Symbolic power for student curators as social agents: the emergence of the museum of World Languages at Shanghai International Studies University during the COVID-19 era

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has hindered the effectiveness of museum management and curatorship, a growing concern for the movement of international heritage conservation. Accordingly, this participatory action research explores the emergence of the Museum of World Languages at Shanghai International Studies University during the COVID-19 pandemic. By drawing insights from Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of symbolic power and social agency in the new museology, this paper explores the educative, social, and political roles of the new language museum and the experiences of student curators with the new language museum. This paper promotes scholarly conversations about the curatorial narration of the language halls, the new coordinator’s responsibility, curatorial philosophy, experiential learning, social responsibility, political savvy, and intercultural communication and digital literacy competencies among the student curators. This study enhances the theoretical rigor and provides practical action agendas for diverse stakeholders in higher education administration and museum management beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.