The Impact of Museum Curation on Community and Identity: Japanese Culture at the Japanese American National Museum and the Huntington Library's Japanese Gardens

Author

Cate HaslerFollow

Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Anthropology

Reader 1

Seo Young Park

Reader 2

Kris Kuramitsu

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2024 Cate Hasler

Abstract

This thesis explores Japanese culture and its representation in two museum sites, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Huntington Library's Japanese Gardens. It examines the history of the sites and the curation of exhibits to determine the impact on Japanese identity and community within the Los Angeles area. Through ethnographic interviews and research, this thesis concludes that museums can be locally embedded cultural processes, where the ideas of identity and community are contested, challenging the authoritative and top-down operations of a museum as a public institution.

Recommended Citation

Hasler, Cate, "The Impact of Museum Curation on Community and Identity: Japanese Culture at the Japanese American National Museum and the Huntington Library's Japanese Gardens" (2024). Scripps Senior Theses. 2397.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2397