White Sanctuaries: Racial Mechanisms and White Entitlement in Three Internationally Respected Museums

By: Dr. David G. Embrick

In this talk, Embrick introduces the notion of white sanctuaries–as white spaces that help maintain white normativity and supremacy but also reify whites’ sense of power, belonging, and entitlement in racialized societies. Using three internationally respected museums (Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museo Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) as collaborative ethnographic case studies, the purpose of this talk is to highlight the racial mechanisms by which these spaces (museums) create and maintain their exclusive white spaces within the context of being an institution for the general public. Especially discussed are issues of spatiality, policing, and management of access.

Dr. David G. Embrick is an Associate Professor with a joint position in Africana Studies Institute and the Department of Sociology, and senior affiliate faculty at the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at UConn. He is also the Director of the Sustainable Global Cities Initiative UConn Hartford. He received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2006.  He is a former American Sociological Association Minority Fellow, Past-President of the Southwestern Sociological Association and the Association for Humanist Sociology, and Past-Founding Co-Editor of the highly ranked academic journal Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. Currently, Dr. Embrick serves as the Founding Series Editor of Sociology of Diversity, Bristol University Press; and the Founding Series Co-Editor of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, University of Georgia Press