New Futures of Care: Investigating Emotionally Laden Work in Museums

Abstract

The New futures of care: Investigating emotionally laden work in museums project was a 12-month research collaboration that took place between February 2024 and February 2025, funded by a Royal Society of Edinburgh workshop grant, the University of Stirling and King’s College London. The project explored how museum workers in the UK articulate, experience and utilise emotions in their professional lives. This is a topic that has received little focused attention, yet it is of growing scholarly and sector concern as museums increasingly operate in contexts of urgent change (e.g. presented by anti-racist, decolonial practice and climate justice).