Chains of interruption

Political pedagogies of representation in women’s and gender museums

Abstract

My interest over the past two decades has been the gendered nature, politics, and pedagogies of museum practices or representation. Practices of representation consist of language and symbols as well as visuals and objects. They are important because they are pervasive and resilient; we are embedded in and propagate multiple forms of representation on a daily basis. Practices of representation do not simply reflect the world; they shape and bring it into being. They are how we make meaning and sense of and articulate differences in environments, cultural traditions, communities, and other people. In particular, representations are how we forge our own identities and sense of place in the world (Hall, 2013; Kidd, 2015).