English Chair Naomi Hamer publishes new digital e-book: Curating the Story Museum
The whimsical and wonderful world of children’s story museums is underresearched in the field of children’s literature and museum studies. Where young people have traditionally been conceived as interactive but non-critical participants in the design of museum spaces, professor Naomi Hamer, newly named chair of Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) English Department, explores youth participation in her co-authored e-book, Curating the Story Museum: A resource for educators (external link) . The e-book contributes to the “broader project to interrogate and propose new critical approaches to children's museum sites across various educational contexts,” says Hamer.
Dr. Seuss Museum, 2017. Springfield, Massachusetts. Photograph by Naomi Hamer, featured in Curating the Story Museum
A unique scholarly and accessible guide, Curating the Story Museum imagines and critically examines how young people can actively engage in museum exhibits as co-curators. The open-access and interactive format of the educational resource provides teachers, post-secondary, museum and early childhood educators access to emerging research. As International Open Access Week (external link) approaches, bolstering the benefits of open-access and accessible research fosters important discussions around knowledge mobilization in the academic community and beyond.
Hamer and her co-researcher, Ann Marie Murnaghan (external link) , investigate “how current children's museum exhibits focused on childhood texts and cultures present opportunities to negotiate, subvert, and/or reaffirm cultural discourses of childhood, nationalism, gender, race, sexuality, and ability.” Their research, funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant (external link) , analyzes the emergence of new technological and multimodal learning tools in museums as a generative potential for youth participation.
Exploring exhibits (and research) in digital space
As the pandemic shifted how individuals interact with each other and the world, Hamer and Murnaghan identified a need to adapt the format of their research. The current e-book compiles diverse research findings in an open-source authoring and publishing platform, Scalar, developed by the University of Southern California's Alliance for Networking Visual Culture. The ebook is hosted by York University library.
“TMU's emphasis on digital humanities—as an innovative field that may expand the field of English in terms of the content as well as collaborative digital modes—encourages new users to critically engage and contribute to broader projects,” shared Hamer.
Recognizing the research of undergraduate and graduate students
The e-book extensively features undergraduate and graduate student contributions from TMU’s English BA and Literatures of Modernity MA programs. Student researchers ventured into TMU’s Children's Literature Archive, collaborated on digital educational models, and critically evaluated and proposed recommendations for newly imagined innovative exhibits—which now feature in the e-book’s interactive map (external link) .
“In many cases, our student collaborators presented distinct personal and critical perspectives to the material that apply critical approaches to decolonizing and queering the museum in their analyses.”
Quentin Stuckey, an English alumnus and former student who worked as an undergraduate research assistant on the project for multiple years, shared his experience contributing to the project. Stuckey’s research focused primarily on the genre of Urban Children’s Books and representations of childhood in Toronto; he also created content for the project’s YouTube channel, which served as a digital research repository during the pandemic.
“I learned a great deal from being a part of this project,” said Stuckey. “It inspired me to conduct my own independent research paper in my undergrad on representations of perfectionism in children's picture books, which Dr. Hamer supervised.” Stuckey’s enhanced research skills led to his successful completion of an MA, and his continued interest in children’s books led him to spend two years teaching English in Spain.
“My experiences still influence my life professionally and personally and gave me a greater respect and appreciation for children's literature and the necessity for children's spaces.”
Imagining a future for transdisciplinary and transmedia research
Hamer imagines a future of both physical and digital exhibits that feature TMU’s special collections. Hamer also foresees the potential for a second ebook resource containing “tools for young curators and future critical children's museology projects that use more animation, audio and video resources to inform and inspire curatorial work with children’s texts.”
As a first critical step, Curating the Story Museum will offer research-informed insights to educators and curators, bolster the contributions of undergraduate and graduate students, and reimagine forms of scholarly research in new, accessible and interactive ways.
“As I take on the role of Department Chair, I think that this project illustrates the potential for collaborative and experiential projects within and outside classrooms in our English programs. I am passionate about the ways we can use digital tools in research and teaching, particularly as part of experiential learning, but it is equally important to cultivate safe and engaging in-person spaces for connecting with students, faculty and alumni.”