Prof Dolly Jørgensen Profile picture
Jun 7, 2022 13 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Our session Exhibiting Extinction and Endangerment now happening at #spnhc2022!

After my brief introduction, Verity Burke @DrVerityBurke talking death masks
Burke @DrVerityBurke turns to her work on the death masks of Alfred the gorilla 🦍 . His taxidermied body is in Bristol Museum, but other things like his bust appear in zoo.
His death mask was used to make plaster bust that is in M Shed, but it is a celebrity portrait not presented as conservation object.
Burke makes point that masks might have value as exhibition objects that give a different feel for death than taxidermy mounts.
Isla Gladstone @isla_gladstone speaking on Extinction Voices & Extinction Silences and the motivations for new encounters with extinction at Bristol Museum.
The veiling of the specimens was complemented with conversational space. Great public response.
But @isla_gladstone has kept working on this, including engaging critiques of the language, assumptions & solidarity raised by Persephone Pearl from @ONCA_Arts
Has required critical reflection on structural roots of the acquisition of animals (and in fact human remains too) for the museum. Legacies in displays even now. Have to look at the silences - what is not said.
The third speaker is Anna Guasco @GuascoAnna on extinction narratives and justice in the museum. Museums as only future sites for currently endangered species.
Guasco analyzed the Survival Gallery of National Museum of Scotland. The gallery starts with 🦤 then on to evolution. When you turn corner, humans appear as homogeneous separate-from-nature beings that cause loss of biodiversity.
Guasco points out the narrative arc Doom to Hope on the final wall.
Her critique of the exhibition is that it downplays entanglement and difference.
Our final talk is Alice Would @WouldAlice on Running Out of Time: Extinction, Impermanence and Museum Display
Specimens are all that remains of extinct animals, so decisions about them matter to past, present & future.
Would’s own experience with her own taxidermied rat that decayed over corona times made her reflect on the craft and battle with time.
Super pleased with the papers in our Exhibiting Extinction & Endangerment session and the audience response (except the one guy who was being “reviewer 2”, if you know what I mean). Thanks to all the participants: @isla_gladstone @DrVerityBurke @GuascoAnna @WouldAlice !

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More from @DollyJorgensen

Jun 8, 2022
Starting day at #spnhc2022 in session "Connecting Communities to Natural History Collections"

Helen Barber-James leads off with "Integrating African Natural History specimen data; current progress and future needs". Huge collections of African material in European museums.
But she points out there is also lots of material in museums in Africa and activities happening to both collect, digitize and curate materials.
(Reminds me that I need to figure out how to visit some African museums on my extinction project.)
Hillary Barron presenting virtually "Culturally Responsive Undergraduate Science Education: A model for equity and social justice academic biology"
She is emphasising that positionality matters tremendously in science education. Need to move beyond equity as inclusion.
Read 11 tweets
Jun 7, 2022
Looking forward to this session on Civically engaged natural history museums.

@TheMuseumOfLiz setting the stage. What do we mean by public engagement? Education, community building, communication, citizen science, & outreach all within scope.
Miranda Stern on museums, health & wellbeing. There are overlapping conversations between culture, health & wellbeing; nature, health & wellbeing; and nature connectedness through museums.
Next speaker is Miranda Lowe @NatHistGirl on Reveal, Reclaim & Recognize: digging under the hidden narratives of natural history collections.
1. Reveal - revealing links between specimens, with cultures who did the collecting, and with history.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 6, 2022
Made it to Edinburgh for the keynotes at #spnhc2022 ! Starting with Mark Maslin on the Anthropocene.
Yikes! An extremely Euro-centric view of the “modes of human society” on a timeline presented by Maslin (who is a geologist).
Just shows that we historians are doing a terrible job of breaking down this kind of narrative.
Now Hermione Cockburn on Edinburgh and the birth of deep-sea science.
Starts by saying we need ocean literacy among general public.
Read 11 tweets
Dec 29, 2021
Just got back from a road trip in Texas & New Mexico. A few personal observations on America today:
1. Televisions/video is playing everywhere all the time. Every shop has tv or video. It’s bad enough that there were four competing screens (w sound) in the hotel breakfast room, but when the gas pump also invites you verbally into the store & plays videos, it’s too much.
2. Billboards encapsulate current values and, by far, the most prevalent were ads for legal services if you’ve been in an accident and insurance/medical providers. The frequency of these billboards was jaw dropping.
Read 8 tweets

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