Dr Vibe Nielsen

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Research Summary

Discussions about how museums can respectfully represent all parts of society and critically engage with their own colonial past have made way for new strategies of inclusion and have given previously untold stories new levels of attention. During this research fellowship I will examine the links between museums and activism and explore how recent calls for decolonisation impact museum practices in the leading ethnographic museums of the two most dominant former colonial powers in Europe, the United Kingdom and France. My main focus is the changing curatorial practices at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and le Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, where debates about decolonisation and repatriation have been central in recent years.

CV

Carlsberg Foundation Visiting Fellow, Pitt Rivers Museum and Linacre College, University of Oxford 2021-2024

Postdoc, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen 2019-2020

PhD Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen 2016-2019

Curator of Public Programmes, National Museum of Denmark 2015-2016

MA in Modern Culture, University of Copenhagen 2015

MA in Museum Studies, University College London 2012

BA in European Ethnology, University of Copenhagen 2010

Selected recent publications

Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) Co-edited with Oscar Salemink, Jens Sejrup and Amélia Côrrea, Routledge.

Ambivalent Art at the Tip of a Continent: The Zeitz MOCAA and its quest for global recognition (2023), Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value ed. by Oscar Salemink, Jens Sejrup, Amélia Côrrea and Vibe Nielsen, Routledge: 77-99.

Botanikkens Koloniale Rødder – Kulturhistorisk formidling af plantesamlinger i Storbritanniens botaniske haver (2022) Kulturstudier 13 (2): 161-184.

Nye roller for gamle ting: Etnografiske samlingers samtidsrelevans i en verden i forandring (2022) Co-authored with Katrine M. Bach, Mille Gabriel, Ulrik H. Johnsen and Cecil M.S. Pallesen. Jordens Folk: Samling på Verden 57 no. 2, ed. by Katrine M. Bach, Mille Gabriel, Ulrik H. Johnsen, Vibe Nielsen and Cecil M.S. Pallesen: 2-10.

“What’s in a name?” Gentænkning af genstandstekster på Pitt Rivers Museum (2022) In conversation with Marenka Thompson-Odlum. Jordens Folk: Samling på Verden 57 no. 2, ed. by Katrine M. Bach, Mille Gabriel, Ulrik H. Johnsen, Vibe Nielsen and Cecil M.S. Pallesen: 83-93.

How to Practice Decoloniality in Museums: A review of Practicing Decoloniality in Museums – A Guide with Global Examples by Csilla E. Ariese and Magdalena Wróblewska (2022) Museum Worlds: Advances in Research no. 10: 230-234.

Kunstbegrebets Koloniale Klassifikationer til Forhandling på Museer i Sydafrika (2021) Kulturstudier no. 1: 89-112.

In the absence of Rhodes: decolonizing South African universities (2021) Ethnic and Racial Studies vol. 43 issue 3: 396-414.

Museale formidlinger af fortiden som kolonimagt på danske og britiske museer (2017) Slagmark no. 75: 81-94.

Er kvinder særlig skikkede til lovgivningsvirksomhed? 100-året for kvinders valgret (2016) Co-authored with Mette Byriel-Thygesen and Rikke Tjørnehøj. Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark: 274-287.