Reconsiders complex questions about how we imagine ourselves and our political communities

Begins where diversity audits end, informing and supporting academic, school, and public librarians in the quest to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion in a meaningful and sustainable manner throughout collections, policies, and practices. A primary question for many librarians, directors, and board members is how to evaluate diversity in a collection on an ongoing basis. Curating Community Collections provides librarians with the tools they need to understand the results of diversity audits and to formulate a reasonable, achievable plan for increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion not only in the collection itself, but also in library collection policies and practices. Information on ways to make diversity, equity, and inclusion part of a library's everyday workflow will help ensure the sustainability of these principles. Mary Schreiber and Wendy Bartlett teach readers how to increase the number of diverse materials in their collections and make them more discoverable to library patrons through the implementation of a community collections program. Stories from librarians around the United States and Canada who are auditing and improving the diversity of their collections add broad, scalable perspectives for libraries of any size, budget, and mission. Action steps provided at the end of each section offer a practical road map for all types of libraries to curate a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community collection.

This edited volume comprises a compilation of autoethnographic evocations from U.S. doctoral students in the fields of social sciences and humanities, who narrate and analyze their experiences in the doctoral journey and beyond. Through 11 select contributions, the book examines the intersections and shifting roles of the personal and the community in the doctoral student journey, illustrating the complex and unique nature of pursuing a doctoral degree. Part 1, Curating the Self, includes five autoethnographic accounts that speak directly to the personal challenges and transformations experienced in the doctoral journey. Part 2, Embracing the Community, includes six autoethnographic accounts illustrating supportive communities’ life-changing power during the doctoral journey. Contributors are: Gabriel T. Acevedo Velázquez, Ahmad A. Alharthi, Afiya Armstrong, Nick Bardo, Caitlin Beare, Rebecca Borowski, Anya Ezhevskaya, Christopher Fornaro, Melinda Harrison, Linda Helmick, Joanelle Morales, Olya Perevalova, Alexis Saba, Kimberly Sterin, Katrina Struloeff, Rebecca L. Thacker, Lisa D. Wood, Erin H. York, Christel Young and Nara Yun.

Mark Pierson is a strikingly original thinker and practitioner whose influence on alternative worship and emerging church forms has spread worldwide. Whatever our church tradition – liturgical, evangelical, charismatic or alternative, Mark’s challenge is clear: tired patterns of worship do not engage with people beyond the regular congregation (and sometimes not even with them). The last place that many genuine spiritual seekers would try is church. He shows a way of thinking about and practicing worship where real connection with God can happen. The idea of ‘curating’ rather than leading worship invites a potentially huge mind shift about worship practice. Leading worship is not about staying in control of content or delivery, but about exploring creatively the riches of our traditions, the arts, our buildings, music and language to offer worship that better reflects the glory of God. This inspiring, practical book raises the bar in terms of what we expect from worship and then gives us the courage, vision and resources to bring it about.

Illustrated with contemporary case studies, Curating Design provides a history of and introduction to design curatorial practice both within and outside the museum. Donna Loveday begins by tracing the history of the collecting and display of designed objects in museums and exhibitions from the 19th century 'cabinet of curiosities' to the present day design museum. She then explores the changing role of the curator since the 1980s, with curators becoming much more than just 'keepers' of a collection, with a remit to create narrative and experiential exhibitions as well as develop the museum's role as a space of learning for its visitors. Curating as a practice now describes the production of a number of cultural and creative outputs, ranging from exhibitions to art festivals; shopping environments to health centres; conferences to film programming as well as museums and galleries. Loveday explores how design has come to the fore in curatorial practice, with new design museums opening around the world as well as blockbusting exhibitions of fashion and popular culture. Interviews with leading practitioners from international design and arts museums provide a spotlight on contemporary challenges and best practice in design curatorship.

