Marie C. Malaro Symposium

NEXT Festival presents the Museum Studies Annual Marie C. Malaro Symposium!

Museum Studies Annual Marie C. Malaro Symposium

Marie C. Malaro Excellence in Research & Writing Award

Thursday, April 30

5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

Flagg Building, Hammer Auditorium

We are thrilled to invite you to the Museum Studies program’s annual Marie C. Malaro Symposium. This year’s keynote speaker, John Garrison Marks, will speak on “Reckoning with the Past at the Semiquincentennial.”

As the nation nears its Semiquincentennial, conversations about our history have grown incredibly fraught. National, state, and local efforts to acknowledge this anniversary have raised new questions about what it means to commemorate this moment. How do we invite our audiences to understand the complexity of our shared history? How do museums navigate conflicting perspectives on the American past—and present? This address situates today’s contentious debates about history in a longer historical context, revealing how our arguments about what lessons to take from the past are not new, but instead have been a recurring feature of American public life for 250 years. It will also discuss the challenges museum practitioners face, the shifting expectations of the American public, and the ways institutions across the country are meeting this moment. It invites us to consider how our field—and our nation—can still make the most of this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Keynote Speaker

John Garrison Marks is a historian and writer exploring the United States' histories of race, slavery, and public memory. His latest book, Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory (2026), explores how generations of Americans have thought, and fought, about slavery's place in George Washington's legacy over the past 250 years. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, TIME, Smithsonian Magazine, and elsewhere. Marks serves as a senior staff member for the American Association for State and Local History, where he leads research and strategic initiatives, including nine years of thinking, writing, and speaking about the U.S. Semiquincentennial.

Student Presenters

• Lilly Smith, At Face Value: Facial Recognition Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Visitor Data Privacy in the International Spy Museum’s Disguise Interactive
• Cat Perloff, Instrument, Not Object: Toward a Framework for Reanimating Ritual Textiles in Museum Practice
• Hope Manning, Museums and Public Value Creation: A Bottom-Up Approach to Strategic Planning

About Marie C. Malaro Symposium

The Marie C. Malaro Symposium honors Professor Emerita Marie Malaro, former director of the Museum Studies Program and co-author of A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections, the leading text on museum law and ethics. A champion of professional standards and critical inquiry, the symposium continues her legacy by exploring new ideas and perspectives in museum studies through student and professional dialogue.

Each year, the best research papers submitted by our graduate students are selected to receive the annual Marie C. Malaro Excellence in Research and Writing Award. These students present an overview of their papers at the annual symposium, followed by a keynote speech by an influential museum professional.

The symposium will conclude with a reception, and visitors will be able to view the recently installed exhibition that was planned and curated by Museum Studies students, American Made, alongside additional NEXT Festival student projects and installations.

Recent Marie C. Malaro Symposium Keynote Speakers

2025: Melanie O'Brien, Program Manager and Designated Federal Officer of the National NAGPRA Program at the U.S. National Park Service

2024: Nancy Bercaw, curator of Political History at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

2023: Nehemiah Dixon III, Senior Director for Programs and Community Engagement, Phillips Collection & Vesela Sretenovic, Director of Contemporary Art Initiatives and Academic Affairs, Phillips Collection

2022: Kaywin Feldman, Director, National Gallery of Art

2021: Dr. Anthea Hartig, Director of The National Museum of American History