Claire Marie Hanrahan
c.hanrahan.1@research.gla.ac.uk
Research title: Curating in Times of Change: Stigma, Social Harm, & Cultural Stewardship
Research summary
Updated Research Title: Curating in Times of Change: Stigma, Social Harm, & Cultural Stewardship
This project looks to explore the professional practices of curators and their opinions on their practices when it comes to the acquisition of antiquities and cultural objects for their museums. The goal is to further our understanding of what curators think and feel about current standards in the museum field as applied to the acquisition of antiquities and how legislation, museum culture, and society impacts these practices. This will be explored through a variety of theoretical stances to understand how curatorial practices are shaped by social and institutional structures and how related practices and beliefs are explained by curators. This study will include analysis of internal and external museum acquisitions and ethics policies, interviews with curators, and a survey.
Supervisors
Grants
December 2024: Fleck Bequest Grant, University of Glasgow (recipient, £1000)
November 2024: Research Support Grant, University of Glasgow (recipient, £800)
Conferences
September 2025: Theoretical Frameworks for Researching Museum Curators and the Illicit Antiquities Trade. European Society of Criminology, EuroCrim Conference, Athens, Greece.
September 2024: Neutralisation Techniques Among Curators in the Acquisition of Antiquities. European Society of Criminology, EuroCrim Conference, Bucharest, Romania.
Teaching
2024-Present: Graduate Teaching Assistant. Sociology 1A/1B, University of Glasgow, UK.
2022-2023: Adjunct Faculty. Art History & Museum Studies, University of Tampa, Florida, USA
2017: Associate Faculty. Art History, Collin County Community College, Texas, USA