Experimenting with the value of the sense of touch in historical exhibitions

Professors Erica Lehrer (Concordia University, Canada) and Roma Sendyka (Jagiellonian University, Krakow) have been engaged in ongoing research exploring how exhibition curating can serve as a mode of social and cultural research, and a form of applied cultural studies pedagogy. Lehrer and Sendyka are currently experimenting with exhibit approaches for recently discovered Polish folk art objects from the 1960s and 70s that depict the Nazi Occupation of Poland and the Holocaust. Jagiellonian University doctoral student Maciej Topolski, working under Dr. Sendyka, is researching “tactile studies” in the context of the “sensual turn” in the humanities – an area not present in the Polish academy. He proposes to work with Dr. Lehrer and her student research assistants to experiment with re-curating objects from Lehrer and Sendyka’s current exhibition at the Kraków Ethnographic Museum, “Terribly Close: Polish Vernacular Artists Face the Holocaust,” in Dr. Lehrer’s Curating and Public Scholarship Lab (CaPSL) at Concordia University. Maciej will explore whether interaction with these objects via actual or imagined touch raises new questions for visitors about the historical events depicted or inspires deeper empathy with its victims and bystanders. To be cont’d.

Faculty Supervisor:

Erica Lehrer

Student:

Partner:

Jagiellonian University in Krakow

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Information and Communications Technology; New and Digital Media; Other

University:

Concordia University

Program: