A RESEARCH RABBIT HOLE: STUDENT EMPLOYMENT AS CULTURAL POLICY

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: ROBIN NELSON

In light of Katie’s post on research addiction that discussed her ‘research rabbit holes,’ I am going to talk about one of mine, which has turned into a chapter in my thesis. Prior to beginning my thesis, I had defined cultural policy as whatever a government says it is, varying across jurisdictions (Grey 2010). However, during my interviews I kept hearing about the benefits and challenges associated with the Student Employment and Experience Development (SEED) program. Through SEED the provincial government provides non profits with student employees for eight to ten weeks. While SEED does not fit within my original definition of cultural policy, the program provides museums with student employees during the summer and, therefore, has a major influence on public programming. As such, I began looking at other policy definitions and employment programs as cultural policy – entering a research rabbit hole.

There is just so much I could learn!

An alternate definition of cultural policy, which I am now using, is any state action that effects “the cultural life of its citizens” (Mulcahy 2006, 267), including the SEED program. Within this definition, I have distinguished between implicit and explicit policies. An explicit cultural policy “deals directly with culture” (Throsby 2009, 179). An implicit cultural policy “influences culture only indirectly, the overt intention of the policy being directed elsewhere” (Ibid, 179). For instance, SEED’s objective - that is, to “provide students with employment related to their skills and education…. while enabling them to finance the continuation of their education” (PETL 2013, 3) - is not explicitly cultural. However, SEED has a direct impact on culture when museum employment is effected.

Student employees allow museums to accomplish more than they can with only volunteers and/or limited permanent staff.

SEED influences museum public programming because museums need people to plan and implement their public programs. In museums with few or no permanent staff, one paid employee for two months completely changes what they are able to offer and how they can operate. For instance, many New Brunswick community museums only open regularly for the eight to ten weeks that they have students to work as guides

On the surface, SEED sounds like a great government program for museums and students – museums get employees that they would not otherwise be able to afford and students gain skills and money. However, there are several longstanding issues with its implementation:

1. Politicians distribute SEED to the nonprofits and, as such, the selection criteria is  unclear.
2. SEED positions are usually eight weeks (There is also a longer Priority Employment program through SEED, but those positions are only ten weeks.)
3. The SEED jobs have gotten shorter over time.
4. There are delays in notifying museums as to whether they will receive SEED/PEP, meaning some summers museums have been preparing to open for the summer before they know how many, if any, students they will receive.
5. There is a lack of consistency as there are no multi-year contracts.

These issues raise questions regarding the best use of government funding. For instance, the quantity and quality of the student applicants may be effected because the contracts are shorter than a university summer, museums do not know what positions they have until May or June, and museums cannot guarantee a good employee can have the same position the following year.

SEED is not the only student employment program influencing museums in Canada. Most notable, the federal government provides funding through Young Canada Works. I am interesting in hearing about people’s experience with this form of employment. Do you have any experiences with student employment programs? What other challenges do you think this employment structure presents for museums? What are some benefits for the students and employer?

ONE GIANT LEAP: MANAGING CULTURAL HERITAGE IN OUTER SPACE

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: LINDSAY SMALL

The cultural landscape of space is such that it is ever evolving. Far from being the barren frontier which is often depicted in popular TV shows and movies, the immediate space around the Earth is filled with the remnants of a collective heritage of working satellites and now inoperable machinery. The moon and Mars also bare the marks of Earth's voyages beyond the planet. The question now becomes: what do we do with it?

Debris in lower orbit

Space museums. Yes you heard me correctly. Museums in outer space. Believe it or not, this is a research question which has consumed me for the better part of two years. While this may seem like an issue that is very far off in the future, studying what happens to artifacts in outer space can highlight issues currently faced by Earth bound museums. In a time where space tourism is not only an interest but soon to become a reality, it is natural to turn attention to the stuff which humans have left in orbit around the planet and on the surface of the moon. What exactly is to be done with all this stuff?

One of the most famous sites in space flight history is Tranquility Base. This is the site of the first lunar landing. The Apollo 11 astronauts left many artifacts on the moon (And decided to take some with them and keep them in their super secret stash). So who owns this site? Who is responsible for its maintenance once space tourism becomes popular? Could any governing body make a claim to this site without it looking like colonization? 

Too late lol

Declaring Tranquility Base as a heritage site cannot be done under the current UNESCO structure without explicitly tying the moon to the United States. How then to proceed? The common axiom of space flight is that it is taken up as an endeavour "for all mankind". (Yes, I am using that term consciously as you can currently purchase Mars One swag emblazoned with this super inclusive phrasing.) The rhetoric of space flight can be an intoxicating milieu of nationalism, colonialism and espousing a biological imperative to explore. In fact, explorers like Columbus and Magellan are often invoked in an almost God like manner. Yet, using the Tranquility Base example, the Apollo program was as much about science as it was about winning an ideological war between capitalism and communism. It is important to look critically at these endeavours as they closely resemble Earth based museological problems.

This all sounds terribly negative and I don't mean it to be. We are at the dawn of a new space age, one that could yield unprecedented information about the universe and our place in it. Moreover, there will be unparalleled access to space. As a space tourist wouldn't you want to see some of the shared heritage which is currently floating in lower Earth orbit and on the face of the moon? However, it is important to remember where we've come from. Our shiny new space museums should not resemble the colonial endeavours which birthed the modern museum. Perhaps then, we can start to talk about a collective space history which is for all of humanity.

Editor's Note: Lindsay Small is a first year MMst student with a masters degree in Science and Technology Studies from York University. Lindsay has never been to space, but did make a fool of herself in front of Buzz Aldrin which is probably as close as she's going to get. If you are a Museum Studies student engaged in research for a work, volunteer, or school project that you would like to share, please contact Robin Nelson.

