This two-day training session will introduce doctoral students to the principles of object-based research as practiced across a range of fields in the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Heritage Sector. It also affords students an opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience of conducting object-based research with museum collections.
The session aims to develop your understanding of object-based research as an interdisciplinary research methodology. It will give you a working knowledge of technical aspects of object-based research, including the basic principles of handling, description, and provenance, as well as more advanced training in scientific, historical, and cultural analysis of materials and manufacture. Students will be introduced to a suite of instruments for spectral, chemical, and scientific analysis of materials and composition in the Kelvin Hall teaching labs, and will develop strategies for to locating, sifting, and interpreting documentary evidence. This methods training will be applicable to a wide range of object types, both historical and contemporary, from across the globe.
Building on these skills, participants will collectively:
1. Examine the benefits object- and collections-based research both as the primary research method and as a complimentary methodology that can enhance research projects in any discipline
2. Assess the challenges involved — including gaps in the historical record, destruction of documentary evidence or objects themselves, limits on access, geographical challenges (working in war zones, for example) — and the resources and strategies available to address these challenges
3. Explore how to mobilize object-based research as a decolonial methodology in multiple disciplinary contexts
Specific case studies from the Hunterian Museum’s rich and varied holdings provide opportunities to uncover and analyze traces of past and ongoing instances of global trade, military conquest, colonization, and enslavement that are physically present on objects and embedded in the documentary history of their manufacture, movement, acquisition, and display. Drawing on the award-winning Curating Discomfort exhibition, the session will consider how decolonial object-based research can advance academic and heritage sector collaborations and generate successful KE and impact projects.
The course staff have extensive experience in conducting and directing interdisciplinary object-based research projects drawing methods and concepts from art history, archeology, sociology, history of science and medicine, literary studies, and the creative arts. Students will be encouraged to contribute to discussions, as well as to participate in handling workshops and practical exercises; there will also be opportunities for group discussion of individual projects and specific challenges.
The session will be conducted in-person over two days:
16 May (5 hours, with lunch and tea break)
10am – 12pm Introductory seminar discussion & handling workshop
1pm – 3 pm Provenance workshop with objects and archival materials
3:30pm – 4:30pm Kelvin Hall lab tour and ECR presentations
17 May, (5 hours, with lunch break and closing tea/reception)
10am – 12pm Presentation and group display analysis in Hunterian Museum using Curating Discomfort Exhibition
1:30pm – 3:30pm Decolonial Methods hackathon in Kelvin Hall; participants work in groups to frame an object-based decolonial research project or intervention
3:30pm — 4:30pm closing discussion, Q&A, and feedback survey in Kelvin Hall [followed by tea/coffee and informal discussion]
The Kelvin Hall teaching space is fully accessible. Seminar materials will be provided in advance; all presentations will meet or exceed current accessibility standards. We will provide lists of objects used in each workshop with images (where available) and links to catalogue records.