Museums, Empire and Decolonial Praxis

Museums, Empire, and Decolonial Praxis examines how museums and heritage institutions interpret colonial histories today. Bringing together academics, practitioners, and artists, this edited collection explores whether contemporary decolonial work signals the emergence of a new museum paradigm.

Traversing time, place, and institutional context, the chapters combine established and emerging case studies from museums across Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Contributors ask how museums can work with and against racist histories, objects, and images; how non-Western epistemologies and ontologies can reframe provenance research and material culture; and what decolonisation means in practice for those working in, with, and on museums. Rather than treating decolonisation as a settled solution, the volume stress-tests it as a paradigm that now shapes the terrain of museum work, embraced, adapted, contested, or resisted. Through collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches, the book foregrounds museums as relational spaces embedded in political, ethical, and social struggle. Collectively, the chapters capture a distinctive moment of change in museum practice, offering both critical reflection and practical insight into how decolonial praxis is reshaping the purpose, authority, and future of museums.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of museum studies, heritage studies, art history, history, archival studies, and education. It will also appeal to museum professionals, artists, activists, and cultural policymakers engaged in debates around empire, restitution, and decolonial practice.