Small will be presenting on this research in a presentation titled "Don't Panic: The Curator's Guide to the Galaxy" at the student conference. To see her presentation and more please remember to register for this year's conference on March 6th and 7th. The conference includes keynote addresses from Davida Aronovitch with Historica Canada and Andrea Field with the Bata Shoe Museum as well as great some student presentations (Like Small's), a reception on Friday evening, and a workshop with John Dalrymple (the details for the workshop should be on the website here. Email me to register as space is limited).

MUSEUMS AND MODERN MOURNING

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: KASEY BALL

Vera Brittain as a Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurse (1915)

With the centennial anniversary of the outbreak of WWI just behind us, I often find myself reflecting on the way Testament of Youth - a WWI auto-ethnography by acclaimed novelist, pacifist and feminist,Vera Brittain - transformed my nostalgic enthrallment with the War into a consciousness of the political and ethical implications of cultural heritage sites - implications that are, as I have since discovered, a condition of their very existence. Having been long fascinated by the uniquely alluring literariness of the Great War, during my previous MA I brought to Brittain’s memoir an emotionally charged admiration for Rupert Brooke’s collection of WWI sonnets - a poetic project that ennobled the British cause through its linguistic beautifying of both death and the soldiers’ exploits.While in no way ignorant to the horrific actualities of the War, I undoubtedly experienced the intended affect of the sentimentalized visual field that Brooke created in his sonnets, deeming their narratives of honour and patriotism sufficient justifications for, and triumphant immortalizations of,WWI’s fallen. So when I first encountered Testament of Youth’s incredulity towards Brooke’s poems, I was both unnerved and intrigued.

Rupert Brooke (1913)

For Brittain, the poems - consoling and poignant as they may be - were dishonest elucidations of history, sheathing the horrors of war in euphemisms that were as beautiful and impenetrable as language could allow (Fussell, 220). They exalted violence, destruction, death, and the arguably insubstantial cause for which a generation suffered, assimilating the unique and tragic circumstances of each and every wartime experience into an overarching romantic narrative about heroism and sacrifice. To rely on these aggrandizing narratives for a consolatory understanding of the War was to psychologically turn away from the dead. And for Brittain - who lost her fiance (Roland Leighton), brother (Edward Brittain), and two friends (Victor Richardson and Geoffrey Thurlow)- forgetting the dead was not only undesirable on the part of the mourner, but actually precarious for society moving forward. In collective cultural consciousness, violence would be valourized, suffering would be justified, if not forgotten, and the questionability of the cause would remain unexamined, leaving European society susceptible to repeatedly engaging in similar atrocities, the ultimate implication being that their future was entirely dependent upon how effectively they remembered their dead. Brittain, I think, believed that for individuals and societies to heal from the trauma of WWI, they had to continually move forward with their ghosts, and in my understanding this prescribed mode of healing involves a revolutionizing of the traditional “work of mourning.”

Brittain's fiance Roland Leighton

The contemporary body of thought on mourning is remarkably extensive, but what matters most is its general challenging of Freud’s seminal 1917 essay,“Mourning and Melancholia,” in which Freud claimed that for mourning to be successful, the griever had to emotionally detach from the lost person and reattach to a substitute. Unsuccessful mourning, marked by a resistance to substitution and a subsequent disinterest in the world, he pathologized as melancholia. Up until quite recently,Western conceptions of grief were still very much informed by this theory of consolation via substitution. Grief was considered to be a finite pain, one that was worked through and eventually alleviated through a cognitive erasure of the dead. But if Brittain’s memoir is any indication, for those who have experienced loss an end to grieving equates a relinquishing of love - which is as impossible as it is unwanted. And while this unbreakable bond with the deceased was once regarded as detrimental to the mourner, newer theories (like R. Clifton Spargo’s) suggest that it is conceivable to harbour that love and resume life. In fact, retaining that connection is arguably the only way for a mourner to truly reconcile with their loss.

Brittain's brother Edward Brittain

With Brittain’s memoir seemingly informing my research in Museum Studies, I am interested in the way cultural institutions are enabling mourners to maintain this trans-corporeal connection. The 9/11 Memorial Museum’s Beam Signing in Foundation Hall proved to be an interesting case study. Each table allows visitors to use their finger to handwrite a message of remembrance onto a digital touchscreen. Immediately upon submission, the messages are projected onto a 24 foot screen, overlaid with a world map to illustrate the boundlessness of 9/11’s impact.

Interactive Beam Signing in Foundation Hall

Jordan Fearon, in an interesting dissertation about mourning and social media, suggests that mourners keep faith with their dead through “post death rituals” (20).“The ritual,” she suggests,“must be identified in some manner as separate from the norm, establishing the sanctity of the event. Second, a core symbolic act must be completed.The third component is time to absorb the meaning of the act and the relationship with the deceased. [And] finally, it concludes with a return to normalcy” (20). In essence, the interactive tables in Foundation Hall can be said to encourage this very ritual.The tables exist in a designated space, constituting their use as an “event [that] is separate from the ordinary” (Fearon, 20). The inscription of a digital message to a loved one is the core ritual - an expression of grief - and having completed it, the individual is able to reflect on what they have done before returning to life outside of the Museum.With the incorporation of these tables, the Museum seems to have acknowledged the conceptual shift regarding a mourner’s need to maintain a trans-corporeal connection. It has provided the means for a mourner to cathartically work towards a reconciliation with what they have lost - to carry on with their ghosts in tow.

Have you encountered installations such as the Beam Signing? And if so, how effective was it? Can museums carry out the cultural work that is often prescribed to memorials? How effective are they at commemoration? In what ways are they limited?

