Dr Rosie Spooner
- Lecturer (Information Studies)
telephone:
0141 330 1707
email:
Rosemary.Spooner@glasgow.ac.uk
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7715-7917Biography
I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Information Studies in the School of Humanities. Trained as a cultural historian of the British Empire (19C and 20C), my current research and teaching concern the history, theory and practice of museums, heritage sites and other memory institutions within an imperial context and the contemporary legacies of this.
I joined Information Studies in September 2017 and became a full-time member of staff in April 2019. From 2016-2019, I was a Lecturer in Design History and Theory at the Glasgow School of Art.
I hold a PhD in History of Art from the University of Glasgow (2013-2016), a master's degree in History (colonialism, empire and race pathway) from the University of Bristol (2008-2009), and an undergraduate degree in Single Honours History from the University of Glasgow (2002-2006).
I also have professional experience working in museums, art galleries and archives in the UK and Canada, and have held positions in collections research, programming and curation, education, events management and administration.
I was born and grew up in downtown Toronto/Tkaronto, Canada, in the 1980s, 1990s and early-2000s, a foundational experience that in one way or another informs much of my work.
Research interests
My research expertise sits at the juncture of British imperial and colonial history, critical museology and critical heritage studies and is grounded in approaches from postcolonial and decolonial theory. Having trained as a cultural historian of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century British Empire, my research presently concerns the entanglements between the history, theory and practice of museums and other heritage spaces and slavery, colonialism and imperialism, focusing especially – though not exclusively – on the modern and contemporary Scottish context. In particular, I examine how exhibitionary spaces (e.g. museums, galleries, international exhibitions) functioned as tools of empire by facilitating the removal, collection, classification, display and interpretation of objects and images. Attentive to empire and its after-effects, I am also interested in how processes of heritage construction, commemoration and collective memory formation intersect with contested and 'hidden histories' of the colonial past and, closely tied to this, what constitutes progressive, anti-racist and decolonial museum practices.
I am currently working on two substantive research projects that sit within this broad, inter-disciplinary field of study.
The first is a critical analysis of the series of international exhibitions that were held in Glasgow between 1888 and 1938. This study examines the architecture and built environment, pavilions and exhibits, and interpretation and promotion of these immensely popular and yet largely ephemeral spectacles. It considers how these events, staged in the self-styled 'Second City of the British Empire', functioned as sites of imperial meaning-making and as expressions of a distinct imperial civic identity over a time period that covers both the empire's height and its nascent stages of decline.
The second is a practice-led project that explores the affordances and limitations of walking as a research method, form of public pedagogy and critical heritage practice. It examines whether the act and experience of walking can be a tool for interweaving underrepresented histories -- specifically histories of slavery, colonialism and imperialism -- into dominant heritage discourses and for exposing the process through which knowledge of the past is constructed in heritage settings. This work centres on creating, leading and evaluating free critical heritage walking tours delivered through existing public events programmes (e.g. Black History Month in Scotland, Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival, Architecture Fringe Festival), as well as allied walking resources such as a self-led heritage trail.
Additionally, I am a Project Co-Lead for IREAL: Inclusive Requirements Elicitation for AI in Libraries to Support Respectful Management of Indigenous Knowledges. A collaboration between the University of Glasgow, University of Technology Sydney and the King's Digital Lab, iREAL is a scoping project that seeks to develop a model for responsible AI systems development in libraries that hold collections reflective of Indigenous knowledges, specifially knowledge linked with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. iREAL is funded through the AHRC's Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) scheme.
Publications
2024
Spooner, R. (2024) Every Blade of Grass, Every Rock: A Heritage Trail Uncovering Kelvingrove Park’s History of Slavery, Colonialism and Imperialism. [Artefact]
Spooner, R. (2024) Interweaving and intervening: Walking-with “hidden” histories of empire in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow. Radical History Review, 152, (Accepted for Publication)
Callaghan, S., Bouich, A., Gooding, P. , Spooner, R. , Thorpe, K., Booker, L., Wright, R. and Galassi, M. (2024) iREAL: Inclusive Requirements Elicitation for AI in Libraries to Support Respectful Management of Indigenous Knowledges. RSLondonSouthEast 2024, London, UK, 16th July 2024.
