Queering the Museum

Nikki Sullivan is Manager of the Centre of Democracy in Adelaide, South Australia. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, University of Adelaide.Craig Middleton is Curator at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. His research and practice explore political histories and histories of activism, LGBTIQ+ histories, and critical museology.

• Introduction; 1.From LGBTIQ+ inclusion to queer ethics; 2. Queer/ing display; 3. Queer/ing meaning-making; 4.Queer/ing engagement; Conclusion

"In Nikki Sullivan’s and Craig Middleton’s Queering the Museum, we witness alternative offerings that question, deconstruct, and reimagine what museums can be doing. They critique the institution of museums by exploring queer methodologies within and outside of the museum and addressing this institution as much as an entity as an action. Delving into critical race theory, indigenous studies, queer studies, feminist methodologies, cultural studies, the authors position museums as being shaped by the world around them, aspiring for inclusion yet continuing to hide and exclude the other-ed, and needing to advocate for museums’ participation in critical reflections and approaches to this work. While this book can serve as a helpful toolkit for pushing, reimagining, and queering museums, Sullivan and Middleton resist the notion that there is a prescribed remedy or formula to queering the museum." Sarita Hernández, SQS 1-2/2020, Queer Eye reviews."The book encourages readers from the outset to push back against the idea that there is one way to pursue its subject matter. Instead, it urges readers to ‘avoid conceiving museums and museological practice in binary terms – good/bad, us/them, progressive/anachronistic, inclusive/exclusory’ (3). Queering the Museum lives into this premise, complicating and challenging binaries both formal and implicit." C.M Wilson, University of Leicester