The webinar will present the University of Leicester’s Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG)’s comprehensive guidance Trans-Inclusive Culture: Guidance on advancing trans inclusion for museums, galleries, archives and heritage organisations). The RCMG will be represented by E-J Scott, Suzanne MacLeod and Richard Sandell. Earlier this year the RCMG received the Museums + Heritage Awards Judges’ Special Recognition Award for its outstanding contributions to the sector. RCMG received the award for its deep commitment to supporting ethical, inclusive, equitable and importantly, research-led work across the whole sector.
Recently a fourth speaker, Nicole Moolhuijsen (ICOM Italy), was confirmed to explain how the UK guidance can be adapted to other countries.
Register now to join the one-hour NEMO Webinar to learn how to use the guidance at your museums, or other kind of organisation, to:
- Develop trans-inclusive displays, events and public programming
- Generate a trans-inclusive organisational culture
- Provide a warm welcome to (and ensure the safety of) trans visitors
- Work with trans communities to advance trans inclusion
By fostering trans inclusion, the museum will become a more welcoming environment for every visitor. As stated in a previous NEMO webinar: by improving accessibility for one group, the accessibility increases for all. The same principle applies to inclusion.
Get to know all four speakers
E-J Scott
E-J Scott is a curator, cultural producer and academic whose practice focusses on enabling communities who may traditionally have been marginalised in museums to recentre their histories via interventive participatory practice. E-J is a Senior Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. They founded the Museum of Transology in 2014, now the largest collection of material culture representing trans lives in the world (Bishopsgate Institute, London). From curating large scale queer cultural events like Tate’s annual Queer & Now festival, to producing expansive regional oral-history collecting projects like West Yorkshire Queer Stories, to researching performative heritage arts engagement like DUCKIE’s Lady Malcolm’s Servant’s Balls or PRINCESS: The Queer Georgians’ Bent History Bachannal, E-J’s work embraces the belief that co-curation can drive positive social change by offering communities an enhanced sense of belonging. Their current digital collecting strategy for Trans Pride collectives across the UK reflects their broader interest in interrogating networked digital co-curation as a tool that can be utilised by the subversive intellectual undercommons (Harney & Moten, 2013) to disrupt populism and culture wars. E-J was awarded the UK’s Activist Museum Award 2020/21 by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG).
Suzanne MacLeod
Suzanne MacLeod is Professor of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester and co-director of the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries. She has published widely around museum architecture and design and has a particular interest in design forms and processes and how they might be harnessed towards positive social and organisational impacts by progressive museums. Previous publications include: Museums and Design for Creative Lives; Reshaping Museum Space; Museum Making (with Jonathan Hale and Laura Hanks); and Museum Architecture: A New Biography.
Richard Sandell
Richard Sandell is Professor of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester and co-director of the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries. His research and practice, carried out in collaboration with museums, galleries and heritage organisations, explores the potential that museums might play in supporting human rights, social justice and equality. His most recent books include - Museums, Moralities and Human Rights (2017) and Museum Activism (with Robert R. Janes) (2019), winner of the Canadian Museums Association’s award for Outstanding Achievement for Research in the Cultural Heritage Sector.
Nicole Moolhuijsen
Nicole Moolhuijsen is a researcher and practitioner working on queer heritage practices and museum interpretation. She coordinates ICOM Italy’s group on Gender and LGBTQ+ rights and is pursuing her PhD at the University of Leicester. In Italy, she has initiated several collaborative projects on queerness and accessibility in cultural institutions. Her writings in academic and art media platforms focus on cultural activism, social change, and queer issues. Recent publications include 'Rethinking Sexualities in Heritage Spaces' (Dutch Journal of Gender Studies, 2024).