Gooding, P. , Booker, L., Bouich, A., Callaghan, S., Spooner, R. and Thorpe, K. (2024) iREAL: Indigenising Requirements Elicitation for Artificial Intelligence in Libraries. LUSTRE Workshop 4: The Future of AI to Unlock Digital Records, London, UK, 27-28 June 2024.
Spooner, R. (2024) Critical Interweavings: Walking as Decolonial Heritage Practice. In: Heritages: Past and Present – Built and Social, Prague, Czech Republic, 28-30 Jun 2023, pp. 450-459.
2023
Economou, M. , Lloyd, K. and Spooner, R. (2023) Trends in museum studies programs: supporting critical thinkers and critical doers. In: King, Brad (ed.) New Directions for University Museums. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, Maryland, pp. 139-157. ISBN 9781538157725
Spooner, R. (2023) Critical Interweavings: Walking as Decolonial Heritage Practice. Heritages: Past and Present – Built and Social, Prague, Czech Republic, 28-30 June 2023.
Spooner, R. (2023) Critical Interweavings: Walking as Critical Heritage Practice. Centre for Environment, Heritage and Policy Seminar Series, Stirling, UK, 31 January 2023.
2022
More, M. and Spooner, R. (2022) Telling a fuller story: Scottish design, empire and transnational heritage at V&A Dundee. In: Bond, Emma and Morris, Michael (eds.) Scotland's Transnational Heritage: Legacies of Empire and Slavery. Edinburgh University Press1: Edinburgh, pp. 136-154. ISBN 9781474493505
2019
Spooner, R. (2019) Deconstructing Empire: Robert Weir Schultz’s Anglican Cathedral, Khartoum. Transnational Scotland: Reconnecting Heritage Stories through Museum Object Collections, V&A Museum of Design, Dundee, 6 August 2019.
Spooner, R. (2019) Hidden in Plain Sight: Tracing Histories of Empire in Glasgow. Association for Art History 2019 Annual Conference, Brighton, UK, 04-06 Apr 2019.
Spooner, R. (2019) Learning through Doing, Learning through Sharing: Linking Museum Theory and Practice through Professional Work Placements. 12th Annual University of Glasgow Learning and Teaching Conference, Glasgow, UK, 2-3 Apr 2019.
Spooner, R. (2019) Day-tripping: Urban excursions and the architecture of international exhibitions. Architectural Theory Review, 23(3), pp. 326-344. (doi: 10.1080/13264826.2019.1698398)
2018
Spooner, R. (2018) Working Beyond Nine to Five: Reflections from an Early Career Academic. Association for Art History Careers Day, Glasgow, UK, 6 Dec 2018.
Spooner, R. (2018) 'Prime Minister in the Home Department': female gendered identity in Colonial Upper Canada. In: Dias, Rosie and Smith, Kate (eds.) British Women and Cultural Practices of Empire, 1770-1940. Series: Material culture of art and design. Bloomsbury Visual Arts: London, pp. 193-214. ISBN 9781501332159
Spooner, R. (2018) Showing and Telling: Object Lessons at International World’s Fairs. Association for Art History Annual Conference, London, UK, 5-7 Apr 2018.
Spooner, R. (2018) Connecting Canada and Glasgow, Second City of Empire. [Audio]
Spooner, R. (2018) Whose Footsteps? Mapping Glasgow’s Imperial Past in Kelvingrove. [Performance]
2017
Spooner, R. (2017) Inclusion, Pedagogy and Precarity. Diversity and Inclusion in Scottish Cultural/Creative Industries, Glasgow, UK, 7 Dec 2017.
