Dr Nicole Meehan
Lecturer in Museum and Heritage Studies
Research areas
I have degrees in applied mathematics, archaeology and american studies.
After working in the cultural sector in digital and engagement focused roles (Historic Environment Scotland, Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, National Galleries Scotland), I joined the School of Art History, teaching predominantly on the Museum and Heritage Studies programme.
My research and teaching focuses on the uses of digital technology in museums. I think broadly about the advantages and limitations of such technologies, and the impact of this upon diverse audiences. Specifically I am interested in the digital museum object, positioning it as a generative and polyvocal object that is valuable in its own right. I examine the complex networks of interactions around these objects, as they exist in (post)digital ecologies. Recently I have drawn upon intersectional internet theory to consider matters of digital access and digital exclusion, paying particular attention to digital colonialism.
In 2013/14 I was the recipient of the UK-US Fulbright Bibliometrics Award, and in 2019 I was a Digital Humanities Fellow at The American Philosophical Society.
My projects include the funded Visualising Transnational Museology online resource, and the open access data visualisation inspired exhibition Investigating Indentured Servitude: Visualizing Experiences of Colonial America undertaken during a digital humanities fellowship at the American Philosophical Society.
Current research examines the value-based judgements enacted by museums in the use of digital technologies in relation to the climate crisis.
PhD supervision
- Rebecca Mesonjnik
Selected publications
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How can museums consider the environmental cost of digital technologies?
Meehan, N. P., 2 Apr 2024Research output: Other contribution
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Open access
Digital museum objects and memory: postdigital materiality, aura and value
Meehan, N., 1 Apr 2022, In: Curator: The Museum Journal. 65, 2, p. 417-434 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Digital museum objects and transnational histories
Meehan, N., 1 Nov 2022, Scotland's transnational heritage: legacies of empire and slavery. Bond, E. & Morris, M. (eds.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, p. 171-184 14 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Open access
Investigating Indentured Servitude: Visualizing Experiences of Colonial America
Meehan, N. P., 3 Sept 2020Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition