Mediating Memory in the Museum

Mediating Memory in the Museum is a contribution to an emerging field of research that is situated at the interface between memory studies and museum studies. It highlights the role of museums in the proliferation of the so-called memory boom as well as the influence of memory discourses on international trends in museum cultures.

Silke Arnold-de Simine is Senior Lecturer in the Department of European Cultures and Languages, Birkbeck, University of London, UK. Previously she taught at the University of Mannheim and the University of Cambridge. She is the editor of Memory Traces: 1989 and the Question of German Cultural Identity (2005), co-edtior of 'Museums and the Educational Turn: History, Memory, Inclusivity', a special issue of the Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, and co-organiser of the Cultural Memory Series at the Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory, London.

“Silke Arnold-de Simine’s book is a tour de force that introduces readers to a variety of new museums and heritage sites across Europe … When the reader finishes reading this intriguing and moving book, the first thing he or she wants to do is rush out and visit those new museums.” (Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, Vol. 2 (3-4), March, 2016)

“Arnold-de Simine provides a very useful starting point for those wading into the research area situated between memory studies and museum studies. In making clear distinctions between authentic objects, representational displays, video testimony, and memory texts within her analysis of the mediated exhibits, she provides a nuanced understanding of the differences between museums, memorials, remembrance, and the spatial reenactment of trauma. Her synthesis of concepts from the various fields associated with the flourishing of “spaces of memory” will prove especially useful for anyone new to this burgeoning field.” (Amy Freier, Memory Studies, 2015, Vol. 8(3), p.379–382)

"This book is a welcome and extremely useful contribution to the subject of memory studies. I suspect it will reinvigorate the field in some interesting ways and may even form the core of a new, much-needed round of cross-disciplinary research." (Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2014)

“This is essential reading for anyone interested in the role of museums in today's memory culture.” (Astrid Erll, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany)

“Mediating Memory in the Museum provides a comprehensive and engaging study  of the ethics, politics and aesthetics of the new memory museum. Innovatively combining insights from  memory studies, museum studies and media studies Arnold-de Simine goes beyond description to produce a finely-tuned evaluation of  the achievements and limitations of the new museological practices identified in this ground-breaking work.” (Susannah Radstone, University of South Australia, Australia)

“Silke Arnold-de Simine's clearly written study demonstrates the important contribution memory studies can make to understanding contemporary curatorial and design strategies in museums. Through a series of fascinating case studies, she explores the role of ideas of trauma, witnessing, collective memory, media as prosthetic memories, nostalgia and 'dark tourism'? Above all, she provides a much needed critique of museum assumptions about visitor identification and empathy.” (Michelle Henning, University of West London, UK)

“An original and much needed contribution to memory and museum studies that draws our attention to the intersections of trauma, empathy and nostalgia within what Arnold de Simine terms the ‘memory museum’. The book closely works through  a wide range of powerfully  analyzed case studies that connect together in new ways how we think about difficult pasts in the museum environment.” (Anna Reading, Kings College, University of London, UK)<