Spooner, R. (2017) "Wild and Luxuriantly": Exhibiting Canada at International World’s Fairs, 1880s-1930s. Universities Art Association of Canada Annual Conference, Banff, Canada, 12-15 Oct 2017.
Spooner, R. (2017) Trans-Atlantic Connections and Artist Networks in Glasgow and Toronto, 1890s-1920s. 18th and 19th Century Art, Design and Architecture Research Seminar Series, Glasgow, UK, 3 May 2017.
Spooner, R. (2017) Inclusions and omissions: imaginings of Canadian nation-ness. In: Hunter, Andrew (ed.) Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood. Art Gallery of Ontario: Toronto, pp. 126-130. ISBN 9781894243957
2016
Spooner, R. (2016) Glasgow Calling: International Exhibitions in a Faraway Town. History of Art Research Seminar Series, Glasgow, UK, 12 Oct 2016.
Spooner, R. (2016) To See and Be Seen: The Allure of the Crowd at Nineteenth-century International Exhibitions. The Global City: Past and Present, London, UK, 26-27 May 2016.
Spooner, R. (2016) The Exhibition as City and the City as Spectacle. Association for Art History Annual Conference, Edinburgh, UK, 7-9 Apr 2016.
Spooner, R. (2016) Review of Cultures of International Exhibitions 1840-1940: Great Exhibitions on the Margins, edited by Marta Filipová (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015). Journal of Curatorial Studies, 5(3), pp. 421-433. [Book Review]
2015
Spooner, R. (2015) This is paradise: art and artists in Toronto. Journal of Curatorial Studies, 4(3), pp. 505-507.
Spooner, R. (2015) A Walk in the Park: Mapping Glasgow’s International Exhibitions. Second Cities of Empire: Glasgow / Calcutta and the Legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment, Glasgow, UK, 15-16 May 2015.
Spooner, R. (2015) “Intimate Relations”: Canada and Scotland at the Glasgow International Exhibitions. British Association for Canadian Studies Annual Conference, London, UK, 23-25 Apr 2015.
Spooner, R. (2015) Jasmina Cibic: the fruits of our land. C Magazine, 125, pp. 58-59.
2014
Spooner, R. (2014) The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland: A History, by Annette Carruthers (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013). Burlington Magazine, 156(1335), pp. 399-400. [Book Review]
Spooner, R. (2014) Sport, slavery, silences: the Commonwealth Games and the Empire Café. Kapsula, 1(3), pp. 8-16.
Spooner, R. (2014) A heritage institution exploring its own ancestry: Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 6(2), pp. 57-67. (doi: 10.18848/1835-2014/CGP/v06i02/44440)
2013
Spooner, R. (2013) “Prime Minister in the Home Department”: Female Gendered Identity in Nineteenth-Century Upper Canada. Visualising and Materialising Colonial Spaces: Female Responses to Empire, Warwick, UK, 11 Jan 2014.
2012
Spooner, R. (2012) A Heritage Institution Exploring Its Own Ancestry: Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Sixth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, 22-24 Apr 2013.
Spooner, R. (2012) In the archives: unearthing histories of Canadian dance pioneer Nesta Toumine. Dance Collection Danse, 72, pp. 4-5.
Spooner, R. (2012) Imperial debris: picture postcards and the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, 1924-1925. Ex Plus Ultra: a Postgraduate Ejournal of Colonial History and Post Colonial Theory, 3,
2010
Spooner, R. (2010) Kunstkammer/Wunderkammer. [Exhibitions]
Articles
Spooner, R. (2024) Interweaving and intervening: Walking-with “hidden” histories of empire in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow. Radical History Review, 152, (Accepted for Publication)
Spooner, R. (2020) What's in a name? Empire Museum: Scottish Museum of Empire, Slavery, Colonialism and Migration,
Spooner, R. (2019) Day-tripping: Urban excursions and the architecture of international exhibitions. Architectural Theory Review, 23(3), pp. 326-344. (doi: 10.1080/13264826.2019.1698398)
Spooner, R. (2015) This is paradise: art and artists in Toronto. Journal of Curatorial Studies, 4(3), pp. 505-507.
