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Papers by Katherine Lloyd

Digital tools that allow ‘mashups’ of institutional and community-held heritage materials have en... more Digital tools that allow ‘mashups’ of institutional and community-held heritage materials have enabled the creation of place-specific digital resources that provide opportunities for networked learning and the co-production of local knowledge. In this paper, I draw on participatory action research undertaken with a High School in the North East of England in the co-design of Co-Curate, a collaborative digital space where ‘official’ museum, library and archive collections are displayed alongside community material such as oral histories, photographs and films. Users can draw on existing resources or upload their own materials to share their stories of the North East. As a hybrid of the public and private spheres, virtual spaces such as these offer significant opportunities for the democratisation of heritage, by not only increasing access to private and public collections, but also enabling multiple perspectives that expand our understanding of heritage and place. Drawing on insights gained into the needs, motivations and experiences of young people, teachers and museum staff, I highlight the shifting dynamics between museums and ‘learner-participants’ in the digital age and identify some of the key challenges for the role of museums in the creation of democratic, shared virtual spaces for intergenerational collaborative learning.

Cultural Trends, Jun 25, 2014

Since devolution many museums in Scotland have attempted to represent national identity in plural... more Since devolution many museums in Scotland have attempted to represent national identity in plural and inclusive terms – emphasising regional and historical differences within the nation and highlighting the contribution of so-called “New Scots” to Scottish society. However, it remains to be seen whether attempts to deconstruct homogenous discourses of nationhood at the level of the state or institution are capable of radically altering individual understandings of national identity and belonging. Further empirical research is therefore needed into the way in which heritage is produced and negotiated in everyday social environments beyond the museum in order to understand what – if any – impact museums may have on challenging prejudice and producing inclusive definitions of national identity. Drawing on Mason's (2013) “cosmopolitan museology” and Rounds' (2006) theory of “identity work” in museums, this paper analyses the narratives of young people aged between 13 and 18 years old from six schools in Glasgow, Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders and the Western Isles. It argues that when negotiating national identity and cultural diversity, individuals adopt narrative strategies in order to accommodate new information without necessarily changing their own definitions of national heritage or attitudes towards minority groups. The implications of this finding for both museum practice in Scotland and the wider European context are considered.

"This brief, written by Chris Whitehead, Rhiannon Mason, Susannah Eckersley and Katherine Lloyd i... more "This brief, written by Chris Whitehead, Rhiannon Mason, Susannah Eckersley and Katherine Lloyd is an output of Newcastle University's contribution to the EU funded project 'Mela: European Museums in an Age of Migrations:
www.mela-project.eu

'Museums & Identity in History and Contemporaneity', explores the roles that museums can play in representing migration, migrants and diversity in order to develop egalitarian social relations. The brief is intended to guide cultural policy and museum practice in the EU."

Book Chapters by Katherine Lloyd

Research undertaken at the National Museum of Scotland as part of the MeLa* project has highlight... more Research undertaken at the National Museum of Scotland as part of the MeLa* project has highlighted the potential for national museums to show both the diversity within nations, and the interconnected relationship between the nation and the wider world, through collections that extend beyond national boundaries. (See Whitehead et al this book, Mason 2013). However, as studies with visitors at NMS have shown, this potential may not necessarily translate into practice. While stories of migration can be found throughout NMS, these may be ignored, forgotten or overlooked by visitors (See Whitehead et al. in the introduction to this book). Indeed, the active denaturalisation of places by museums may lead to the destabilisation of place identities, a phenomenon that may lead to discomfort, retrenchment or defensive responses amongst visitors. As such, visitors may actively resist museum strategies to evoke ‘empathy’ with migrant experiences. In this extended chapter, I argue that while museums may strive to represent the fluid nature of identity and facilitate an understanding of the constructed nature of place, within individuals’ daily lives the desire to hold a fixed understanding of place stem from the desire for stability and coherence, as well as the sense of pride that arises from an understanding of place and what it means to belong to that place as ‘unique’. Such feelings are pertinent within the context of rapid globalisation and the rise of ‘superdiversity’ (Vertovec 2007).

