A Companion to Museum Studies captures the multidisciplinary approaches to the study of the development, roles, and significance of museums in contemporary society. It is an indispensable reference for art historians, museum curators, and art and culture lovers.

List of Illustrations. Notes on Contributors. Acknowledgments. Bibliographical Note. 1. Expanding Museum Studies: an Introduction. (Sharon Macdonald). Part I: Perspectives, Disciplines, Concepts. Introduction. 2. Cultural Theory and Museum Studies. (Rhiannon Mason). 3. Sociology and the Social Aspects of Museums. (Gordon Fyfe). 4. Art History and Museology: Rendering the Visible Legible. (Donald Preziosi). 5. Museums and Anthropologies. Practices and Narratives. (Anthony Alan Shelton). 6. Collecting Practices. (Sharon Macdonald). 7. The Conundrum of Ephemerality: Time, Memory and Museums. (Susan A. Crane). Part II. Histories, Heritage, Identities. Introduction. 8. The Origins of the Public Museum. (Jeffrey Abt). 9. World's Fairs and Museums. (Robert W. Rydell). 10. Making and Remaking National Identities. (Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan). 11. Museums and Community. (Elizabeth Crooke). 12. Re-staging Histories and Identities. (Rosmarie Beier-de Haan). 13. Heritage. (Steven Hoelscher). Part III. Architecture, Space, Media. Introduction. 14. Museum Architecture: a Brief History. (Michaela Giebelhausen). 15. Insight versus Entertainment. Untimely Meditations on the Architecture of 20th-Century Art Museums. (Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani). 16. Civic Seeing: Museums and the Organisation of Vision. (Tony Bennett). 17. Spatial Syntax: the Language of Museum Space. (Bill Hillier and Kali Tzortzi). 18. New Media. (Michelle Henning). Part IV. Visitors, Learning, Interacting: Introduction. 19. Living in a Learning Society: Museums and Free-Choice Learning. (John H. Falk, Lynn D. Dierking and Marianna Adams). 20. Museum Education. (George E. Hein). 21. Interactivity: Thinking Beyond. (Andrea Witcomb). 22. Studying Visitors. (Eilean Hooper-Greenhill). Part V. Globalization, Profession, Practice. Introduction. 23. Globalization: In-Corporating the Museum. (Mark W. Rectanus). 24. Cultural Economics. (Bruno S. Frey and Stephan Meier). 25. The Museum Profession. (Patrick J. Boylan). 26. Museum Ethics. (Tristram Besterman). 27. Museum Practice: Legal Issues. (Patty Gerstenblith). 28. Non-Western Models of Museums and Curation in Cross-Cultural Perspective. (Christina Kreps). Part VI. Culture Wars, Transformations, Futures. Introduction. 29. Incivilities in Civil(-ized) Places: "Culture Wars" in Comparative Perspective. (Steven C. Dubin). 30. Science Museums and the Culture Wars. (Steven Conn). 31. Postmodern Restructurings. (Nick Prior). 32. Exposing the Public. (Mieke Bal). 33. The Future of Museums. (Charles Saumarez Smith). Index

"The collection is not primarily a compendium of the work of ethnographers. The group of scholars Macdonald brought together reflects the current makeup of museum studies as an interdisciplinary endeavor." (Museum Anthropology, April 2009) A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2007 "Required reading for museum professionals and scholars in museum studies, art and cultural history, sociology of art, and anthropology ... The text is rich in information and diverse in perspectives; it both introduces and complicates in an intriguing and necessary way what we 'know' about museums ... Essential." (Choice) "This is a wonderfully comprehensive collection of essays, offering diverse perspectives, covering all aspects of the museum profession, and addressing contemporary and historical discourse ... It really is the best compendium I've read in years." (Museums Australia)