Editor's Note: Kasey Ball is a first year MMst student with an MA in Literature at McGill University and BAH in Literature at Queen's University. This research was for a paper titled "Attenuating Distortion: New Media & The Redemption Of The 9/11 Memorial Museum" that looked at the various ways the 9/11 Museum was attempting to minimize the experience of distortion for mourners. If you are a Museum Studies student engaged in research for a work, volunteer, or school project that you would like to share, please contact Robin Nelson.

This year's iSchool Student Conference, Share Connect Discover, is March 6th and 7th, and we are looking for volunteers for both days. To sign up to volunteer, please fill out this form: http://goo.gl/oqcP0n. Please sign up before February 20th. Registration for the conference itself is separate from the volunteer sign-up, and it is available here: http://goo.gl/DH1ojI. If you have questions about volunteering, please send them to Catherine, the volunteer coordinator.

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM GLAM-WIKI INITIATIVE

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: MOLLY McGOWAN

In the summer of 2013, I started interning at the Royal Ontario Museum. During this time, I began to work on a project, which strives to connect curatorial information that exists in the ROM to the outside world through the use of Wikipedia. This project, which depends on our e-volunteers, is called the Royal Ontario Museum GLAM-Wiki Initiative or simply by Wikipedia: GLAM/ROM. Currently, the project is supervised by the ROM’s Social Media Coordinator, Ryan Dodge and is overseen by me.

Screenshot of the GLAM-Wiki Logo.

Right now you are probably wondering what “GLAM” means. It’s an acronym for “galleries, libraries, archives, and museums” (also including botanic and zoological gardens) with Wikipedia projects. The GLAM Wiki initiatives are formed to help cultural institutions share their resources with the world through collaborative endeavors to produce open-access, freely reusable content for the public. More in depth information can be found here. The GLAM projects were largely made popular when the British Museum hosted their first ever Wikipedian in Residence (a Wikipedia editor who accepts a placement within an institution), Liam Wyatt, in June 2010. Wyatt started their amazing Wiki-GLAM page.

When Ryan first assigned me to be the project’s coordinator, I had never written or edited anything on Wikipedia. However, after I completed a few tutorials on Wikipedia, read articles on how to properly contribute to the site, and took a free six week class through Peer 2 Peer University, called Writing Wikipedia Articles: the Basics and Beyond, I was set to start contributing to Wikipedia. Although, this can be an intimating experience at first, most of my fellow Wikipedians understand that new users make mistakes and most are more than willing to provide helpful tips on how to improve your skills.

Screenshot of the ROM's GLAM-Wiki Page.

Towards end of the summer, I had completely revamped our GLAM-Wiki page to make it more user-friendly and was planning our first ever ROM E-Volunteer Edit-a-thon with Ryan. Since the ROM’s GLAM project depends solely on virtual volunteers to create and improve ROM related articles, Ryan and I wanted to host an event, which allowed our e-volunteers to meet and, most importantly, taught newer individuals to write proper Wikipedia articles.

ROM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. Photo Credit Ryan Dodge.

Our edit-a-thon that focused on the ROM’s Chinese Galleries, was a great success! It had an introduction to Wikipedia, which was given by me, a tour of Chinese Galleries, a research preparation session, a short lunch, and an article writing/editing period. We even had an experienced Wikipedian join us for the later part of the afternoon to assist with writing. While some volunteers gained valuable practice adding/editing content on Wikipedia, a few of our volunteers produced great articles such as this on Wei Bin’s Temple Bell .

The Toronto Star even wrote an article about our event, which can be found here.

If this endeavor sounds interesting to you, I highly encourage you to become an e-volunteer! More information can be found on the ROM’s website or on our GLAM page. My Wikipedia username is MJMcGowan. Feel free to leave any volunteering questions on my user talk page or ask me in person if you see me around campus.

Editor's Note: Molly McGowan is a third year CRO student, completing an MMSt and MI in Archives. She graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia with a Bachelors of Fine Art in Art History and a Minor in Museum Studies. If you are a Museum Studies student engaged in research for a work, volunteer, or school project that you would like to share, please contact Robin Nelson.

MUSEUMS AND THEFT: LET'S TALK ABOUT IT

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: MD SALZBERG and ANNISSA MALVOISIN

Editor's Note: MD Salzberg and Annissa Malvoisin are both first year MMst students who took Cara Krmpotich's MSL2370H Museums and Cultural Heritage I: Context and Critical Issues in the Fall 2014 semester. For their final papers, Salzberg wrote about theft in museums and Malvoisin wrote about theft in an archaeological context. This post aims to provoke conversation about theft and museums by providing two different contexts and research perspective. If you are a Museum Studies student engaged in research for a work, volunteer, or school project that you would like to share, please contact Robin Nelson.

NOT A SAFE PLACE: INTERNAL THEFT IN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

BY: MD SALZBERG

We can all safely agree that stealing from Museums, libraries and archives, is wrong. We as cultural institutions do all that our budgets allow to prevent outsiders from "stealing our stuff," but we don't hold ourselves as museum professionals to the same standard. At its most basic, internal theft is an abuse of one's authority, wherein a member of the institution's family - be it staff, board, or volunteer - takes advantage of their position to steal. For this reason, internal theft is far more common than external theft. The notorious theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) in 1990 is not what cultural heritage theft looks like.

Libraries and archives are leading the charge to curb internal theft by having an open conversation about the problem. Museums on the other hand, are not as open about internal theft, to this author's knowledge there has only been one professional conversation about the problem.

In fact museums don't readily acknowledge any kind of theft, regardless of who is doing the stealing. It seems as though museums are too scared of losing the public's trust to acknowledge when they have been the victims of a crime. While museums should have a healthy respect for the public's trust, this fear is extreme.

