Some Further Thoughts...

In my experience, it's always at the end of an academic project that you realize all the other things you could have done and/or paths you could have taken with your research and work.  Not because you were lazy or close-minded about your project and research, but rather that many (some might argue all) academic projects are part of a larger dialogue, and as such they can never truly be complete.

This is the situation I found myself in this morning as I was putting the finishing touches on my final thesis paper, Recommendations for Redesign: Revising the Rochester Museum and Science Center's Native Peoples of the Americas Exhibit.  As a result, I thought of a few possible directions my research and project could have moved in had I had more time to continue with this project before I graduate. 

• Further research in the Rochester Museum and Science Center's (RMSC) institutional records to gain a better understanding of the history and development of Native Peoples of the Americas and other exhibits at the RMSC, and to resolve some questions left unanswered in my paper, such as specific dates and persons responsible for different parts of the exhibit.
• As another/further project, perhaps research and write a more comprehensive history of the RMSC than the one I utilized in writing my paper.
• Develop basic, but formal evaluative criteria for both exhibits in need of redesign, and exhibits featuring representations of Native Americans, then use them to re-evaluate the exhibits/institutions I did my case studies on.
• Visit the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. and its satellite institution, the George Gustav Heye Center, in New York, NY, which I did a brief case study on, but was not able to visit in person.

While I wouldn't change anything about my thesis writing process (because that's what it was meant to be, a process), these are simply some possible expansions I would consider undertaking.  Perhaps in future, someone will take my work and improve upon it by doing one or all of these things, and add to the ongoing dialogue about Native representation and redesign in museum spaces.

Native Peoples of the Americas, Redux: The Plan

Every thesis, or any research project, for that matter, begins with a working research question.  Now, this question may change and develop as research progresses and new information is brought to light or new ideas form, however, it helps to begin with a fairly concrete idea.  In the case of my thesis, this idea was that the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s (RMSC) history exhibits seem out of place, both within the museum’s mission and their physical space.  To narrow this down further, the Native Peoples of the Americas exhibit appears especially outdated (both in terms of theme and method of display) and incongruous when compared to other parts of the museum, even its fellow history exhibits.  This leads me to ask the following question.  In what ways can Native Peoples of the Americas be altered or redesigned to better fit with the RMSC’s mission, both present and future, and visitors’ expectations for the museum and their experience within it?

In order to answer this question, I will need to conduct research in three different areas. To begin, I will review the existing body of literature on the history of display and representation of Native Americans in science museums in order to better understand the history of this practice, as well as how other museums are adapting/changing their Native American exhibits to bring them in line with both their current missions and modern understandings of native culture.  I will then interview key members of museum staff to gain insight into what they view the future direction of the RMSC as a whole to be, and what changes they might envision for the exhibit moving forward.  Next, I will survey visitors to this exhibit about their visit experience within the exhibit, how they feel this experience fits into their overall experience at the RMSC, and what changes could occur to the exhibit to improve their experience.

The end result of this research will be a set of recommendations for the exhibitions and curatorial staff of the RMSC, synthesized from all three sources of research, regarding how best to alter and/or redesign Native Peoples of the Americas, if and when it becomes a priority to do so in the near future.