Thesis title:
Artefacts and Social Inclusion: Object-Based Learning and the Promotion of Diversity in Museums
The project aims to analyse the role of collections in socially engaged practice, exploring how material culture is used in the context of museum projects that focus on contemporary social issues.
As museums move towards non-neutral and socially, politically and morally charged positions in the cultural panorama, their role is changing. Visitor-centred practices in the cultural sector have aimed to promote greater understanding, respect and empathy for difference. Exhibitions, programmes and learning activities designed to foster equality and diversity have become increasingly present. However, while many of these projects make use of objects to convey their message, research on the role of material culture in conveying such values has been scarce.
This research seeks to address this gap in knowledge and understanding by examining some of these projects from a material culture perspective, including artefacts as critical actors in the museum’s endeavours to promote messages of inclusion, tolerance and empathy.
Research Area
- Cultural and Museum Studies
Publications
- Cuzzola, C. (2019) 'Book Review: Laurajane Smith, Margaret Wetherell and Gary Campbell (eds.), Emotion, Affective Practices, and the Past in the Present', Museum & Society 17(3): 536-7.
- Cuzzola, C. (2019) 'Objects of Decolonization: The Social Role of Museums in Leading Public Discussion', Exhibition 38(2): 92-9.
Conferences
- The Museum for All People, 2-5 April 2019, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain (paper title: From Institutions for the Colonial Narrative to Spaces of Dissent)
- Reimagining The Human: A Two-Day Conference In Collaboration With ICME, 28-29 November 2018, Horniman Museum, London (paper title: The Socially-Engaged Museum: A Material Perspective on The Past is Now), https://www.horniman.ac.uk/visit/events/reimagining-the-human-a-two-day-conference-in-collaboration-with-icme
- Museums (em)Power, 13-14 September 2018, School of Museum Studies, Leicester (paper title: The Power of Material Culture: Challenging Neutrality through Museum Artefacts), https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/museumstudies/museums-empower/programme
Academic Roles
2020 - present
- Research Associate, Research Centre for Museum and Galleries, University of Leicester (part-time)
2019
- Midlands4Cities Placement, Intern at the History Trust of South Australia (Migration Museum and Centre of Democracy), Adelaide, South Australia
- Research Assistant, Research Centre for Museum and Galleries, University of Leicester
2018
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- Editorial Assistant to Richard Sandell and Robert Janes, University of Leicester: Providing editing support for forthcoming edited volume Museums and Activism (2018)
- Volunteer for Leicester Museums: Museum events, museum survey and museum outreach volunteer
- Teaching Support at the School of Museum Studies: Academic Literacies Support Group sessions, Writing Support Drop-in sessions, Designing for Creative Lives
- Museological Review Editor (2018-2019), Issue 23
- PGR Student Representative (2018-19)
2017
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- Research Assistant to Professor Laura Peers, Pitt Rivers Museum Curator (Americas): Volunteer imaging, photography and data capture project on historic collections in Pitt Rivers Museum for Indigenous community research
- Booklisting Volunteer, Ashmolean Museum (Eastern Art Department): Creating a database for previously uncatalogued book collections owned by the Eastern Art Department
2016
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- Research Assistant to Professor Laura Peers, Pitt Rivers Museum Curator (Americas): Building a database of Haida bentwood boxes across museums around the world, navigating online collections to locate and recover information and photographs of the boxes
2015
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- Learning Team Intern, The Jewish Museum, London: Helping with the coordination of school workshops, facilitating object handling sessions, leading students through the museum galleries
Academic Qualifications
- MSc in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology, University of Oxford (2016-2017)
- BSc in Anthropology, University College London (2013-2016)
