• E-Mail: cassy.kist@gmail.com
• Social Media: Instagram / Twitter

Dr. Kist’s research interests lay at the intersection between cultural heritage, digital infrastructures, and social inclusion. Her research addresses these intersections by drawing on Science and Technology Studies and an anthropological perspective on the development, making, and use of technology in and for cultural heritage contexts. A particular expertise is qualitative research on 'behind the scenes' museum practices around and through social media and the resulting implications for user engagement.

PhD Research Abstract

My thesis research project was funded by the European Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Skłodowska-Curie Actions as part of the International Training Network - POEM (Participatory Memory Practices), consisting of 13 PhD students, partner organisations, and supervisors (2018-2021). I am currenlty working on a book publication based on my thesis research as part of the Routledge book series 'Participatory Memory Practices: Digital Media, Design, Futures'. In my thesis, titled 'Crafting museum social media for social inclusion work' I consider the (dis)connections between museum social media use and social inclusion practices. Through a close attention to everyday museum practice I identify the conditions, structures, tools and processes that enable or hinder staffs' ability to pursue social inclusion work through and as social media practices. The project employs a combination of qualitative research methods within the frame of a case study, including a social media ethnography and practice research. This research investigates the Open Museum (Glasgow Museums) as the institution is working at the forefont of socially inclusive and participatory practices, thus providing essential insight into the research questions. The findings from this study begin to paint a picture of museum social media for social inclusion as an active ongoing process that reaffirms and positions social media as an 'unfinished' technology. 

List by: Type | Date

PhD supervisors:

• Professor Maria Economou
• Dr Elisabeth Tietmeyer
• Dr Gareth Beale
• Dr Nicole Smith
• Dr Rosie Spooner

Mentor:

• Dr Martin Bellamy

Academic Qualifications

• 2018-2022                       PhD candidate at the School of Humanities, Information Studies, University of Glasgow, UK
• 2016 - 2018                      Master of Museum Studies, University of Toronto, Canada
• 2012 - 2016                      Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, University of Alberta, Canada
• 2013 – 2016                     Recipient of the Jason Lang Academic scholarship

Work experience

• May 2018 – Sept. 2018     Visitor Services Interpreter, Fort Edmonton Park (living history museum), Edmonton, AB., Canada
• 2017 - 2018                      Herbarium Technical Assistant, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto ON., Canada
• May. 2017 – Aug. 2017      Internship as the Orientation and Administration Leader in the Academic Resource Centre in the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
• June – August 2016           Internship as an Assistant Registrar at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.

Publications

• Zwart, I.; Boersma, S; Mucha, F.; Kist, C. (2021) Care-ful participation in museums: a review of "the Museum as a Space of Social Care" by Nuala Morse | in Museum Worlds (forthcoming)
• Kist, C. (2021) Museum social media practices: in need of repair? RISE IMET Conference Proceedings (forthcoming).
• Kist, C., & Tran, Q.-T. (2021). Breaking Boundaries, Creating Connectivities: Enabling Access to Digitized Museum Collections. In M. Rauterberg (Ed.), Culture and Computing. Interactive Cultural Heritage and Arts (pp. 406-422). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
• Kist, C. (2020). Museums, Challenging Heritage and Social Media During COVID-19. Museum and Society, 18(3), 345-348
• Kist, C. “Hospitality, a Word and a Way” Toronto Ward Museum, Nov. 13, 2017.
• England, A., Kist, C., Svenningson, J. “Mulugeta Abai” Toronto Ward Museum, Nov. 10, 2018. 

Recent Conference and Workshop Presentations

• Kist, C. & Tran, Q.-T. (2021) Breaking Boundaries, creating connectivities: enabling access to digitized museum collections, 23rd International Conference on Human Computer Interaction.
• Boersma, S and Kist, C. (2021) Connecting practices - the potential of extending participatory work into the online realm, International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF). 15th SIEF Congress – Breaking the Rules? Power, Participation, and Transgression.
• Kist, C. (2021) Museum social media practices in need of repair? RISE – IMET - Emerging Technologies and the Digital Transformation of Museums and Heritage Sites.
• Kist, C. (2020) Envisioning a post-colonial museum: a critical analysis of museums' social media use for facilitating engagement with difficult heritage, Association of Critical Cultural Heritage (ACHS) | Futures – 5th Biennial Conference.
• Kist, C. (2018). “Telling the stories of city waste through social media”. University of Toronto Graduate studies poster session, ‘Public Programming and Education’, Toronto, ON., April 4, 2018.
• Kist, C. (2016). “Interrogating Tasty Made Recipes and their association with identity on social media”.  University of Toronto, graduate studies poster session, ‘Curating Science’, Toronto, ON., Dec. 5, 2016.