University museums: border-crossing territories? The institutional boundary between university and university museum as complex territories

The present research examines the conflicted position of university museums as part of an overarching institutional structure - the university -, but yet are also characterized, as a result of a wide range of uniquely museological traits, as peculiar institutions in their own right. The objective is to understand what university and university museums enunciate about their institutional rationality. The notion of territory and territorial action offer the possibility to develop a flexible but tight research frame for analyzing the relationship between both institutions. The research explores a case study: the relationship between the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM, National Autonomous University of Mexico} and the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporánea (MUAC, Contemporary Art University Museum). The thesis is divided in 7 chapters and 2 appendices. Chapter one is the introduction, chapter two presents a panorama of research field about university museums, chapter three looks towards Mexican context, and how university has been a key agent to the develepment of museological context in Mexico, chapter four delivers the theoretical framework that has being used, chapter five addresses MUAC origins, chapter six delivers the core analysis of the study case, chapter seven presents key findings and conclusions; appendix 1 offers an example of discourse analysis, and appendix 2 delivers the transcriptions of the interviews held with MUAC's staff.