If someone breaks into your home, you are upset that you have been the victim of theft and report it to the authorities. So why is it museums do not see themselves as victims when a theft has occurred and report it to the authorities?

The ISGM has not shied away from the theft and openly displays the empty frames of some of the stolen paintings.

The robbery at the ISGM is one of largest thefts in American history and the public was outraged. They were outraged at the thieves who committed the crime, not the security guards who let the thieves in the building. In the 25 years since the break in ISGM has thrived financially and its collection has grown. Clearly they were not 'punished' for failing the public.

The public's outrage is not reserved for external thieves but internal ones as well. Such as when Denning Mctague, former intern, was arrested for stealing documents from the United States National Archives and Records Administration, everyone from the assistant attorney general who prosecuted the case to the judge who did the sentencing considered it to be a crime against America.

It should be noted that in the US, stealing from a museum is a federal offense. Clearly, the public takes internal and external theft seriously, so why don't we?

We secure the front of house but what do we do, back of house? In the course of my research I have found that victims of internal theft have a few things in common.

• Not tracking object locations
• If you don’t regularly update the records when an object has been moved, it is difficult to prove that a theft has occurred.
• Not changing the locks and alarm codes after staff turnover
• Anyone can make a copy of a key or fail to forget an alarm code.
• Not acting when theft is suspected
• Usually, this is out of fear of causing offence.
• Not realizing that if some one steals from you once and gets away with it they will continue until they are caught

This is not to suggest that museums should not trust anyone but we should use a little more caution.

HINDERING ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE: AN EXAMPLE OF LOOTING IN THE EGYPTIAN CONTEXT

BY: ANNISSA MALVOISIN

Entrance to the Royal Tomb at Amarna. Tomb robberies were one of the most common cases of theft at the site. The Armana Project, 1978.

During my undergraduate studies, my interest in the study of archaeological artifacts as vehicles of further understanding past civilizations was heightened through the Egyptian archaeological site of Amarna. Through the study of artifacts from the Amarna period, I became very interested in the complexity of the society that inhabited it. Because it was never resettled after its abandonment in the late 18th dynasty, there still exists a large amount of artifacts scattered underneath the very well preserved site. I believe that archaeological objects, especially ceramics, help convey the cultural histories and artistic trends throughout a certain society’s life. Not only do they do this, but in the Egyptian context, they also display the greatness that is ancient Egyptian artistic innovation (which also encompasses their religion!). Unfortunately, although Amarna is not one of the most prominent victims of looting in Egypt, it is an example of repeated theft of archaeological evidence since the late 1200 B.C.

Though not directly located at the site, Amarna artifacts are still victims of theft. Selected artifacts excavated at Amarna were placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and during the country’s 2011 revolution, the Museum was also looted. Many of the Amarna objects have not been recovered. Museum partnerships with other museums and source communities with the aim of preserving Egyptian sites that are consistently subject to archaeological theft is one way that has incrementally been put into use in order to decrease looting. The Petrie Museum has been an actor in aiding with the preservation of archaeological evidence through partnerships with Egyptian universities and their collections. Professor Barry Kemp’s involvement has also been vital in the preservation of Egyptian cultural and funerary objects, especially at the site of Amarna. I believe that the study of these artifacts through these partnerships are important in understanding the culture that created them, which is lost when they are stolen.

The next project for Amarna is the construction underway for the Amarna Site Museum and Visitor Centre which will be located on the site. However, will this museum provoke more theft as already excavated artifacts will be grouped together in one place? Or will it decrease theft because of increased security around the future museum and archaeological site?

I am obsessed with Amarna, and if I have persuaded you in becoming obsessed too since reading this post, take a look at Professor Barry Kemp’s Amarna Project website to learn more on past and current excavation and archaeological artifact preservation at the site. To learn more about Egyptian archaeological objects that have been stolen, check out ICOM’s redlist.

MUSEOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: ‘THE NEOLIBERAL MUSEUM’

THESIS COLUMN: SPECIAL ISSUE

BY: NICOLE RITCHIE

(Images are texts that have highly influenced this paper)

For the colloquium, I will present a select portion of my reading course paper in which I outline and critique the neoliberal rhetoric and subsequent affects that I argue to be permeating arts and cultural space. It provides the theoretical premise for ‘the museum’ within my argument, constructing its historical foundations and contemporary ideological context, which I argue influences its subsequent implication of rhetorics and affiliated affects. Through this, I will argue that arts and cultural space - that is, museums and galleries, more broadly, representative of a large ‘whole’, such as nations - are very much influenced by the rhetoric and values maintained by our neoliberal, postmodern, cultural-capitalist states of the ‘West’, broadly defined here as including the USA, Canada, and Britain.

I first provide a description of neoliberalism and postmodernism, highlighting core concepts that are relevant to my argument. Following this, I describe the emergence of ‘the disciplinary museum’ in order to tie such rhetorics into the foundation of the museum, ultimately stemming into discussion about the persistent power and discipline of museum spaces. The final section elucidates what I see as two simultaneous layers - ‘the whole’ and ‘the selves’ - of ‘the neoliberal museum’ in our contemporary moment, a museum that strategically puts to play disciplinary power in dialogue with neoliberal, postmodern rhetorics. In particular, these sections analyze the persistent practice of ‘nationing’ whilst also harnessing identitarian politics into the neoliberal fold of inclusivity and diversity, such as within the representation of queers and human rights museums.

The language of rhetorics and subsequent affects is persistently utilized because I will argue, at a later point in my project, that such narratives and affects can be placed in dialogue with queer theory. Thus, this paper is the first step in working towards my argument that such neoliberal rhetorics that incorporate ‘queers’ into neoliberal, postmodern rhetorics have been playing into neoliberal affects, such as the promise of happiness (Ahmed), cruel optimism (Berlant), and the valorization of normal (Warner). And, even further, I will be analyzing the use of these rhetorics and subsequent affects within the context of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights (CMHR), looking more closely at the representation of queers within a human rights rhetoric in the context of a Canadian national, cultural institution. At this time, though, I strategically construct and argue for the foundation and context in which I see my core object of study - the museum of our contemporary time, ‘the neoliberal museum’ - embedded historically on a disciplinary structure and folded into neoliberal, postmodern rhetorics within a cultural-capitalist state, working towards, here, the creation of space for interrogation and potentiality.

While only a select portion of this paper will be presented at our Museology & Cultural Theory Colloquium on January 7th at noon (location TBA), broader questions and conversations can be had in relation to my presentation and research in general!

Works Cited

Ahmed, Sara. The Promise of Happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. Print.

Berlant, Lauren. Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011. Print

Warner, Michael. The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. Cambridge: 

Harvard University Press, 1999. Print.

And now for some questions from Robin and Katie:

Robin: You use the term ‘nationing’ - what specifically do you mean by it?

I focus on the neoliberal rhetorics and incentive for ‘nationing’ - that is, the disciplinary perpetuation of a ‘whole’ in which the identitarian ‘selves’ of neoliberalism are immersed. For my purposes, I call this ‘nationing’ - that is, the creation of cohesion, oneness, homogeneity, a community, an identity across a nation. Nationing practices are positioned here as a furthering of this disciplinary power, forming a cohesive and shared value system across time and space, constructing cultural subjects. It is this construction, and its presumption of citizen participation and unity in shared histories and subsequent moral rhetorics for everyday life, that presents a normalizing function of who is recognized as a citizen and what the correct pathway for citizenry is. By participating in national cultures, one is rendered a citizen and subsuming those identities, values, and thus belonging, which is an important mode of discipline and regulation that ultimately educates the public according to normative narratives and systems of culture. As will become key in my larger argument, it is those who do not fit within this normative narrative and/or the negotiation of this barrier of the normal that present the intrinsic problem with these normative narratives for queers. Thus, nationing is a critical aspect of the disciplinary nature of cultural narratives (and the affiliated affects) and the formation of selves within a whole, creating and disciplining that whole according to what one strives to reach or maintain. I discuss this practice of nationing in relation to three core concepts - temporality, affect, and spatiality.

Katie: Do you think the development of the disciplinary museum and the interest in creating a cohesive identity through collections and displays has made it difficult for other histories or identities to permeate these narratives?

This question, Katie, relates a lot to my answer to Robin’s question above. I do believe that the contemporary museum is inescapably tied to its disciplinary, foundational structure and purpose, and its practices and disciplinary technologies emerge in our contemporary moment through neoliberal, postmodern rhetorics and affects. It is in the ‘nationing’ space, I argue, that the museum puts to play the neoliberal notions of individual freedom and responsibility, and identity politics and alternatives, as well as the endless pathway for the incomplete, postmodern self. In short, I do think that the dominant ‘whole’ that attempts to form belonging and normativity through a cohesive identity has made it difficult for other identities to permeate these spaces. However, more so, my argument believes that the move in the late 20th century in museum practice towards a community participation and multi-perspective practice ties directly into the ‘culture wars’ and the birth of ‘identity politics’ in the 1980s and 1990s. I believe that this shift in museological practice further entrenches neoliberal rhetorics, strategically turning to identitarian selves at this time. There is a persistent neoliberal disciplining of these rhetorics as only encompassing a normalized - that is, limited - version of inclusivity and diversity. I believe that these practices have a tendency to implicate the self into an endless path of neoliberal rhetoric and affiliated affects, becoming a tool of these overarching ideologies and disciplines.

MUSEOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: NB POLICY ORIGINS

THESIS COLUMN: SPECIAL ISSUE

BY: ROBIN NELSON

As some of you know, Nicole, Katie, and I did a reading course over the fall semester on Museology and Cultural Theory. The course covered a broad range of topics that we find interesting and we have each written a paper within our broader research interest for the final paper. As part of the course, we will have a colloquium on Wednesday, January 7th at 12pm, location to be announced. We would love some feedback, so please come! Over the next week we will each write a Musings posts to give you an idea about what we will discuss.

I like to think my research is interesting. Source.

The paper that I am presenting will contribute to chapter one of my thesis and serves as the foundation for my research. After tracing the development of cultural policy from 1967 to 2014 in New Brunswick and highlighting significant historical events, I discuss policy origins, discourses present over time, and the influence of individuals on policy development. As I will not have the time to present all of my ideas, my colloquium presentation will focus on the origins of cultural policy in New Brunswick and how the framework has continued to shape government action influencing museums. As part of our course we read Susan Ashley’s (2005) “State Authority and the Public Sphere,” which identifies the Canadian Centennial Celebrations (1967) and the release of the National Museums Policy (1972) as defining moments in the development of Canadian museums. My analysis similarly considers the Centennial and national policy, but also discusses the influence of the welfare state model of governance that was popular in the 1960s and promoted by the federal government. Further, I consider New Brunswick as having a distinct context, such as the election of its first Acadian Premier with social policy objectives. Within my discussion, I argue that policy origins reflect a “French” or “Architect” approach with certain limitations and this framework has continued to influence policy direction.

Now, I will answer a few questions from Costis, Nicole, and Katie:

Nicole: What are some of the core aspects of New Brunswick’s relation to the rest of Canadian national cultural policy?

A Robichaud memorial monument in Saint-Antoine, NB.