Spooner, R. (2015) Jasmina Cibic: the fruits of our land. C Magazine, 125, pp. 58-59.
Spooner, R. (2014) Sport, slavery, silences: the Commonwealth Games and the Empire Café. Kapsula, 1(3), pp. 8-16.
Spooner, R. (2014) A heritage institution exploring its own ancestry: Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 6(2), pp. 57-67. (doi: 10.18848/1835-2014/CGP/v06i02/44440)
Spooner, R. (2012) In the archives: unearthing histories of Canadian dance pioneer Nesta Toumine. Dance Collection Danse, 72, pp. 4-5.
Spooner, R. (2012) Imperial debris: picture postcards and the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, 1924-1925. Ex Plus Ultra: a Postgraduate Ejournal of Colonial History and Post Colonial Theory, 3,
Book Sections
Economou, M. , Lloyd, K. and Spooner, R. (2023) Trends in museum studies programs: supporting critical thinkers and critical doers. In: King, Brad (ed.) New Directions for University Museums. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, Maryland, pp. 139-157. ISBN 9781538157725
More, M. and Spooner, R. (2022) Telling a fuller story: Scottish design, empire and transnational heritage at V&A Dundee. In: Bond, Emma and Morris, Michael (eds.) Scotland's Transnational Heritage: Legacies of Empire and Slavery. Edinburgh University Press1: Edinburgh, pp. 136-154. ISBN 9781474493505
Spooner, R. (2018) 'Prime Minister in the Home Department': female gendered identity in Colonial Upper Canada. In: Dias, Rosie and Smith, Kate (eds.) British Women and Cultural Practices of Empire, 1770-1940. Series: Material culture of art and design. Bloomsbury Visual Arts: London, pp. 193-214. ISBN 9781501332159
Spooner, R. (2017) Inclusions and omissions: imaginings of Canadian nation-ness. In: Hunter, Andrew (ed.) Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood. Art Gallery of Ontario: Toronto, pp. 126-130. ISBN 9781894243957
Book Reviews
Spooner, R. (2016) Review of Cultures of International Exhibitions 1840-1940: Great Exhibitions on the Margins, edited by Marta Filipová (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015). Journal of Curatorial Studies, 5(3), pp. 421-433. [Book Review]
Spooner, R. (2014) The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland: A History, by Annette Carruthers (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013). Burlington Magazine, 156(1335), pp. 399-400. [Book Review]
Conference or Workshop Item
Callaghan, S., Bouich, A., Gooding, P. , Spooner, R. , Thorpe, K., Booker, L., Wright, R. and Galassi, M. (2024) iREAL: Inclusive Requirements Elicitation for AI in Libraries to Support Respectful Management of Indigenous Knowledges. RSLondonSouthEast 2024, London, UK, 16th July 2024.
Gooding, P. , Booker, L., Bouich, A., Callaghan, S., Spooner, R. and Thorpe, K. (2024) iREAL: Indigenising Requirements Elicitation for Artificial Intelligence in Libraries. LUSTRE Workshop 4: The Future of AI to Unlock Digital Records, London, UK, 27-28 June 2024.
Spooner, R. (2023) Critical Interweavings: Walking as Decolonial Heritage Practice. Heritages: Past and Present – Built and Social, Prague, Czech Republic, 28-30 June 2023.
Spooner, R. (2023) Critical Interweavings: Walking as Critical Heritage Practice. Centre for Environment, Heritage and Policy Seminar Series, Stirling, UK, 31 January 2023.
Spooner, R. (2019) Deconstructing Empire: Robert Weir Schultz’s Anglican Cathedral, Khartoum. Transnational Scotland: Reconnecting Heritage Stories through Museum Object Collections, V&A Museum of Design, Dundee, 6 August 2019.
