In the context of growing uncertainty and anxiety surrounding trans inclusion, the University of Leicester’s Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) – working with a team of legal scholars and experts in inclusion, equality and ethics – has developed a comprehensive guidance (Trans-Inclusive Culture: Guidance on advancing trans inclusion for museums, galleries, archives and heritage organisations) to bring clarity, common sense, pragmatism and ethics to a debate that is too often distorted by misinformed, highly charged and polarised viewpoints.
Register now for the chance of joining 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
Although developed within the UK legal context, at the heart of the guidance is a comprehensive ethical framework that can be used and adapted by cultural organisations across the international cultural landscape and has received the backing of a number of international museum agencies.
Attendees are encouraged to bring to the session any queries or challenges relating to trans inclusion that they are currently working on.
Participation in the NEMO Webinar is free of charge, but registration is mandatory. The webinar is limited to 200 participants on a first come, first serve basis.
NEMO will continue the conversation on polarised viewpoints at the NEMO European Museum Conference “Can we talk? Museums facing polarisation”, taking place from 10-12 November 2024 in Sibiu, Romania. Get your ticket to be part of important discussions about the role museums (can) play in today’s challenged democracies.
Meet the 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.