One of the major elements that distinguish cultural policy development in New Brunswick is bilingualism. Some scholars argue that the province has formed two distinct cultural policies: one valorizes what is traditionally called the arts, culture, and/or heritage and the other is a linguistic policy. These policies developed concurrently and in association with one another because Premier Louis J. Robichaud implemented the Equal Opportunity Program (EO) in the 1960s, which centralized services in order to provide equal access to all residents regardless of their language or location in the province. The centralization of services through the EO enabled the province to take advantage of federal programs, such as the National Museums Policy announced in 1972. I realize that I am not being very clear, but this link between language, the social reforms, and cultural policy takes time to elucidate. As such, this will be one of the main points I discuss in the colloquium!

Katie: You have previously mentioned that there are many small cultural institutions in New Brunswick. Is the “welfare state model of governance” still a significant influence on the province’s cultural policy? If so, how are these smaller cultural sites sustained?

The Fredericton Region Museum has a history of provincial support. I found a grant application stating they have received support since 1948. 

McGuigan’s definition of a state discourse defines the state as the key agent in cultural policy - that is, the welfare state model of governance seen after the Second World War. McGuigan (2004) argues that in the 1960s governments enacted educational and cultural public policies “in the name of ‘access’ to opportunities and pleasures that were previously denied to most people” (2004: 40). This discourse contributed to the foundation of cultural policy in New Brunswick and access continues to be a justification for programs funding museums. Guided by a dialogue of access, the Government established a system of operational funding that provides around sixty community museums with operational funding. However, the funding is not a lot and around 75% of the community museums and historical societies that receive grants through the Community Museum Assistance program receive less than $10,000. With less than $10,000 in operational funding, most of these museums do not have a full-time staff person. They are summer tourist offerings by necessity because that is the only time they can get money for staff (through the provincial Student Employment and Experience Development (SEED)). SEED is thus as critical, if not more so, than the operational funding to small museums in sustaining the museums. I actually discuss this program in the third chapter of my thesis, which I am trying to write now!

I look forward to answering any questions you may have! Source.

If you would like to hear more please ask some questions and/or come to our presentation on the 7th! Also, check back Wednesday to read what Katie will be presenting on!

SHARE CONNECT DISCOVER: A CROSSROADS FOR EXCHANGE

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: ROBIN NELSON AND VARIOUS CONTRIBUTORS

Share Connect Discover: A Crossroads for Exchange, the sixth annual iSchool student conference, invites participants to make and explore connections between and beyond the confines of their own disciplines. The conference will take place March 6th and 7th and the call for papers is available here. As one of the co-chairs for the conference, I have decided to use this week’s research column to shamelessly promote it. 

Introducing the newest member of the iSchool Student Conference team: Sloth. He wants you to get involved too! Be on the lookout for him and post on Facebook when you see him, or tweet #HiSloth @iStudentConfTO

This year, we are encouraging exchange. To that end, we have shortened presentations in order to provide more time for discussion and would really like people to consider conducting a workshop (Have an idea you want to work out? Or an issue that you think should be discussed? This would be the perfect opportunity!!!) or making a poster (This may be a good idea for some of the curating science research? Or to share some of the interesting work done as part of group.). We are also open to different presenting formats and welcome submissions of all sorts.

Students presenting posters at last year's conference.

Details on last year’s conference, Information in Formation, are available here. The following are abstracts and pictures from last year’s MMSt presentations to give an idea regarding the wide variety of research that gets presented at the conferences (please note, the descriptions are either pulled from the program or given to me from the participants).

CADY MOYER

“Endless Interpretation”

Cady is also a co-chair at this year's conference. If you see her around and have a question, she is very approachable! Ask away!

Endless Interpretation is an online teaching kit that works in conjunction with an associated website. Together the website and teaching kit guide heritage educators through the process of developing the skills they need to make a program that connects real places with virtual spaces. This project focuses on designing self-guided hikes, or programs, for museum and heritage site visitors, using QR codes.

KRISTEN ATKINS, HOLLY DURAWA, AND RACHEL LEATON

“Oddjects at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library”

A screen shot from the participant's powerpoint.

The objective for the Fisher Rare Book Library online exhibition titled, “Oddjects” was in the creative re-imagining of artifacts as they relate to people and place. This was done by using a number of visual cues in creating an environment indicative of the physical location while maintaining a role of relevance in the lives of its users. By providing a platform with personalized encounters of the unusual holdings in the Fisher, we provided the user with not only the select oddjects standard history but also a personal account narrated by a staff member who discusses the objects significance to the Fisher collection.

Curatorially, the user was the central focus in determining how the objects were to be interpreted and also how the design could make a contribution in presenting the staff and collection. The primary purpose was to challenge linear narrative by composing bits of information giving the user a 'sense' of the Fisher as a personality. Although not a standard exhibition, it contributes to the advocacy and appreciation of the Fisher library in an intentionally innovative format.

Another screen shot from their very cool presentation!

“Oddjects” web exhibition project was developed over the course of Museums and New Media with Professor Dallas and in coordination with the Fisher library staff. The project resulted in a final group presentation for the Fisher Library in December 2013.

LAUREN WILLIAMS

“A Cyborg Walks into a Museum: Collections and the Changing Relationships between Mind, Body and Object."

How can museums accession, catalogue, care for, and exhibit objects that are intimately bound to human consciousness? As museums have been traditionally focused on the past, the concern has often been of preserving objects that have already been collected; however, the figure of the cyborg both in fiction and reality provide a reason for museum professionals to proactively explore how we will care for today’s and tomorrow’s objects in the future.

Lauren during her presentation.

NICOLE RITCHIE

“Queering Museums: Negotiating Difficult Knowledge & Museum Structures”

Through looking at discussions about queer identities within museum spaces and highlighting connections that can be drawn between these negotiations and debates around ‘difficult knowledge’, this paper argues how queer representation is in fact ‘difficult knowledge’ and elucidates how museums can move towards a more transformative and productive structure through the lens of ‘queering’, a direction that has been discussed yet not concretely nor sufficiently solved.

A CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

http://imgur.com/mXk560u

There are many ways for you to participate in the conference this year. First, I would like to encourage you to make a submission to ischoolstudentconference@gmail.com before January 8th, 2015. Second, we are looking for volunteers. More specifically, if you are a first year and think the idea of co-chairing the conference next year sounds cool, email Catherine Lamoureux for details on becoming the Legacy officer. Third, you can also visit the Student Conference website, e-mail us at iSchoolstudentconference@gmail.com and holler at Catherine, Cady, Alex, or Robin when you see us with your questions!

INTERLOVE: A DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: JENNIFER RODRIGUES

Annie, a Catholic, was teaching in Malaysia at an international school when she met Sunder, a practicing Hindu. Both of their families have embraced the fact that they are together in an interfaith relationship and are enjoying the opportunity to learn more about their differences. - Interlovepoject.com pic, November 7, 2014.

I am the project manager of a recently launched documentary photography project, INTERLOVE, founded by Canadian Photographer and creator of Cosmopolis Toronto, Colin Boyd Shafer.

The goal of the project is to show love is happening in complex situations here and Canada, and we aim to show this by photographing and sharing the stories of 100 interfaith couples across Canada. In order to achieve this goal we’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo. If we surpass our funding goal, we will produce a documentary about the project and an exhibition. You can read the first five moving love stories on our website.

Based on stories we’ve from heard friends, stories on the news, and what we’ve learnt through research, we have found that interfaith relationships is still very much difficult topic to discuss for many people and faith communities. In many countries around the world, it is not safe to have interfaith relationships, and in many the topic is not open for discussion.

It is this need to break down barriers and create a civil dialogue that nurtures and supports the social good that drives this project. We want to show how couples learn to celebrate and cherish their differences rather than squabble over them. We want create a critical dialogue about the complexities of interfaith relationships, while celebrating how people with differing beliefs come together in love in Canada.

Editor's Note: Jennifer Rodrigues is a second year MMSt student who graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Anthropology. In addition to INTERLOVE, she has also worked as the Sponsorship Coordinator for Cosmopolis Toronto. If you are a Museum Studies student engaged in research for a work, volunteer, or school project that you would like to share, please contact Robin Nelson.

MUSEUMS AS AGENTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE IN ISLAMIC COMMUNITIES: A RESEARCH INTEREST

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: DAIRA SZOSTAK

Illumination by Hannah Habibi

My research interests lie in looking at museums as agents of social change toward making a difference for Islamic communities. There exists a need for a deeper and more nuanced understanding of Islam, especially in light of recent events, which have misconstrued the faith into an extremist terrorist movement. I am determined to prove that museums can play an integral role in combatting Islamophobia (the fear of Muslims) in Western society. By offering another way to approach Islam, museums may be capable of replacing, challenging or subverting dominant forms of prejudice against its followers. The ability to harness the power of objects to explain and inform audiences about Islam through its means of cultural production is unique to the museum. I believe it is our responsibility to create the opportunity for meaningful cross-cultural experiences through our collections and public programming.

I have analyzed educational programs in cultural competency, community outreach initiatives, and social media practices in institutions worldwide. Two North American museums worthy of note are the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and the Oriental Institute in Chicago, Illinois for their course called Hadiths, Hijabs, and Hamas: Everything You Wanted to Know About Islam but Were Afraid to Ask.

I wrote a report on this subject during the course of my graduate studies for the class MSL2370, Museums and Cultural Heritage I: Context and Critical Issues. I delivered a presentation on my preliminary findings to my colleagues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in July, 2014. I hope to continue my research by partnering with the Aga Khan Museum in the coming months.

Please feel free to contact me should you want to know more or discuss any of the ideas presented here.

Sources:

Sandell, Richard. 2007. Museums, Prejudice and the Reframing of Difference. London: Routledge.

Editor's Note: Daira Szostak is a second year MMSt student who graduated from UofT with a degree in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations and Anthropology. If you are a Museum Studies student engaged in research for a work, volunteer, or school project that you would like to share, please contact Robin Nelson.

NORTHERN WAYS OF SEEING: RESEARCH IN THE MUSEUM COMMUNITY

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: ALEX SOMERVILLE

Editor's Note: Alexander Somerville is a second year MMSt student with an undergraduate degree at Dalhousie University in linguistics who has worked at the Dawson Museum since 2011. If you are a Museum Studies student engaged in research for a work, volunteer, or school project that you would like to share, please contact Robin Nelson. 

Among the joys of being the junior employee of a two staff museum is the joy of going to events that don’t interest your boss. This is why I got to attend a planning conference for a camera obscura festival this summer in Dawson City, Yukon.

In 2015, Dawson City, Yukon, will host an international group of artists and scholars for a festival of camera obscuras. Going in, I entertained a vague notion of a camera obscura as an early photographic device related somehow to pinhole photography. I had even vaguer notions about my own contributions, or the museum’s, to the festival, but in the spirit of ambassadorship I prepared to represent the museums interests in planning this festival.

As I read the planning conference brief, I moved toward the conclusion that the festival was mostly an artistic one– despite the attendance of scholars from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science– and that, besides a venue, our museum had little to offer the planners. That was until I reached the phrase, “northern ways of seeing.” Then there were fireworks in my brain.

Northern ways of seeing. What are those, I asked myself? Are there northern ways of seeing? How are they different from other ways of seeing and how did they get that way? As a museum studies student, I am very interested in ways of seeing. I knew then what contribution I could make– I would research and present one interpretation of northern ways of seeing. It came to me while I was sitting in the south-west corner of the museum.

