What have I learned?

One of the wonderful aspects of my research is that I have chosen a topic I am extremely excited about and that I have been developing my knowledge of for the past few years. My classes have provided me with a strong knowledge base to build my thesis and my summer experience at the Newseum in D.C. gave me a level of knowledge I never thought I would have. The time I spent working with materials related to the gay liberation movement has provided me with a scaffold of information that I know is important to the movement. Since starting my thesis research I have learned how difficult it is to develop a literary review that is concise yet informative. I know which main points I want to address, such as the exhibitions Hide/Seek and Mining the Museum, visitor engagement, social activism, and the democratized museum. yet I am still struggling to develop a strong understanding of the organization of my literary review.

This past week I was able to meet with the woman coordinating Rochester's 50 at Stonewall, Christine Ridarsky. We spoke about the content of the exhibition, which is currently in development, and where my thesis may interplay with the exhibition. As our discussion progressed it became clear that I would be looking at developing a program, digital interactive, and a visitor engagement survey to engage Rochester's community in a discourse about sexuality and identity. I have looked to my wonderful friends from the LGBTQ community to assist me in this. I am hoping to develop a committee of students to help me develop an inclusive and educational program and interactive that represents the community as a whole. Though I have a strong knowledge of the history of the gay liberation movement and I have heard countless explanations of the expansive spectrum of LGBTQ identities I understand that facilitating this discussion means providing a platform for those in the community to share their unique experience.

The nature of my work on the exhibition means that I must include a review of the field of visitor engagement in my explanation of the democratized museum as well as the importance of scaffolding exhibition content with programming to facilitate community discussions. I think the only thing I am currently struggling with is organizing all of these ideas in to a cohesive literary review. The majority of my information has been gathered, its just getting it on to paper.