Spooner, R. (2019) Hidden in Plain Sight: Tracing Histories of Empire in Glasgow. Association for Art History 2019 Annual Conference, Brighton, UK, 04-06 Apr 2019.
Spooner, R. (2019) Learning through Doing, Learning through Sharing: Linking Museum Theory and Practice through Professional Work Placements. 12th Annual University of Glasgow Learning and Teaching Conference, Glasgow, UK, 2-3 Apr 2019.
Spooner, R. (2018) Working Beyond Nine to Five: Reflections from an Early Career Academic. Association for Art History Careers Day, Glasgow, UK, 6 Dec 2018.
Spooner, R. (2018) Showing and Telling: Object Lessons at International World’s Fairs. Association for Art History Annual Conference, London, UK, 5-7 Apr 2018.
Spooner, R. (2017) Inclusion, Pedagogy and Precarity. Diversity and Inclusion in Scottish Cultural/Creative Industries, Glasgow, UK, 7 Dec 2017.
Spooner, R. (2017) "Wild and Luxuriantly": Exhibiting Canada at International World’s Fairs, 1880s-1930s. Universities Art Association of Canada Annual Conference, Banff, Canada, 12-15 Oct 2017.
Spooner, R. (2017) Trans-Atlantic Connections and Artist Networks in Glasgow and Toronto, 1890s-1920s. 18th and 19th Century Art, Design and Architecture Research Seminar Series, Glasgow, UK, 3 May 2017.
Spooner, R. (2016) Glasgow Calling: International Exhibitions in a Faraway Town. History of Art Research Seminar Series, Glasgow, UK, 12 Oct 2016.
Spooner, R. (2016) To See and Be Seen: The Allure of the Crowd at Nineteenth-century International Exhibitions. The Global City: Past and Present, London, UK, 26-27 May 2016.
Spooner, R. (2016) The Exhibition as City and the City as Spectacle. Association for Art History Annual Conference, Edinburgh, UK, 7-9 Apr 2016.
Spooner, R. (2015) A Walk in the Park: Mapping Glasgow’s International Exhibitions. Second Cities of Empire: Glasgow / Calcutta and the Legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment, Glasgow, UK, 15-16 May 2015.
Spooner, R. (2015) “Intimate Relations”: Canada and Scotland at the Glasgow International Exhibitions. British Association for Canadian Studies Annual Conference, London, UK, 23-25 Apr 2015.
Spooner, R. (2013) “Prime Minister in the Home Department”: Female Gendered Identity in Nineteenth-Century Upper Canada. Visualising and Materialising Colonial Spaces: Female Responses to Empire, Warwick, UK, 11 Jan 2014.
Spooner, R. (2012) A Heritage Institution Exploring Its Own Ancestry: Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Sixth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, 22-24 Apr 2013.
Conference Proceedings
Spooner, R. (2024) Critical Interweavings: Walking as Decolonial Heritage Practice. In: Heritages: Past and Present – Built and Social, Prague, Czech Republic, 28-30 Jun 2023, pp. 450-459.
Exhibitions
Spooner, R. (2010) Kunstkammer/Wunderkammer. [Exhibitions]
Performance
Spooner, R. (2018) Whose Footsteps? Mapping Glasgow’s Imperial Past in Kelvingrove. [Performance]
Audio
Spooner, R. (2018) Connecting Canada and Glasgow, Second City of Empire. [Audio]
Website
Spooner, R. (2020) Critical Heritage Walk: Kelvingrove Park. [Website]
Supervision
I am interested in supervising research projects that align with any of the following fields and topics:
- Memory institutions and empire and its legacies
- Social justice and museums
- History of collecting and collections in an imperial context
- Critical museology, particularly work informed by post-colonial, anti-colonial and/or decolonial approaches
- Critical heritage studies
- International exhibitions and world's fairs
- Memory studies and intersections with heritage
- Politcs of display, interpretation and representation
- Co-Production and collaboration
Additionally, I welcome proposals for collaborative doctoral awards/partnerships from organisations across the cultural heritage sector (e.g. museums, galleries, libraries, archives, heritage sites).
