Queering Museums: Questions of Space, Affect, and the (Non)Normative

This thesis proposes and utilizes the theoretical framework of ‘neoliberal museology’ to analyze the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR). Neoliberal museology enacts, what is termed as, ‘neoliberal affective rhetorics’ that seek to manage identitarian selves within a cohesive whole, which is demonstrated within the formation of museology over time, persisting within the contemporary embrace of inclusivity and diversity. Turning to queer-affect theory, the neoliberal affective rhetorics embodied in the Sara Ahmed’s ‘promise of happiness’ and Lauren Berlant’s ‘cruel optimism’ are illustrated within the CMHR’s constructed affective pathway in the institution both as a whole and in individual narratives, focusing specifically on the LGBTQ* identitarian representation. Ultimately, this project calls attention to the normalizing affective rhetorics of a brand new cultural institution, teasing apart one instance of contemporary museology in order to create grounds on which to consider differently than the dominant, than the normative.M.M.St