Primary Investigator
Dr. Monica Eileen Patterson is Associate Professor in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies and Assistant Director of Curatorial Studies in the Institute for the Comparative Study of Literature, Art, and Culture at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She holds a PhD in Anthropology and History, and a certificate in Museum Studies from the University Michigan. Patterson is author of several articles and co-editor of two books: Curating Difficult Knowledge: Violent Pasts in Public Places (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and Anthrohistory: Unsettling Knowledge and Questioning Discipline (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.
Her latest project, “A New, Critical Children’s Museology” identifies and develops approaches to producing exhibit content not just for or about children, but by and with children across the globe. It explores how children can change curatorial practice and their communities via active participation and exhibit co-creation. As a curator, scholar, and activist, Patterson is particularly interested in the intersections of memory, childhood, and racism in postcolonial Africa and Canada, and the ways in which they are represented and engaged in contemporary public spheres.
Research Assistant
Rebecca Friend is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public History at Carleton University. She holds a MA in Public History, a Graduate Diploma in Curatorial Studies from Ottawa’s Carleton University, and a Bachelor in Honours History from Concordia University in Montréal. Her Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council-funded research studies representations of children and childhood in Canadian commemorations, and captures contemporary children’s own interpretations of the messages communicated. Rebecca has worked as a Research Assistant with the “Reimagining the Children’s Museum Team” at the Canadian Museum of History, and most recently as a “Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations” Program Officer with the Canadian Museums Association.