I am currently supervising the following PhD candidates:
-
Chandra Brooks, 'Revisiting La Rate Blanche in the Era of Black Lives Matter: Autoethnographic Storytelling Through Scottish Heritage'
-
Oona Dooley, 'Curating Contemporary Art in Historic House Settings: A critical assessment of Scottish cultural heritage experiences at Hospitalfield, Jupiter Artland, and Mount Stuart'
-
Caitlin Knox, 'Scottish Museums and the Black Lives Matter Movement: A critical analysis into decolonial initiatives and changing museum practice', UofG James McCune Smith Scholarship
-
Giulia Marinos, 'Imagining Ancient Egypt in the Age of Empire: Identity and power in Scottish museum displays of Egyptian objects, 1860 to 1930', Collaborative Doctoral Award with National Museums Scotland
-
Lama Said (University of Edinburgh), 'Decolonising a Profession: Built Heritage Conservation and Management in Post-Colonial Egypt', AHRC SGSAH Doctoral Training Scholarship
- Dooley, Christie
Curating contemporary art in historic house settings: A critical assessment of Scottish cultural heritage experiences at Hospitalfield, Jupiter Artland, and Mount Stuart
Teaching
My teaching practice is rooted in concepts of critical and decolonial pedagogy, with areas of particular scholarly interest including experiential and practice-based learning, diversification of curricula, and equity, accessibility and social justice.
I am core academic faculty for the Museum Studies PGT programme and have convened a number of different core and optional courses since joining the Information Studies subject area. In recent years, I have settled into convening the following 20-credit PGT courses on an annual basis:
- Museum Skills and Professional Practice (core course in semester 1)
- Power & Politics in the Post/Colonial Museum (optional course in semester 2)
- Museum Studies Work Placement (optional course in semester 2)
Additionally, I regularly contribute to teaching and assesment on other PGT courses in Information Studies, such as Introduction to Museology, Managing and Using Collections, and Information Studies PGT Research Design & Methods. I also supervise Museum Studies MSc dissertations and Digital Media and Information Studies undergraduate dissertations.
Additional information
University leadership and administrative experience
- 2022 -- present: Co-Lead, Heritage Knowledge Exchange Hub, Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities
- 2020 -- present: Committee Member, Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies, University of Glasgow
- 2020 -- 2021: Creative Placements Officer, College of Arts & Humanities, University of Glasgow
- 2019 -- 2023: Co-Director, Decolonise Glasgow Arts Lab, University of Glasgow
- 2019 -- 2022: Committee Member, Smithsonian Partnership Steering Group, University of Glasgow
- 2015 -- 2016: Research Assistant, Scottish Network on Digital Cultural Resources Evaluation, University of Glasgow
- 2015 -- 2016: Co-Convenor, Colonial & Postcolonial Discussion Group, University of Glasgow
External advisory roles
- 2023: Curatorial Consultant, Glasgow Museums
- 2022 -- 2023: Decolonisation Leaders Network, UK Museums Association
- 2020 -- 2023: Decolonising Advisory Group, V&A Dundee
- 2016 -- 2017: Curatorial Consultant, Department of Indigenous & Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Ontario
Awards
- 2022: Team Teaching Award, College of Arts & Humanities, University of Glasgow
- 2017: Research Development Fund Award, Glasgow School of Art
- 2015: Vivien Hughes Prize, British Association for Canadian Studies
- 2013: Research Project Bursary, Cultural Artefacts, Buildings, Landscapes, Environments: Scotland, University of Glasgow
- 2014 -- 2015: Hunterian Associate, Fellowship Programme, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
- 2013: Graduate Scholar Award, Inclusive Museum Research Network
