Research project
The Mediterranean Identity Formation: Narratives and Multimodal Exhibition Strategies at Mucem
Summary of the research project
This project proposes to explore how Mediterranean narratives are currently being presented in Mucem and what is the impact of multi-modal museum presentation (exhibition and educational programmes) on visitors’ identity formation. As a societal museum, Mucem with its multidisciplinary vision is a perfect site to study how narratives are communicated within museums (especially narrative related to the definition of the Mediterranean world and its dialogue with Europe) and how such narratives fed by research in anthropology, history, archaeology, art history and contemporary art impact on the visitors’ identity formation process (especially in terms of community belonging).
Biography
Prof. Dr. Emilie Sitzia is an Art and Literature Historian and a museum audience specialist. After studying Art History and Literature in France, Germany and Finland she moved to New Zealand in 2004. In 2012 she left New Zealand and settled down in Maastricht in the Netherlands. She regularly publishes on Art, Literature and Museology in academic journals. To date she has published 2 books, 6 chapters in academic books, 12 peer-reviewed article in academic journals, participated to a number of projects/exhibitions in collaboration with various museums and given many public talks. She has a particular interest in narratives, how they are communicated in texts, images and space and how they impact individual reader, viewer and visitors. Emilie Sitzia is an Associate Professor at the Department of Arts and Literature at Maastricht University and the director of the Master Arts and Heritage. She is also a Professor (special chair) at the University of Amsterdam.
