Lectures on Tap - "Who Owns History? The Ethics of Artifacts in Museums "

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

🧠 Lecture: "Who Owns History? The Ethics of Artifacts in Museums"

🎤 Speaker: Dr. Caroline Malloy

As museums in the twenty-first century reckon with their colonial pasts, what does that mean for the future of how we collect, display, and experience art and artifacts? In this provocative talk, historian and art historian Dr. Caroline Malloy explores the ethical questions surrounding repatriation: Who owns history? What makes an object “universal”? And how should museums balance cultural safety, politics, and public access?

Using famous cases like the Parthenon Marbles and the Benin Bronzes, Dr. Malloy will unpack global collecting controversies and invite you to consider how your favorite museum might change if certain objects were returned to their places of origin. She’ll also highlight what Chicago institutions are doing to work with international and national partners on these complex issues—and how technology might help “share the wealth.”

Dr. Malloy is a Chicago-based historian, book coach, and editor with a Ph.D. in Art History. She lectures internationally on world’s fairs, heritage, and national identity, and serves as a Resident Historian with Viking Ocean cruises.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Wicker Park, Wicker Park, Chicago, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

Get App