In Communist countries, the museum always played a central ideological and political role in the management of collective memories, heritages, and identities. As an object of research, the museum occupies a strategic position at the intersection of two most important trends nowadays, the two \u201cturns\u201d in the present-day critical humanities. One is the material turn in critical culture theory, cultural history, anthropology, and memory studies. The other is the decolonial turn in cultural studies of the Baltic and East European region and in the practice of political and artistic activism in respective societies. While critical analysis of imperialism in museum studies is thriving in the West, the transregional history of museums that once had been under Soviet jurisdiction or national Communist party control is in its initial phase. After the fall of the USSR, post-national countries felt the urge to embrace their new role as cultural centers and advance their heritage institutions, often in an emergency response to military crises and regional wars. Still, the significance and effects of both processes \u2013 unified communisation of museum culture and their emancipation, remain often overlooked, especially in transregional perspective. The purpose of the network is to organize a professional discussion on museums as places of contemporary identity and nation building through emancipatory and decolonial strategies of historical research and curating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-6071","project","type-project","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n