York University

Graduate Student, Faculty of Environmental Studies

PhD Candidate (ABD)

Thesis Title: "How to See Differently: Social Inclusivity, Worldview, and the Display of Bodies in British Museums"

About

Within the past two decades, museum professionals have increasingly agreed that museums have the responsibility to contribute to an agenda of social inclusivity within the communities they serve. To this end, my dissertation research will examine diverse ways of seeing and interpreting the contemporary collection and display of human and non-human animal bodies in museums.

My research interests stem from Schiebinger’s observation that “the body is cultural and political as well as biological” (2000); as such, the ways bodies have been, and currently are, displayed as scientific and cultural specimens should be interpreted as far more than simple “objective” physical representations. The colonial history of museums means that the bodies within their possession are generally those who have traditionally been marginalised or socially excluded. The assemblage of objects (or beings) into an exhibition produces what Hooper-Greenhill (2000) has termed a “visual narrative”. As such, which bodies are displayed, and in which contexts, will reflect society’s ideas about who belongs and holds power.

This project supports the idea that museums can contribute toward creating more equitable societies by: interpreting their collections through alternate worldviews; fundamentally questioning bodily collection and display; examining the reciprocity between museums and the communities from which these bodies came; as well as the reciprocity between museums and the people to whom they are exhibited. It will include the voices and perspectives of museum visitors, museum professionals, those who advocate on behalf of bodies in museums and, when possible, the voices of those who are displayed.

In 2009 I carried out research in England on the travelling "Darwin: Big Idea, Big Exhibition" display at the Natural History Museum in London, which will form one of the case studies in my dissertation. In 2010 I returned to the UK to carry out research on two other case studies. The first of these focuses on wet-preserved human and animal foetal specimens at the Hunterian Museum in London, and the other on casts of the skeletal remains of the Red Lady of Paviland which are on display at both National Museum Wales in Cardiff, and at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Fawcett and I are also carrying out research on a separate project that explores human weddings at zoos.

I was awarded a Master of Arts in Sociocultural Anthropology (with a focus on the anthropology of religion) from McMaster University in 2005. This research explored pilgrims' healing narratives at a Catholic pilgrimage shrine in Marmora, Ontario, Canada, which is purported to be a Marian apparition site. I completed my Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Archaeology, as well as a Certificate in Liberal Arts, at Simon Fraser University in 2003.

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