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Living Art, Living History, Living Material: Exploring the Impact of Heritage Clothing and Materials on Museum Educator Pedagogy (open access)

Living Art, Living History, Living Material: Exploring the Impact of Heritage Clothing and Materials on Museum Educator Pedagogy

Historical dress as a museum theater and research process encompasses material, technological, and cultural experiences from the past in the present. This research examines how intimate experiences with heritage materials, processes, and environments may impact development of educator pedagogy. Historical attractions in the US draw visitors due in part to providing guests with context for the objects and built environments displayed. New Materialist theory offers insights into how inanimate objects and environments "teach" human and non-human entities in their own right. Using a New Materialist lens, I observed, interviewed, and conducted participant observations through a novel research methodology, intra-active narrative inquiry, with costumed museum educators to better discern how relations between humans and historical materials intra-act as embodied experiences of object knowledge in museum pedagogy.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Harper, Sarah Ellen
System: The UNT Digital Library