University of Leicester

Faculty Member, Museum Studies

Distance Learning Associate Tutor

School of Museum Studies

Thesis Title: Learning to Respect: the Perspectives of Heritage Professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand

About

Jeanette Atkinson is a heritage professional with a background in both academic research and heritage practice.  She has worked as a Distance Learning Associate Tutor for the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, UK, since 2004.  She is currently a pastoral, module and dissertation tutor on the MA in Museum Studies by Distance Learning, MA in Interpretation, Representation and Heritage and MA Digital Heritage programmes and a pastoral tutor for the MA in Learning and Visitor Studies.  She also contributes to campus based teaching and assessment and has been involved in teaching on the Distance Learning Summer Schools since 2005.  In addition to teaching and independent research, Jeanette continues to work in a heritage capacity by contributing to collection management and care of collections at Harborough Museum.

Previously, Jeanette worked as Programme Director, Museum Studies by Distance Learning in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, where she was responsible for nearly 300 distance learning students and managed 20 Associate Tutors.  She also contributed to teaching and assessment on the School’s campus based programme in the areas of collection management, care of collections, the exhibition project, study visits and the group project. 

Prior to working at Leicester, Jeanette worked as an art conservator in a range of national and regional museums in both the United Kingdom and New Zealand.  As Senior Paper Conservator at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, Jeanette worked closely with collection curators in the areas of prints, drawings and watercolours, archives, ephemera, cartography and cartoons.  She line managed the paper conservator and technicians, scheduling exhibition and loan conservation, and was responsible for obtaining funding from the Getty Grant Program to supervise two one-year paper conservation internships.  Jeanette worked with conservation colleagues as part of a team on numerous occasions, facilitating workshops and promoting conservation to curatorial and library staff, library and information professionals, museum studies students, overseas museum professionals and members of the public through a range of tours.  These tours and workshops provided opportunities to demonstrate our dedication and work enjoyment within a complex bicultural environment. 

Jeanette has also worked in London at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Kensington Palace, and on the University of Edinburgh’s Special Collections.  Private conservation practice in the UK and New Zealand has included work for Christie’s Auctioneers, Sotheby’s, the Sainsbury Collection at the University of East Anglia (UK), and the Museum of Wellington City and Sea (NZ).


Research Interests

Jeanette’s interdisciplinary research interests draw together from the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences aspects of identity, values, authenticity, visual and material culture, cultural heritage, museums and communities, applied history and postcolonialism.

Based on a case study undertaken in Aotearoa New Zealand, doctoral research (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council – AHRC), in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester (Atkinson 2008), examined perceptions of values and identity in the postcolonial context and investigated the changing relationship between museums and communities.  The research identified specific strategies for increasing intercultural awareness and respect for differing perspectives.

Current research centres on created visual and material culture, constructed identities, museums and the wider heritage sector.  It investigates how proponents of steampunk, cosplay and historical re-enactment construct their identities through their chosen characters, costumes and associated visual and material culture, and explores the potential impact of these ‘fabricated histories’ on museum collections and exhibitions.  In engaging with the challenges posed at the intersection of museums, visual and material culture, heritage tourism and costumed communities, this research seeks to understand the encounters and power relations between institutions and communities.

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