Book Title: Heritages of Change: Curatorial Activism and First-Year Writing

Book Description

Maura Reilly defines curatorial activism as “the practice of organizing art exhibitions with the principle aim of ensuring that certain constituencies of artists are no longer ghettoized or excluded from the master narratives of art.” We can expand that definition to include not only “art” but also “cultural heritage” more broadly. When first-year writing students engage in curatorial activism, they directly address marginalization and related issues, giving them an opportunity to explore not only the heritage of these issues but their own stances, experiences, and beliefs while also delving into curation and exhibit-making. More importantly, this approach emphasizes how writing can address those issues and seek to rectify exclusions from cultural heritage spaces. Students can begin to understand the impact that their writing can have on others and what they can convey when they write both effectively and passionately.

This textbook, Heritages of Change: Curatorial Activism and First-Year Writing, includes principles of writing and information literacy through the lenses of curatorial activism, cultural heritage, and curation/exhibition. Heritage topics that students are introduced to include (but are not limited to): anti-racism, #MeToo, indigenous peoples, women/gender/LGBTQIA+, climate change, etc. They gain a broader understanding of cultural heritage and heritages of change, particularly disability heritage, in general in order to apply the concepts through their writing. This textbook presents these topics, but more specifically how to communicate about and research them.