During the global Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, many called upon the United States to finally face its painful past. Tim Gruenewald’s new book is an in-depth investigation of how that past is currently remembered at the national museums in Washington, DC. Curating America’s Painful Past reveals how the tragic past is either minimized or framed in a way that does not threaten dominant national ideologies. Gruenewald analyzes the National Museum of American History (NMAH), the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The NMAH, the nation’s most popular history museum, serves as the benchmark for the imagination of US history and identity. The USHMM opened in 1993 as the United States’ official Holocaust memorial and stands adjacent to the National Mall. Gruenewald makes a persuasive case that the USHMM established a successful blueprint for narrating horrific and traumatic histories. Curating America’s Painful Past contrasts these two museums to ask why America’s painful memories were largely absent from the memorial landscape of the National Mall and argues that social injustices in the present cannot be addressed until the nation’s painful past is fully acknowledged and remembered. It was only with the opening of the NMAAHC in 2016 that a detailed account of atrocities committed against African Americans appeared on the National Mall. Gruenewald focuses on the museum’s narrative structure in the context of national discourse to provide a critical reading of the museum. When the NMAI opened in 2004, it presented for the first time a detailed history from a Native American perspective that sought to undo conventional museum narratives. However, criticism led to more traditional exhibitions and national focus. Nevertheless, the museum still marginalizes memories of the vast numbers of Indigenous victims to European colonization and to US expansion. In a final chapter, Gruenewald offers a thought experiment, imagining a memory site like the recently opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice (Montgomery, Alabama) situated on the National Mall so the reader can assess how profound an effect projects of national memory can have on facing the past as a matter of present justice.

Curation: the act of imagining and overseeing an exhibition or art experience. Worship Curation: the act of imagining and overseeing a worship experience. Worship curator Jonny Baker introduces this original approach to the design and sharing of worship. Rather than simply presiding over liturgy or leading a worship team, Baker and a new generation of leaders are negotiating between institutions and artists, crafting beauty for God out of whatever they’ve got on hand, helping people to make connections between their own lives and stories and the life and story of God. Curating Worship is presented in two parts. The first considers the kind of thinking, skills and disciplines involved in good curation. The second part features in-depth interviews that tease out the ideas, theories and processes behind the creative approaches of people who are curating worship experiences around the world.

The study by Alexandra Bernhardt deals with coworking spaces and their atmospheres. In addition to a comprehensive consideration of the role of atmospheres, the special significance of community in the context of these work spaces is examined in more detail. Two case studies in urban coworking spaces form the core of the investigation, following a qualitative research design oriented towards ethnography and a plurality of methods. In the context of the analysis, on the one hand, what constitutes coworking in everyday life and thus the new communality at work is considered: relevant practices and rituals, spatial arrangements and atmospheres are elaborated in their composition. On the other hand, coworkers, their spatial actions, and the attitudes associated with them come into closer focus: It is shown how users access coworking spaces as work and community spaces and what role atmospheres play. In addition, social entities are highlighted that are taken up by coworkers in relation to their coworking space and that help shape everyday coworking space life. Tensions that arise from the coexistence of community and service logic are also uncovered, and how they are dealt with is examined in more detail.

This cutting-edge new book is the replacement for Folklife and Museums: Selected Readings which was published nearly thirty years ago in 1987. The editors of that volume, Patricia Hall and Charlie Seemann, are now joined by C. Kurt Dewhurst as a third editor, for this book which includes updates to the still-relevant and classic essays and articles from the earlier text and features new pioneering pieces by some of today’s most outstanding scholars and practitioners, to provide a more current overview of the field and addressing contemporary issues. Folklife and Museums: Twenty-First Century Perspectives is a brand new collection of cutting-edge essays that combine theoretical insights, practical applications, topical case studies (focusing on particular subject matter areas and specific cultural groups), accompanied by up-to-date “resources” and “suggested readings” sections. Each essay is preceded by an explanatory headnote contextualizing the essay and includes illustrative photographs.

With contributions from key scholars in a range of disciplines, this engaging new volume explores the complex issues surrounding collaboration between museums and their communities.