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For Immediate Release:

July 12, 2021

SSHRC awards $2.5M to (Montreal) based research group working with museums to respond to legacies of violence and injustice

The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada has awarded the Thinking Through the Museum (TTTM) research network a 7-year, $2.5 million dollar Partnership Grant for the project "Thinking Through the Museum: A Partnership Approach to Curating Difficult Knowledge in Public.'' TTTM brings together international scholars, students, museum professionals, and community representatives from 20 museums, universities, and NGOs in Canada, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, and the USA to work in 5 thematic research groups that amplify perspectives under-represented in the museum world: Critical Race Museology, Museum Queeries, Unsettling and Indigenizing Museology, National Heritage and Traumatic Memory, and Children's Museology. Pressure on museums to work for social justice in light of the Black Lives Matter, Rhodes Must Fall, and #MeToo movements, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, and the COVID-19 and refugee crises, are among the motivations for TTTM’s work. Going beyond traditional academic approaches of arm’s- length criticism, TTTM collaborates across sectors to creatively respond to colonial and other oppressive legacies. The team will work within museum settings to co-produce exhibitions and design tools to challenge elite institutional knowledge systems, and beyond their walls to explore alternative heritage mobilization in festivals, grassroots archives, and site-based curating, where communities can set their own agendas. Concordia University is the Host Institution for the Partnership, which will be based at the Curating and Public Scholarship Lab under the direction of TTTM’s Principal Investigator Dr. Erica Lehrer. “We’re thrilled at this opportunity, which comes at a critical moment in the museum world,” Lehrer said. “Systemic change takes time, and our seven year framework–along with the resources we bring together–will permit experimentation and training beyond what museums or universities could do alone.” TTTM's leadership consists of five scholars representing four Canadian universities: Shelley Ruth Butler (McGill), Angela Failler (University of ), and Erica Lehrer (Concordia University), and Monica Eileen Patterson (). The full list of team members and partner organizations can be found here. For information about upcoming events and resources, please send an email to [email protected] to be added to the TTTM mailing list. Concordia University is located on unceded Indigenous lands. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters on which we gather today. Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal is historically known as a gathering place for many First Nations. Today, it is home to a diverse population of Indigenous and other peoples. We respect the continued connections with the past, present and future in our ongoing relationships with Indigenous and other peoples within the Montreal community.

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