Research Suzie Thomas

Abstract

Public participation through citizen science approaches is a well-established scientific practice, and has been a topic of theoretical and applied research for many decades. Much less well-understood, however, are the innumerable formal and informal groups of people conducting their forms of knowledge generation and sharing, that are detached from professional scientific communities (heritage practice communities - HPCs). Voluntary associations have existed (and been documented) for centuries alongside scholarly research and form part of the roots of heritage-related scientific disciplines such as archaeology. However, recent decades have seen significant developments in both the professionalization of science and, more importantly, the advent of social media and other broadly available digital tools and platforms that have revolutionalized the way and scale in which grassroots communities communicate and produce knowledge. These grassroots HPCs may share some of the same features of citizen science, but they operate differently. The HPCs themselves, rather than scientists, set the agenda of what is researched, how and why. While this may not seem relevant in a number of disciplines, understanding the dynamics of HPCs, the motivations behind them and the informal, parallel knowledge and attitudes circulating within them are crucial in the case of heritage. Indeed, the activities of HPCs commonly have an impact on the preservation and accessibility of heritage, and hence, its availability for academic research. The digital knowledge production processes of the HPCs themselves are also ripe for research, especially in the context of understanding voluntary action, participatory processes in heritage and the societal relevance of different types of heritage. Beyond involving objects and data of interest to academic research then, HPCs relate to issues of public participation and inclusivity which have become imperative in heritage-related disciplines, with clear implications for both policy and heritage management. This includes improving future heritage citizen science initiatives that respond to HPC interests and priorities as well as those of scientists, likely leading to increased participation and more effective results in future heritage citizen science. This SRN proposal brings together research groups from a diverse range of disciplines to respond to the challenge of improving our understanding of these grassroots HPCs in a digital world: critical heritage studies, archaeology, computer science, museology, sociology, digital humanities and archival studies. By leveraging the ongoing research at the SRN member institutions, including internationally recognized and established discipline leaders as well as emerging early career and mid-career researchers, its activities will specifically consider three types of HPC as case studies from which to begin to identify commonalities in practice. These are: hobby metal detectorists, family history groups, and industrial heritage groups. Other types of HPCs are likely to be considered as workshops and other network activities unfold. The SRN aims to conceptualize HPCs and their (digital) activities. Specific themes for research and debate involve the construction and communication of heritage-related knowledge within HPCs, the use of digital and online tools within HPCs, and the critical examination of existing and future methodologies with which academic communities can study grassroots heritage practices as well as productively and ethically engage with practitioners as part of their heritage-related research. Through its activities, the SRN furthermore aims to relate and compare these concepts to existing frameworks concerning disciplinary knowledge, citizen science and public participation, and set out a research agenda. In this fashion, the SRN will result in conceptual and methodological progress as well as serve as a springboard for further project applications.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Thomas Suzie

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Cultural Heritage Sciences (ARCHES)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

While much research is being carried out concerning publicly held collections of colonial-era objects,especially in European museums, the privately held objects, and the values attached to them by their owners, remains little researched. In the context of post-colonial debates and attempts to decolonize cultural spaces, questions arise as to whether holding colonial-era cultural objects is still seen as socially and culturally acceptable, and the extent to which this affects the feelings of owners towards their objects. This doctoral study addresses this gap in the research, focusing on colonial-era African art and artefacts held privately in Belgium as a national case study that has potential to shed significant light on what are global discourses. Therefore, the project asks the following questions: What can be learned about the scale and nature of privately held colonial-era African art in Belgium? What attachments and meanings do owners associate with colonial-era African art in Belgium? To what extent might post-colonialism debates or other contemporary discourses have impacted owners of privately held colonial-era African art in Belgium?

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Thomas Suzie
• Co-promoter: Kruger Thalia
• Fellow: Nolet Katelijne

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Cultural Heritage Sciences (ARCHES)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This is an ongoing research project, "Ideology of Heritage, Museum, Cultural Politics, and Construction of National Identity in Finland and Japan", funded by the Kone Foundation (January 2021- June 2023), Kalevala Koru Cultural Foundation (2020) and Finnish National Agency for Education (2020). This project pursues a theoretical and practical model of the future museum direction. Although this research started as comparative studies between the Finnish and Japanese national museums and their cultural politics, it has developed further into a broader philosophical and theoretical approach to studying the museums and their decolonising discourse through the lens of the current world system as Ramón Grosfoguel (2011) described it as 'Capitalist/Patriarchal Westerncentric/ Christian-centric Modern/Colonial World-System'. Museums are about power and part of this hegemonic structure, even though many institutions are trying to move away from it, seeking more just practices. Decolonising museums demands studying the unjust of the current world system. Rather than narrowing it down, I broadened my research twofold; comparative studies of the national museums in Finland and Japan as a case study; and decolonising museums, universities and knowledge as theoretical arguments and experiments. This is a transdisciplinary and indisciplined transdisciplinary (Castro-Gómez et al. 2002: 13–14, translated by Juan Carlos Finck Carrales and Julia Suárez-Krabbe 2022, 23) article-based project; four articles for the doctoral thesis study the national museums between Finland and Japan, and three to four articles explicitly written on decolonising discourses outside my doctoral thesis.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Thomas Suzie
• Fellow: Shiraiwa Shikoh

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Cultural Heritage Sciences (ARCHES)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Professional archaeology has historically had a difficult and varying relationship with non-professional and amateur groups, including metal detectorists and private collectors. Opinions from the professional archaeological sector are divided on how best to engage with these. Due to this ongoing concern and attempts to negotiate different ethical standpoints, the full extent of research involving and working with finders and collectors of archaeological objects is rarely realized. In particular the 'secret lives' of objects, that is, what happens to them after they are uncovered and what other meanings they gather for particular groups and individuals beyond their scientific (archaeological) information potential, is usually overlooked. This project therefore poses the questions: what biographies of portable heritage objects (PHOs) can be sought through interaction with their current stewards (owners)? What extra light can such information shed on our understanding of contemporary human interactions with PHOs, and upon the role of these PHOs in everyday life? How can object-focused interviews be developed as a solid methodology to shed light on biographies of PHOs discovered and owned by private individuals? In exploratory interviews carried out with metal detectorists and artefact collectors in Flanders, the project investigates where certain objects were found and how, but also the object biography information (where is it now, how is it shown, what will happen to it in future, and its personal meanings to its current steward). The findings enrich our understanding of the biographies of objects, and boldly explores the perspectives of finders and collectors that in this regard have often been overlooked, contending that this data is crucial for grasping the draw of things, and especially old things, in our analyses of portable heritage objects.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Thomas Suzie

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Cultural Heritage Sciences (ARCHES)

Project type(s)

• Research Project