Susan A Crane

University of Arizona, History, Faculty Member

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Recent books: Nothing Happened. A History (Stanford University Press, 2021) and contributing editor of The Cultural History of Memory in the Nineteenth Century (Bloomsbury Publishers, 2020).
Susan A. Crane is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on thematic issues of collective memory, historical consciousness and historical photography, particularly in modern German history.
Address: Tucson, Arizona, United States

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Constantine Sandis

University of Hertfordshire

Steven Pinker

Harvard University

Alejandra B Osorio

Wellesley College

Michelle Henning

University of Liverpool

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Marek Tamm

Tallinn University

Florin Curta

University of Florida

Emilio Sauri

University of Massachusetts, Boston

Andrea Brazzoduro

Università Degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"

Timothy Morton

Rice University

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Papers by Susan A Crane

Metahistory Received

Storia Della Storiographia, 1994

on the nature of idiosyncrasy as it relates to history writing

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Historical Subjectivity: A Review Essay

Journal of Modern History, 2006

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Judging Distances: Gadamer, Dilthey, Benjamin

Strategies: A Journal of Theory, Culture and Politics, double issue: "Critical Histories" , 1991

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The Conundrum of Ephemerality: Time, Memory, and Museums

A Companion to Museum Studies, Edited by Sharon MacDonald, 2006

The history of museums is the history of a conundrum: how is what is always the same also always ... more The history of museums is the history of a conundrum: how is what is always the same also always different? A modern museum's mandate is to collect, preserve, and present objects for the public to appreciate. But preservation and conservation never completely "fix" the contents of the collections and or their presentation for all time. Constantly changing needs and interests-economic and political, as well as scholarly-shape the museum and its contents. For all the solidity of a museum's magnificent façades or secured basements, it is a malleable and ever-changing institution. But in the most ordinary or common-sense way, members of the public generally feel that they know what a museum is, and that it is in fact solid (not to say stolid) and permanent. For many, museums perform the externalized function of their own brains: it remembers, for them, what is most valuable and essential in culture and science. And yet generations of curators and visitors have inhabited the institution, actively shaping (and necessarily changing) those memories over time. In addition, scholars of museums regard the institutions, collections, curators, and visitors with the eyes of distanced but interested observers. With all these simultaneous layers of temporal experience shaping the museum, we need some tools to help us understand how experience over time creates an institution at once essentially familiar and yet capable of challenging and changing both memory and expectations. This chapter will provide an overview of how interested observers of museums have responded to its conundrum of "fixed ephemerality" in two key conceptual formations: the narrative role of "timelessness" and "progress," and the nature of collective memory as it shapes historical consciousness. Any discussion of time and memory in a museum must acknowledge that no single account can "cover" intensively or extensively the infinite variety of even apparently similar experiences. What wealth of subjective impressions, past and present experiences formed through memories, does any individual bring to the organized efforts of scholars or curators who present an exhibition-at any point in time? How does the memory of previous museum experiences, and the knowledge of what the museum as institution represents, affect understandings of the museum and its purpose? And how, above all, CHAPTER SEVEN

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The pictures in the background: history, memory and photography in the museum

Memory and History, 2013

Theme Issue 36: Producing the Past: Making Histories Inside and Outside the Academy

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears... more Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Blackwell Publishing and Wesleyan University are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to History and Theory.

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“Take Nothing But Photos, Leave Nothing But Footprints”: How-to Guides for Ruin Photography

The UrbEx phenomenon has produced numerous websites and publications, both as guides for locating... more The UrbEx phenomenon has produced numerous websites and publications, both as guides for locating particularly enticing ruin sites, and as guides for how to have the kind of experience that explorers seek: namely, to be the first to encounter something not yet valued by others, and to produce a visual record of its ephemerality, while those who come after can only replicate the experience. Exploring the exploration guidebooks themselves offers a unique insight into “how to” have the desired sublime experience long associated with visiting ruins, particularly with reference to urban ruins photography. This chapter will explore the impulse towards routinising desired types of ruin photography and UrbEx adventures through an examination of “how to” UrbEx photography books and websites.