Current research interests

Following a theory / practice PhD, which investigated the validation of art practice within universities, Fiona began writing on education, audiences, disability politics and sensory learning within museums and galleries: work that was supported by grants from the AHRC, ESRC and Leverhulme Trust. This research culminated in Art, Museums and Touch (Manchester University Press 2010) which explores the conceptualisation of touch within art history and museums.

Motivated by working with museum collections and ideas of touch Fiona collaborated with Raiford Guins (SUNY) to edit The Object Reader, which provides an overview of academic approaches to objects and materiality. This work on objects underpins her most recent research on small independent single subject museums – or as she calls them ‘micromuseums’. Arguing that museum studies usually concentrates on national and major independent institutions and thereby takes public service, state funding, security, and conservation to be the norm, Fiona’s new book investigates how museology would change if Southport Lawnmower Museum or the Museum of Bakelite were the subject of serious academic study.