Current Research Projects
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COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE IN MUSEUMS and cultural organizations. Although the subject of collaboration is frequently discussed at museum conferences, and granting agencies often place a premium on partnership projects, there is currently no readily-available standard reference on the subject that talks about the broad outlines of collaborative principles and practices as well as specific case studies. Museum professionals are frequently exhorted to think and work more collaboratively, but there is as yet no reference that would help them implement a collaborative approach across their institutions or in their professional practices.
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CONTEMPORARY CURATORIAL PRACTICE beyond art museums, the context in which it is most frequently explored. Through surveys of the literature and short- and long-form interviews with a practitioners from a range of disciplines in the United States and Canada, I hope to shape an understanding of the work of curators in the kind of small to medium-sized historical institutions that make up a significant percentage of North American museums today.
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CRITICAL EXPLORATION OF WRITING AND TEXT IN THE MUSEUM, building on the work of such noted authorities as Beverly Serrell, whose foundational writing on exhibit labels has informed my and many others' practice. The existing literature on museum writing tends toward the practical and specific, as for example with guidelines for how to write exhibit text or program materials. Only occasionally are museum-specific modes of writing situated in a larger critical context of contemporary issues surrounding the politics, production and consumption of text. Out of this research I developed a new elective course for the University of Toronto Master of Museum Studies Program: MSL2301H: Artifact, Audience, Text: Writing in the Museum.