Leicester Companions to Museum Studies
About the Book Series
The Leicester Companions to Museum Studies series focuses on the publication of new collections that globally shape, overview and reflect contemporary thought and practice. The series welcomes proposals from prospective editors, wherever they may be, who seek to meet the series’ objectives:
- To produce edited volumes for students, professionals, researchers and others who wish to obtain an overview of contemporary thought and practice in the fields of museum, gallery, heritage and curatorial studies.
- To edit volumes composed entirely - or almost entirely - of new work. This new work includes writing that seeks to survey, curate and summarise an area of interest; it may, but need not be, work that seeks to innovate. The series will also consider the inclusion of previously published work where this work might currently be viewed as obscure, inaccessible, or only published in a foreign language.
- To shape volumes with a strong editorial vision that include a substantial and authoritative introduction that reflects on the content of the book and the book’s subject. It is expected that all books in the series will have a strong sectional structure and include section introductions.
- To embrace the Leicester vision for inclusive and egalitarian engagement. Contributions to the series may seek to criticise, deconstruct or analyse established or hegemonic positions, hierarchies and/or practices, though it is not a requirement to do so. The series will not seek to sustain them.
The series is the latest iteration of the Leicester Readers in Museum Studies, launched in 1994 under the editorship of Professor Susan Pearce, the then-Head of the Department of Museum Studies. Each volume in the first series of Readers had as its basis the study packs of published materials produced by the Department for students in the late 1980s. It was determined that each volume should have a strong editorial vision, expressed in a significant introductory essay and in section introductions. Professor Eilean Hooper-Greenhill followed Sue Pearce as series editor. In between 2007 and 2019, Simon Knell became editor of a newly designed and more thematically diverse second and third series, inviting editors from outside the Leicester department.
If you have an idea for a book that you think would be appropriate for the series, please contact the current Series Editor, Sandra Dudley ([email protected]), to discuss further.
The Museum in Asia
1st Edition
Edited
By Yunci Cai
February 04, 2025
The Museum in Asia advances an understanding of the flourishing museum landscape in the region by offering a variety of conceptual tools and frameworks through which museum development can be analysed and understood. Informed by the key theoretical tenets of critical museology and heritage studies,...
Curating Art
1st Edition
Edited
By Janet Marstine, Oscar Ho Hing Kay
December 31, 2021
Curating Art provides insight into some of the most socially and politically impactful curating of historical and contemporary art since the late 1990s. It offers up a museological framework for understanding watershed developments of curating in art museums. Representing the plurality of theory ...
A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage
1st Edition
Edited
By Sheila Watson, Amy Jane Barnes, Katy Bunning
October 10, 2018
Heritage’s revival as a respected academic subject has, in part, resulted from an increased awareness and understanding of indigenous rights and non-Western philosophies and practices, and a growing respect for the intangible. Heritage has, thus far, focused on management, tourism and the ...
Museums and Archaeology
1st Edition
Edited
By Robin Skeates
February 10, 2017
Museums and Archaeology brings together a wide, but carefully chosen, selection of literature from around the world that connects museums and archaeology. Part of the successful Leicester Readers in Museum Studies series, it provides a combination of issue- and practice-based perspectives. As such,...
Museum Objects: Experiencing the Properties of Things
1st Edition
Edited
By Sandra H. Dudley
July 10, 2012
Museum Objects provides a set of readings that together create a distinctive emphasis and perspective on the objects which lie at the heart of interpretive practice in museums, material culture studies and everyday life. This reader brings together classic and up to date texts on the nature and ...
Preventive Conservation in Museums
1st Edition
Edited
By Chris Caple
January 11, 2012
Preventive Conservation in Museums makes available and comprehensible the diverse literature and ideas of preventive conservation to an audience with a limited scientific background, principally those studying museum studies or engaged in the museum profession. It bridges the gap between the basic ...
Museums in a Digital Age
1st Edition
Edited
By Ross Parry
January 22, 2010
The influence of digital media on the cultural heritage sector has been pervasive and profound. Today museums are reliant on new technology to manage their collections. They collect digital as well as material things. New media is embedded within their exhibition spaces. And their activity online ...
Museums and their Communities
1st Edition
Edited
By Sheila Watson
September 12, 2007
Using case studies drawn from all areas of museum studies, Museums and their Communities explores the museums as a site of representation, identity and memory, and considers how it can influence its community. Focusing on the museum as an institution, and its social and cultural setting, Sheila ...
Museums in the Material World
1st Edition
Edited
By Simon Knell
September 12, 2007
Museums in the Material World seeks to both introduce classic and thought-provoking pieces and contrast them with articles which reveal grounded practice. The articles are selected from across the full breadth of museum disciplines and are linked by a logical narrative, as detailed in the section ...
Museum Management and Marketing
1st Edition
Edited
By Richard Sandell, Robert R. Janes
April 19, 2007
Drawing together a selection of high quality, intellectually robust and stimulating articles on both theoretical and practice-based developments in the field, this Reader investigates the closely linked areas of management and marketing in the museum. The articles, from established and ...
The Educational Role of the Museum
2nd Edition
Edited
By Eilean Hooper-Greenhill
April 23, 1999
Grounded in the solid strengths of its first edition, this updated and revised second edition, collates recent and important articles that address the relationships of museums and galleries to their audiences. The Educational Role of the Museum has been entirely restructured and new papers have ...
Collections Management
1st Edition
Edited
By Anne Fahy
December 22, 1994
Collections Management brings together leading papers exploring some of the major issues affecting collections management. Providing information about initiatives and issues for anyone involved in collections management, Fahy identifies the main issues relating to collecting and disposal of ...