Loot: Who owns the past?

Catalog description

What does looting reveal about the nature of human creativity, ideals, and values? Who owns the past? Or, better, who decides who owns the past? Finally, how does ownership of the past shape the present–and the future? This course is a study of cultural heritage theft from antiquity until today with attention to the materiality, temporality, geography, ethics, aesthetics, economics, and politics of plunder and its display. This is a Transformative Ideas Course.