The second day of the Summer Institute focused on Spain’s post-imperial identity through museum visits and scholarly discussions. The day began with a guided tour of the National Archaeological Museum, tailored specifically for the group with options for tours in either English or Spanish. The visit set the stage for the day’s themes. The guides in each tour balanced showcasing the museum’s significant artifacts with a critical examination of its history, including its formation from various collections and the Spanish monarchy’s role in its establishment. Additionally, the tour addressed ethical considerations surrounding the museum’s practices, particularly the decontextualization of important artifacts and human remains from their original cultures. The guides did not shy away from difficult questions regarding these practices, though their responses sometimes sparked controversy. These controversies were especially productive, since they laid the groundwork for the more in-depth debates that followed throughout the day, inviting participants to share their views on the complexities involved in presenting and interpreting Spain’s colonial past within a modern museum setting.
Back at NYU Madrid on Calle Barquillo, the afternoon session titled “Decolonizing Spain’s Museological Gaze” featured three speakers discussing aspects of decolonizing museum practices. Almudena Ariza Armada (NYU Madrid) began by connecting the morning’s museum visit to broader issues of collecting practices, particularly in numismatics. She highlighted the colonial implications of the 19th-century bourgeoisie’s collection and donation practices and emphasized the role of numismatists in the 1970s in boosting Arab and Islamic studies in Spain. She also addressed the challenges of decolonizing artifacts from Al-Andalus. Rebecca Goetz (NYU) compared decolonization efforts in American and Spanish museums, using the example of the so-called “Guanche mummy of Barranco de Herques” at the Museo Antropológico Nacional to stress the urgency of decolonizing Spanish museums. She referenced the Abbe Museum’s definition of “decolonization” and discussed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990), noting the complexities and contradictions in these efforts. Antumi Toasije (NYU Madrid), a scholar-activist for the restitution of museum objects, critiqued the argument that European museums preserve objects better than their places of origin. He highlighted data showing higher rates of theft and loss in Europe, arguing against the biased perception of Africa as violent. Toasije advocated for the “situated museum,” involving the community in curation and interpretation to serve the interests of the artifacts’ original owners. The session concluded with a lively Q&A, addressing the challenges and possibilities of reparations for historical looting by museums and how to rectify the injustices associated with the acquisition and display of cultural artifacts.
The day concluded with the workshop “Carceral Spain and the Philippines,” presented by Matthew Nicdao (CUNY), who urged participants to extend their focus beyond the Iberian Peninsula when studying Iberian cultural history. The first speaker, Aurélie Vialette (Yale), discussed her book project on penal colonies in the Philippine Islands, highlighting the Philippines as a central topic in political debates regarding the Spanish Empire since the 1870s. Vialette’s work aims to amplify archival voices that resist colonialism, particularly those of prisoners who opposed the colonial project. Her analysis delved into the vocabulary of agricultural technologies, colonial extractivism, and the rhetoric of colonialism. The second speaker, Isaac Donoso (Universidad de Alicante), reflected on the issues of “vertical history,” characterized by its hierarchical and imperialist agenda. He critiqued the lack of dialogue between different academic groups in Philippine Studies, particularly noting the disconnection between Filipino scholars who work exclusively in English, and those who focus on historical texts on Spanish colonialism. Through an interactive lecture showcasing historical written and visual documents, Donoso underscored the importance of creating a history relevant to contemporary Filipino citizens. He highlighted the need to focus on aljamiado manuscripts in the archives, which contain a wealth of understudied material. The workshop concluded with a discussion on the intersection of penal systems and colonialism, encouraging participants to reconsider the broader implications of Spanish imperialism. (Víctor Sierra Matute)