{"id":2584,"date":"2014-06-12T08:51:59","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T12:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carleton.ca\/iis\/?post_type=cu-people&p=2584"},"modified":"2023-02-28T11:35:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T16:35:28","slug":"monica-patterson","status":"publish","type":"cu-people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/iis\/people\/monica-patterson\/","title":{"rendered":"Monica Eileen Patterson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Monica Eileen Patterson is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Assistant Director of Curatorial Studies<\/a> in the Institute for the Comparative Study of Literature, Art, and Culture at 杏吧原创 University. She earned her doctorate in Anthropology and History and a certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Prior to joining the faculty at 杏吧原创, she was a Banting Fellow at the Center for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence at Concordia University, and a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Patterson is co-editor of several articles and two books:\u00a0Curating Difficult Knowledge: Violent Pasts in Public Places<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and\u00a0Anthrohistory: Unsettling Knowledge and Questioning Discipline<\/em><\/a> (University of Michigan Press, 2011). Currently, she is completing a manuscript that examines the multiple and contested understandings of childhood in late-apartheid South Africa.<\/p>\n

Her latest SSHRC-funded project, \u201cA New, Critical Children\u2019s Museology\u201d identifies and develops approaches to producing exhibit content not just for or about children, but by and with children across the globe. Patterson\u2019s research project draws together recent interventions in the fields of Childhood Studies, Curatorial Studies, and Museum Studies to ask: How would museum work change if children were to be included, not just as subjects or target audience members, but as active participants and co-creators of museum content and programming? Addressing this question will fill a gap in our knowledge by helping forge a new field she calls \u201cCritical Children\u2019s Museology.\u201d https:\/\/www.aam-us.org\/2020\/09\/18\/childrens-museology-and-the-covid-19-crisis\/\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

When travel and face-to-face interactions are once again possible, Patterson will focus her efforts on developing an innovative, child-centred methodology that uses community-based, collaborative curating with children to produce and document new knowledge about children\u2019s experiences and perspectives in contemporary South Africa.<\/p>\n

Patterson is also a lead investigator on the SSHRC-funded Partnership Development project,\u00a0\u201cThinking through the Museum: A Parnership Approach to Curating Difficult Knowledge in Public\u201d<\/a>\u00a0which brings together\u00a0international scholars, students, museum professionals, and community representatives from 20 museums, universities, and NGOs in Canada, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, and the USA. Working in 5 thematic research groups that amplify perspectives under-represented in the museum world (Critical Race Museology, Museum Queeries, Unsettling and Indigenizing Museology, National Heritage and Traumatic Memory, and Children’s Museology), the group seeks to establish\u00a0new terms of engagement for learning from histories of violence and conflict.\u00a0After a successful 3-year development phase, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada has awarded the Thinking Through the Museum (TTTM) research network an additional 7-year, $2.5 million dollar\u00a0Partnership Grant<\/a>\u00a0for 2021-2028.<\/p>\n

Pressure on museums to work for social justice in light of the Black Lives Matter, Rhodes Must Fall, and #MeToo movements, Canada\u2019s Truth and Reconciliation Commission\u2019s Calls to Action, and the COVID-19 and refugee crises, are among the motivations for TTTM\u2019s work. Going beyond traditional academic approaches of arm\u2019s-length criticism, TTTM collaborates across sectors to creatively respond to colonial and other oppressive legacies. The team will work within museum settings to co-produce exhibitions and design tools to challenge elite institutional knowledge systems, and beyond their walls to explore alternative heritage mobilization in festivals, grassroots archives, and site-based curating, where communities can set their own agendas.<\/p>\n

As a scholar, curator, and activist, her work explores the intersections of memory, childhood, and racism in postcolonial Africa and beyond, and the ways in which they are represented and engaged in contemporary public spheres.<\/p>\n

You can access Professor Patterson\u2019s full cv and many of her publications on Academia.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Research Interests<\/strong><\/p>\n