Newcastle University (Project Lead)
Dr Helen Mears (RA 2019-2021)
Helen worked as a part time research associate on the project en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/encounterpoints/.
In this role, Helen researched how UK museums are engaging with issues of belonging, particularly in terms of the 'Windrush Scandal' and Brexit. With the project's PI, Susannah Eckersley, Helen also investigated how cultural heritage institutions are using participatory practice to explore aspects of migration.
Helen is also a museum practitioner, having worked for Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove, since 2002, as Curator and then Keeper of World Art. The World Art collection is a designated collection of 15,000 objects and images from Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Americas. The collection was largely amassed in a colonial context and thinking through the implications of such collections in a post-colonial context forms a significant part of her curatorial practice. Particular initiatives have included the exhibition Fashion Cities Africa (2016/17) which Helen curated with Martin Pel, Curator of Fashion & Textiles, and a collaborative collecting initiative - Fashioning Africa - which focused on post-1960s African fashion practices (2015-2019). Over the period 2005-2008 Helen also worked for the V&A Museum as African Diaspora Research Fellow.
Helen's AHRC-funded doctoral research explored the intersections between world cultures museum collections and diaspora communities, with a focus on an ethnic minority from northern Myanmar now living in global diaspora. As both a researcher and practitioner, Helen is invested in debates about the repatriation and restitution of cultural property, and the 'decolonisation' of museum practice. Helen is also a member of working groups convened to address these topics by Arts Council England and the Museums Association.
Helen is currently in post as Inclusive Collections Officer at Wellcome Collection and Lecturer (Museum Studies) at the University of Brighton where she completed her doctoral research.
