Dr Rosie Spooner

  • Lecturer (Information Studies)

Research interests

Cross-disciplinary in nature, my work sits at the juncture of Museum Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and Art and Design History. My research interests concern the visual and material culture of the British Empire from the eighteenth to the twentieth century and contemporary legacies of this past. In particular, I examine how museums, galleries and 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 museums,  other public institutions and civic spaces engage with so-called uncomfortable or hidden histories of the colonial past in the (post)colonial present and, closely tied to this, what constitutes progressive, anti-racist and decolonial museum practices. 

Key research and teaching interests focus on:

  • History of Museums and Exhibitions
  • Critical Museology and Heritage Studies
  • International Exhibitions and World's Fairs
  • Material Culture Studies
  • Politcs of Space, Display and Interpretation
  • Co-Production and Collaboration
  • Postcolonial Theory
  • Critical Pedagogy

I am currently in the early stages of developing a new research project that explores how walking can be a tool for critically engaging with museums and other sites of civic heritage and commemoration. This emerged from designing and leading a guided walk through two much-loved public spaces in Glasgow: a large landscaped park in the city's West End and the purpose-built municipal museum that sits within it, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Supported by the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights and developed specifically for Black History Month Scotland 2018, the walk is grounded in an understanding that much of Glasgow's urban fabric and public institutions reflect the city's deep involvement in colonial and imperial networks, whether economic, social and/or cultural in nature.

 

 

 

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2023 | 2022 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2010
Number of items: 35.

2023

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.

Lloyd, K. , Economou, M. and Spooner, R. (2023) Trends in museum studies programs: supporting critical thinkers and critical doers. In: King, B. (ed.) New Directions in University Museums. Rowman & Littlefield. (In Press)

2022

More, M. and Spooner, R. (2022) Telling a fuller story: Scottish design, empire and transnational heritage at V&A Dundee. In: Bond, E. and Morris, M. (eds.) Scotland's Transnational Heritage: Legacies of Empire and Slavery. Edinburgh University Press1: Edinburgh, pp. 136-154. ISBN 9781474493505

2020

Spooner, R. (2020) Critical Heritage Walk: Kelvingrove Park. [Website]

Spooner, R. (2020) What's in a name? Empire Museum: Scottish Museum of Empire, Slavery, Colonialism and Migration,

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, R. and Smith, K. (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, A. (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]

This list was generated on Mon Dec 4 19:46:29 2023 GMT.
Number of items: 35.

Articles

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

Lloyd, K. , Economou, M. and Spooner, R. (2023) Trends in museum studies programs: supporting critical thinkers and critical doers. In: King, B. (ed.) New Directions in University Museums. Rowman & Littlefield. (In Press)

More, M. and Spooner, R. (2022) Telling a fuller story: Scottish design, empire and transnational heritage at V&A Dundee. In: Bond, E. and Morris, M. (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, R. and Smith, K. (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, A. (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

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.

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]

This list was generated on Mon Dec 4 19:46:29 2023 GMT.

Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD projects that align with any of the areas of research listed above, and welcome proposals for Collaborative Doctoral Awards from organisational partners in the Gallery, Library, Archive and Museum (GLAM) sector. 

  • 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

Teaching and Scholarship

I teach primarily on the MSc in Museum Studies programme. Since joining the Information Studies subject area in September 2017 I have been Course Convenor for:

  • Introduction to Museology
  • Research and Professional Skills
  • Museum Work Placement
  • Museum Studies Dissertation
  • Research and Development Placement

I teach on other courses offered by Information Studies and contribute lectures to courses offered by other subject areas in the College of Arts.

As Lecturer in Heritage Practitioner Engagmenent, I play an active role in building, developing and strengthening relationships with sector partners and cultural heritage professionals. As a subject area that specialises in training the next generation of cultural heritage and information profesionals -- our graduates go on to establish careers in museums, galleries, archive repositories, libraries, and heritage sites -- maintaining strong and sustainable ties with local, national and international sector partners is crucial to the teaching and research culture in Information Studies. 

If you work in the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) and are interested in building links with the Museum Studies and/or Information Management & Preservation MSc programmes please get in touch. Both programmes include work placement options, feature guest speakers from the sector, and regularly host networking events for our students. The Information Studies subject area also hosts research seminars and public talks. 

 

 

Additional information

Bio

I joined the Information Studies subject area at the University of Glasgow in September 2017.

From 2016-2019, I was a Lecturer in Design History and Theory at the Glasgow School of Art. Other past teaching and research positions include being a Visting Lecturer in the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow (2015-2017), Research Administrator for the Scottish Network on Digital Cultural Resources Evaluation (2015-2016), and a Teaching Assistant in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at OCAD University in Toronto (2011-2012).

I hold a PhD in History of Art from the University of Glasgow (2013-2016). Supervised by Dr Sabine Wieber and Dr Ian G. Anderson, my doctoral research focused on the history and legacy of International Exhibitions, a distinct exhibition paradigm that became a global phenomenon following the initial success of the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851. My thesis concentrated on the series of exhibitions held in Glasgow between the 1880s and 1930s, examining how these events constructed imperial and colonial identities in the Scottish and Canadian contexts, and faciliated the display of objects, the movement of people, and the dissemination of ideas across different spheres of empire. 

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.

Grants and Awards

  • Research Development Fund Award, Glasgow School of Art (2017)
  • Vivien Hughes Prize, British Assocition for Canadian Studies (2015)
  • Research Support Award, University of Glasgow (2014)
  • Research Training and Support Grant, Arts and Humanities Research Council (2014)
  • Graduate Scholar Award, Inclusive Museum Research Network (2013)
  • Postgraduate Scholarship and Doctoral Award, Arts and Humanities Research Council (2013-2016)

Memberships and Professional Bodies

  • Association for Art History, UK
  • Royal Historical Society, UK
  • Scottish Museums Federation, UK
  • Scottish Society for Art History, UK
  • Universities Art Association of Canada, Canada