Prof Dr Laura Van Broekhoven

Portrait of Laura Van Broekhoven
Director [sabbatical leave January–July 2026]
Professor of Museum Studies, Ethics and Material Culture

Research summary

Laura's current research interests include repatriation and redress, with a focus on the importance of collaboration, inclusivity and reflexive inquiry. Her regional academic research has focused on collaborative collection research with Amazonian (Surinam and Brazil) indigenous peoples, Yokot’an (Maya) oral history, Mixtec indigenous market systems, and Nicaraguan indigenous resistance in colonial times. She has curated numerous exhibitions, and authored dozens of books, articles and papers.

CV

Prof. dr. Laura Van Broekhoven is the Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum and Professor of Museum Studies, Ethics and Material Culture at the University of Oxford. As a member of the Colonial Collections Committee, she advises the Dutch Ministry of Culture on repatriation. She is an international authority on museum ethics and the development of new praxis in the field of ethnographic museums, especially with regard to redress and repatriation, always working through partnership. At the 2022 European Museum of the Year Awards, Laura was awarded the Kenneth Hudson Award for Institutional Courage and Professional Integrity by the European Museum Forum as recognition of four museum directors for their 'personal courage and professional integrity in their continuous contributions to developing a new global ethics for museum, addressing the urgent and contentious issues of decolonization, restitution, reparation and repatriation'. In May 2025, Laura won the Making a Difference Globally VC award and the Museum+Heritage Partnership of the Year award for the ground-breaking Maasai Living Cultures project. The judges said: 'Brave, sensitive and internationally significant, this partnership sets a new standard for genuine collaboration. Through exceptional dialogue and deep mutual respect, it has delivered outcomes with impact far beyond the project itself - offering vital lessons for the sector at a pivotal moment in museum practice'.

A full copy of Laura's CV can be found here.

 

https://player.vimeo.com/video/637602278?h=15bc04fe17

Keynote address given at the Settler Colonialism, Slavery, and the Problem of Decolonizing Museums Conference, organized by the Center for Experimental Ethnography and co-presented by the Center for Experimental Ethnography and the Penn Museum, 20 October 2021.

 

 

Engaging with myths of indigenous extinctions through museum collections, an event organised by the Indigenous Studies Discussion Group, a research network at the Centre for Research in the Arts Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge. 19 May 2022.

 

 

Museums and Heritage Decolonisation presentation at Queen's University Belfast for the Ireland, Museums, Empire, Colonialism Conference, 
8–9 April 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

Museums leaders and the legacy of Empire, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, 29 October 2020

 

 

 

Unpack the contested space of the Pitt Rivers Museum with its director, Laura Van Broekhoven (Oxford University), as she discusses the museum’s emerging co-curatorial approaches, in this talk at Brown University in 6 May 2019.

 

 

 

 

Podcasts 

 

 Listen to the the Space Invaders: Feminist leadership podcast episode Feminist Solidarity at the Museum. Laura Van Broekhoven and our Sharon Heal talk disrupting hierarchies and taking steps to decolonise the Pitt Rivers Museum.

 

 Listen to the Matters of Policy Podcast, Pathways Forward with Dr. Laura van Broekhoven discussing the future of the Pitt Rivers Museum and its collection policy. 
 

 Listen to the BBC Hidden History at the Pitt Rivers. Phil Mercer-Kelly presents a four-part series finding out how the world famous Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford is tackling its imperial roots.