Since the launch of the ‘Long Nineteenth-Century Network’ in 2020, we have worked with the Special Collections Museum on exciting research collaborations, such as the AHRC-funded ‘Celebrations’ project.

The network is committed to the further development and promotion of our museum’s nineteenth-century collections, both locally and globally. However, whilst we wish to encourage greater engagement with the collections, we are committed to delivering this via decolonising approaches and methods.

As illustrated in the image above, even the most quotidian and ephemeral of the long nineteenth-century material housed in the museum is embedded in a culture of colonialism and imperialism. Decolonising our nineteenth-century collections will be a radical, extensive, and long-term process that will require participation from within the institution and across wider society.

Open to both staff and students of Manchester Met, this workshop will provide an insight into decolonising praxis for those interested in the continued growth and sustainability of our collections-based study and research.

In our morning sessions, we will welcome practitioners to the museum to discuss their involvement in decolonising the Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museum sector. In the afternoon, join our groupwork and roundtable sessions, where we will work collaboratively to reflect on our individual and institutional efforts to decolonise our collections.