Books by Katherine Lloyd

The book represents the proceedings of the international conference "Placing" Europe in the Museu... more The book represents the proceedings of the international conference "Placing" Europe in the Museum: People(s), Places, Identities, held at Newcastle University in September 2012. This was the first in a series of events intended to complement and inform research within the context of the MeLa Project. The papers relate to Research Field 01, which focuses on Museums and Identity in History and today, and will develop policy-relevant arguments concerning the cultural significance of place within museum representations for questions of contemporary European identities and notions of citizenship. The volume includes contributions of: Christopher Whitehead, Rhiannon Mason, Susannah Eckersley, Katherine Lloyd, Tomasz Maślanka, Michal Luczewski, Christine Cadot, Roxana Adina Huma, Elisabeth Tietmeyer, Barış Ülker, Kylea Little, Francesca Lanz, Michelle More, Sonja Kmec.

Talks by Katherine Lloyd

This paper examines how young people in Scotland utilise and negotiate concepts of ‘heritage’ whe... more This paper examines how young people in Scotland utilise and negotiate concepts of ‘heritage’ when constructing narratives of belonging and exclusion. In doing so, it seeks to understand the potential for museums in Scotland to foster ‘inclusive’ understandings of national identity through what Mason (2013) has termed ‘cosmopolitan museology’. In Scotland, heritage plays an important role in constructing national identity as ‘inclusive’ in political discourse through the celebration of both the longstanding heterogeneity of Scottish society and the importance of shared cultural practices. Many museums in Scotland have echoed this political emphasis on cultural diversity, by drawing comparisons between regional and historical variations within the nation and the experiences of so-called ‘New Scots’. However, it remains to be seen whether attempts to deconstruct homogenous discourses of nationhood at the level of the state or institution are capable of radically altering individual understandings of national identity and belonging. If ‘heritage’ offers a source of ‘ontological security’ in an ever globalising and changing world, what happens when ‘fixed’ and ‘stable’ discourses of the nation are challenged? How do individuals adapt to or manage this uncertainty? Do they embrace fluid understandings of ‘heritage’ or ‘identity’ or do they resist by redrawing boundaries and returning to the comfort of established historical narratives of nationhood? Drawing upon a comparative analysis of the narratives of young people aged between 13-18 years old from six schools in Glasgow, Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders and the Western Isles, this paper considers these questions and their implication for both museum practice and wider cultural policy in Scotland.

This paper examines how young people in Scotland construct and utilise concepts of ‘heritage’ whe... more This paper examines how young people in Scotland construct and utilise concepts of ‘heritage’ when negotiating national identity and cultural diversity. It argues that whilst there are a wealth of site-based studies that focus on the relationship between heritage and national identity, there is currently little theoretical understanding of how heritage operates in individual’s constructions of national identity and what impact this has on their perceptions of others. Drawing upon sociological perspectives that argue that studies of state-level nationalism fail to account for how national identity operates at the level of the individual, this paper seeks to move away from the deconstruction and critique of ‘official’ discourses of heritage that have historically dominated the field. Instead it attempts to examine how people construct and utilise the concept of heritage in their daily lives. It also outlines the methodological and theoretical challenges that have been encountered in such an approach.

Heritage plays a key role in the construction of Scotland as an ‘inclusive’ nation in public policy. The Scottish National Party (SNP) Government highlights heritage as a means of building a ‘strong, fair and inclusive national identity’ (Scottish Government 2009). However, there is little empirical research into whether this definition of an ‘inclusive’ heritage corresponds with the way that individuals conceptualise heritage. Whilst theorists such as Bechhofer and McCrone (2009) argue that Scottish people’s strong sense of identity is attributed to a powerful sense of culture and heritage, there are few studies that focus on what this means in practice. Does a strong sense of heritage produce an exclusivist understanding of identity? Or does engagement with heritage facilitate inclusive definitions of identity? By addressing these questions this paper explores the gap between heritage as defined in policy and public understandings of heritage.

This paper examines two Scottish museum displays that explicitly aim to construct an ‘inclusive’ ... more This paper examines two Scottish museum displays that explicitly aim to construct an ‘inclusive’ understanding of national identity: Scotland: A Changing Nation in the National Museum of Scotland and Scottish identity in Art in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Although reflective of wider UK museological practice, I argue that these displays need to be understood as a response to a distinctly Scottish set of political debates and policies. Through utilising the work of Ashworth et al. (2007), who identify five models for understanding the role that heritage plays in shaping collective identities, I suggest that the representation of minorities in these displays is reflective of a cross-party Scottish political agenda that aims to shape public constructions of national identity as ‘civic’ rather than ‘ethnic’. Consequently, minority identities are represented in the displays as ‘exotic embellishments’ that enhance and strengthen the ‘core culture’, rather than threatening established definitions of Scottishness.

Cultural Trends, Jun 25, 2014