Inheriting the Anthropocene: Posthuman Entanglements of Curiosity/Curation/Care in Museum-Based Collaborations With Young People

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Collaborating in the Anthropocene

Abstract

The paper presents research conducted in a university museum during a three-month collaboration between young people (age 11-14), environmental educators, researchers, artists, and curators. The research explores young people’s shifting sense of inheritance in what has been called the Anthropocene, an age typified by climate change and socio-ecological precarity. The authors argue that critical and creative environmental education approaches are needed which acknowledge the urgency of decolonization in museum spaces that have been historically dominated by colonial logics of (dis)possession, extraction, and mastery. The paper develops posthumanist conceptions of curiosity, curation, and care through examples from a museum exhibit co-created with young people, including a “cabinet of curiosity”, decolonial museum walks, and other critical interventions in the museum’s public spaces.

Authors

• David Rousell, RMIT University

• Riikka Hohti, University of Helsinki

• Maggie MacLure, Manchester Metropolitan University

• Hannah-Lee Chalk, University of Manchester