“Loot,” from the Hindustani lūṭ, means theft and banditry and also dispossession, destruction, and plunder. The idea of looting offers a novel approach to timely questions. What are the origins of collections in institutions such as the Royal Ontario Museum, the British Library, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art? How have occupation, colonization, and illicit trade shaped the journeys of these items? What do we learn when we study these collections as “loot,” and how might this framework change the way that communities of origin, scholars, curators, and members of the public engage with cultural heritage? The Looting Lab is an interdisciplinary humanities research community based out of the University of Toronto Mississauga that will develop an innovative understanding of looted cultural heritage and its social, economic, and political underpinnings. Our members are researchers working across different regions, materials, and time periods, using a range of methodologies, who are responding to the urgent need to re-evaluate cultural dispossession, loss, and restitution. To request to join the group, email the group lead linked in the list.
Leads
- Isra Saymour, Ph.D. student, Sociology
- Alexandra Gillespie, UTM English & Drama / Vice-President & Principal, UTM
Faculty Members, University of Toronto
- Jennifer Adese, UTM Sociology
- Zaheer Baber, UTM Sociology
- Firat Bozcali, UTM Anthropology
- Robin Gray, UTM Sociology
- Beatrice Jauregui, A&S Criminology & Sociolegal Studies
- Cara Krmpotich, Information
- Heather MacNeil, Information
- Joanna Papayiannis, Information
- Krystin Plys, UTM Sociology
- Elizabeth Wijaya, UTM Visual Studies
Faculty Members Outside University of Toronto
- Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton University
Graduate Students, University of Toronto
- Harmata Aboubakar, Sociology
- Akra Chakraborty, English
- Kara Ma, East Asian Studies
- Azure Phan, Information
- Raquel Robbins, Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
- Rita Sawaya, Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
- Jun Wong, Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
Postdoctoral Researchers, University of Toronto
- Hagos Abrha Abay, UTSC Historical & Cultural Studies