 12.

For this assignment, please read the following pieces. These articles will provide you with the

necessary context to execute this particular assignment.

Golding, Viv. Learning at the museum frontiers: identity, race, and power, Introduction.

Trofanenko, Brenda. Displayed objects, Indigenous identities, and public pedagogy.

Anthropology and Education, Vol 37, No. 4, 2006, pp. 309-327.

Instructions for Writing the Final paper: As you begin to write your final paper, please

reflect on what you observed in the exhibit and compose a 4-6-page paper that summarizes,

critiques and applies the exhibit to the overarching theme of the course, the Master Narrative

of American History. Does the exhibit challenge this notion, or does it affirm it? Further,

please address the following questions in your essay.

1. Primary theme and subthemes of the exhibit: What information is the exhibit

attempting to convey? What kind of story is being presented?

2. How was the use of space representative of the exhibit?

3. What is so particular about the order of the artifacts being displayed?

4. How are historically disadvantaged groups represented in the exhibit?Chicana/o Studies 245 Fall 2014 Final Essay Assignment

5. How are identities, i. e., ethnicity, gender, sexuality addressed in the exhibit?

6. How is the exhibit presenting these different intersections, if at all?

7. Multimedia tools: are there any videos/films, digitalized diagrams, maps, computer

kiosks incorporated into the exhibit?

8. If you had the opportunity to talk to the curator of the exhibit, what questions would

you ask him/her?

Please choose a museum for your analysis from the following list.

Autry National Center

Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County

Museum of Latin American Art

Museum of Contemporary Art

Mexican Cultural Institute

Los Angeles Country Museum of Art

California African American Museum

Japanese American National Museum

El Pueblo de Los Angeles

Heritage Square Museum

Southwest Museum of American Indian

Chinese American Museum