This Diversifying the Museum Voice case study follows the Museum of Zoology’s Research & Representation project, focusing on the Museum’s digital content. It provides an example of one approach to putting the Diversifying the Museum Voice Principles framework into action.
About the Museum of Zoology
The Museum is one of Cambridge’s major attractions, displaying thousands of specimens spanning the entire animal kingdom, from elephants, giant ground sloths and giraffes, to birds, reptiles, insects and molluscs. It is part of the University of Cambridge Department of Zoology; its collections are amongst the best in the world and include specimens discovered by the great naturalists, including Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.
The Research and Representation project
The Museum of Zoology is committed to being a ‘living’ inclusive organisation that has relationships with a broad community of researchers, academics and local communities. Moving forward the intention is that diversity will be normalised and in doing this women and people of colour, who have been traditionally underrepresented, will be active contributors and participants in all aspects of museum life. The Research and Representation programme is a digital one that fosters relationships between the Museum, women and people of colour to foreground their research. It recognises that hidden voices can often be those who are less confident, and that trust needs to be established through sustained commitment, activity and investment (by the Museum). Subject matter is unmediated, and the Museum blog provides a wide-reaching platform for its distribution.
What’s happened so far?
- International Women’s Day event co-produced with Cambridge Conservation Forum Women in Conservation Leadership network.
- The Diversifying the Museum Voice Principles have framed follow up evaluation surveys.
- Relationship with Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) deepened.
- Training sessions for researchers in access and communication have taken place.
- Several additional blog posts have been produced and relationships begun.
- Learning and Engagement strategic plans are being updated
- Ongoing reflective journaling is being undertaken by the programme lead.
Women researchers from Zambia, India and the Philippines were part of the team who shaped the programme content and presented at the International Women’s Day event. Global reach is being enhanced through sustained relationship building as well as active participation in and commitment networks such as that held by CCI and CCF.
Additional blog posts have been created through the programme, including one in May celebrating the International Day of Biological Diversity involving researchers from the UK, India and Namibia. A series of posts for National Marine Week in May has involved researchers from Martinique, Guatemala and Sri Lanka, all curated by a female PhD student.
As a direct outcome of the Meet the Experts training sessions for researchers, female scientists have been involved in developing, participating in and leading online engagement activities, including leading a Young Zoologists Club workshop, taking part in an ‘Ask the Scientist’ session as part of the YouTube livestreams of the Museum’s Zoology Live online festival, and providing scientific context for family online craft workshops.
The Museum team have been helping to shape the Diversifying the Museum Voice Principles. Of note has been the need to position the intention as being ‘beyond the label’ and that the empirical status of scientific research would not be compromised; consideration re-defining the intention of and scope for this work is emerging as a result.
The Museum is updating its strategic plans, that of Learning and Engagement, opening the door for other key planning documents to also be revised. This opportunity will allow for the Research and Representation ambitions, outcomes and approach to be made explicit with the Department and Museum team as well as across the UCM consortium.
“A helpful way of framing the power dynamic here is to recognise that people are lending their voices; this is about amplification rather than assimilation.”
Roz Wade, Senior Learning & Outreach Coordinator, Museum of Zoology
Using the Diversifying the Museum Voice Principles to plan, do and review
Devised through a process of action learning with teams across the UCM, these six interconnecting principles provide a flexible framework for teams to plan, manage and review collaborative activity, providing ideas and provocations that support people in coming together to discuss, participate in dialogue and make change.
Which Principles are important to the project? How and why?
For the Museum of Zoology, the following Principles have emerged as being dominant areas for discussion and internal dialogue.
Diversify Relationships
Here the Museum has been asking itself what can it contribute to people’s work: what is the privilege it holds and how can this be employed to best effect? It is aware that it needs to be familiar with research from people of colour and women, both internally and in the global community and that this needs investment.
Pursue Authenticity and Commit to Dialogue
A possible key to authenticity, in the Museum/Department context, is that contributions are research or content-led rather than personality-led, and that themes and subjects submitted are unrestricted. Time to be with researchers, face to face, to build understanding and ultimately relationships is important. How to make this sustainable practice has been a point of discussion with Museum plans being revised to help support activity.
Share authorship
The ambition of this programme is that researchers are unmediated, lending their voice rather than becoming part of the Museum’s. Areas of discussion within the team at the Museum in relation to this have been around when, where how and indeed if researcher’s life stories are relevant to this, their career pathways into Zoology and the origins of their passions and interests. The editing of material to help make it accessible is the only area of mediation seen as essential.
Measure what Matters
The Museum is not alone in asking itself how it can know, to what extent this initiative (and others) is shifting perceptions and increasing/extending value. Using existing assets, such as volunteer work experience students, the UCM Community Panel and those who are contributing to and attending events can offer a starting point for this and tools are being put in place to do just that. How to go beyond this, though, is the next challenge for the team.
Top tips for peers and colleagues
- Invest in finding the right language to articulate the relationship between contributors and the museum – move from the reciprocal wins to understanding those of the contributors.
- Keep checking in with colleagues in different disciplines to understand how they are viewing the work taking place; do they have concerns, what can be learnt or understood from these?
- Make sure its not personal, embed into strategic plans.
- Recognise that hidden voices are often those that are least confident; work with people individually, over a sustained period to gain trust, invest time.
- Use digital democratically to work quickly, gain traction and demonstrate progress and impact.
You can find more resources and case studies on the Diversifying the Museum Voice main page.