Public lecture on Myanmar and museums

The effect of displacement in Myanmar on material objects is the subject of a public lecture at the University of Leicester on Tuesday 18 February.

Professor Sandra Dudley, Head of the University’s School of Museum Studies will speak on the topic of ‘Displacement and radical hope in Myanmar and beyond:  objects, museums and peace-building.’

Displacement is a global phenomenon: the United Nations High Comission on Refugees estimates that by the end of 2018, over 70 million of the world’s people were displaced. Cultural artefacts and practices become displaced too – sometimes with people, sometimes alone. Focusing on artefacts in and from Myanmar, Professor Dudley’s talk will explore the process, experience and effects of displacement for material things. She will point to an ultimately optimistic framework for thing-centred political, social and aesthetic action in the museum and elsewhere.

Sandra Dudley is Professor of Museum Anthropology and Head of the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. She is also joint Chief Editor of the international journal Museum Worlds: Advances in Research. Sandra first came to Leicester in 2003 and has been Head of School since 2017.  Her interest in Myanmar stems from her time at Oxford University where she was able to combine her doctorate in anthropology with a part-time job as a curatorial assistant in the University’s famous Pitt Rivers Museum

The talk, which is free and open to all, takes place in the George Porter (Chemistry) Building on the University of Leicester campus on 18 February, between 5.30pm and 6.30pm. Places can be booked via Eventbrite.