Are museums inherently colonial institutions? Can colonial institutions be decolonized? This course will examine the history of the ‘universal’ museum--from its transnational imperial origins to contemporary attempts to confront these tangled legacies--through a decolonial lens to ask what the place of the museum in modern society is. We will explore two centuries of the museum’s evolution by considering issues ranging from the ethics of storing indigenous human remains to the repatriation of artifacts looted under imperialism. What can these debates tell us about power relations between communities and states, the role of material culture in society, and the importance of historical memory to the nation? At its heart, the museum is a microcosmic site at which questions of power, identity, and culture in the social world are laid bare. They provide insights into our past as much as they do our future and the interstitial spaces between. By asking if the museum can be decolonized--if the museum can be saved--we are, in fact, asking if humanity itself is redeemable.