Vernacular log cabin architecture of the early gold rush period, representative of Bill Haskell's description of a pre-gold rush log cabin. Image from Wikimedia.

Now, the Dawson City Museum is housed in a 1901 building, where the government of the Yukon sat before they moved to Whitehorse in 1953. The building was built by Thomas W. Fuller, an architect of the federal Department of Public Works. He was also responsible for 5 other public buildings in Dawson, including a court house and a post office, all of which were applauded locally as comparable to the best examples of public architecture in the south. This was actually a problem.

The west-facing facade of the Dawson City Museum building, built as the Territorial Administration Building in 1901 by Thomas W. Fuller.

The problem is about ways of seeing, and of being seen. In a nutshell, Fuller’s buildings were designed in part to demonstrate the commitment of the federal government to developing the Yukon, and this was especially important because of the considerable minority of American citizens in the Yukon at the time. Taking advantage of his southern training, Fuller used large windows to demonstrate status, taking advantage of the plate glass that had transformed visual culture in the south.

The decision to use windows so profusely in his designs is interesting because, before the gold rush, buildings used very few and very small windows. There were good reasons for small and few windows: glass was expensive and risky to transport from the south, and windows compromised a building’s insulation during long northern winters that could reach -60 C. Furthermore, windows served little purpose, since for half of the year there was very little sun, and the rest of the year there was altogether too much. 

Post-gold rush architectural Post Office in Dawson, betraying its southern fenestration.

Fuller’s buildings in Dawson, being more window than wall, were prohibitively expensive to heat through the winters, and consequently, many closed in the years after the gold rush. And even during the summer time the windows caused problems. After completion, south and west facing windows were fitted with awnings to keep out the sun!

To sum up my research so far: ways of seeing among white settlers in the Yukon adopted some of the distinctive features of southern ways of seeing during and in the aftermath of the Klondike gold rush. Building with windows is so far one of my favorite examples, and I look forward to gathering more evidence and enriching my claims before next year’s camera obscura conference. I appreciate any questions, observations, and feedback from readers!

"KILLING OUR BABIES": A WISE ADVISOR'S ADVICE

RESEARCH COLUMN

BY: ROBIN NELSON, KATIE METHOT, NICOLE RITCHIE

In order to feature a greater variety of student research, we are changing the content of the Thesis Column to a Research Column that will highlight a different student’s research every second Thursday. For the first post, the three thesis writers, Katie, Nicole, and Robin (me!), collaborated to write on a concept that we have all been thinking about: killing our babies.

We get very attached to our ideas

Killing our babies is something that our advisor, Alan Stanbridge, recommended. He meant we cannot research everything we have found interesting and we need to learn how to put aside something we have written or engaged with. This has proved difficult but necessary in order to focus our research as we move forward.

Nicole's babies....she prefers kittens to tiny humans

NICOLE RITCHIE

Well, I have spent the last year developing my thesis. This cycle included drafting my initial thesis concept, focusing and researching it, formatting it into a SSHRC proposal and an official thesis proposal, and then reading throughout the summer. Now, it is September and I am faced by a committee that wants a (fluid) structure drafted as well as a tentative first draft deadline and proposed defense date. While part of me wants to panic, Alan’s advice to kill my babies (or maybe shelve them for later?) is undeniably useful. Sitting down to craft this framework for my ~100 page project, I start to notice where I can plug my summer reading in, where my reading needs to focus, and, most importantly, what really isn’t necessary. Luckily, in my opinion, I am currently applying to doctoral programs, so I can shelve my babies for future research, reading lists, and exploration. Thus, for my thesis, I need to direct myself towards only what matters, using my time and energy effectively in order to get the project done within its parameters, not beyond. The most difficult part to accept is that I can’t read everything relevant or potentially relevant for my thesis. Sometimes that maternal instinct is hard to kick, who knew? Anyone else suffer from this parental affliction?

Knowing it is time to let something go doesn't make it easy

 ROBIN NELSON

At the moment, I am transcribing my interviews (it takes forever) and, at first, I thought I had to transcribe everything because anything could be useful at some point (right?). My babies are massive sections of individual interviews and in one case an entire interview that, while interesting, are not relevant to the themes I plan on discussing. As I talk about my research, I have realized that I will write about the relationship between community museums and the Heritage Branch, the Exhibit Renewal Program, and (possibly) the SEED program (student summer employment). I do not have the time to discuss everything the government does that influences museum public programming in only a hundred pages. As such, sections dealing with the Collection Inventory Program and other financial programs are no longer being transcribed. While an argument could be made (and is by some of my participants) that funding to collections increases knowledge of the collections leading to better programming, sacrifices have to be made! This has sped up the transcription process, my hands hurt less, and I am left with shorter documents to analyse with a better focus. Does anyone have transcription horror stories they would like to share?

Some concepts are more gleefully disposed of than others

KATIE METHOT

Meeting with Alan, chatting about my summer research, and introducing the concept of 'killing our babies' couldn't have come at a more opportune time. Over the last week I've been interested in German broadsheet prints from the sixteenth century. Is it necessary for my thesis? No. Do I think they're super interesting? Yes. Despite how much I have enjoyed researching broadsheet prints, this topic is for another time or perhaps for my PhD (hopefully sometime in the not-so-distant future). Consequently, I've chopped it from my research and set it aside for later. Instead, I am refocusing to continue my interviews and to begin categorizing my existing research into chapters. Over the next few months, I will be structuring my arguments, and adding to holes in my research, not looking at German broadsheet prints (regardless of how clearly interesting they are). Now I am looking realistically at what I want to get accomplished with this project, while also seeing how it can grow in the future. For now, I'll be leaving my babies alone for another time. Can anyone else offer advice (or sympathy) for staying focused on a research topic?