| About us | Degrees | Courses | Apply | Staff | Links | Contact us |
Dr Conal McCarthy
DIRECTOR
PhD (Victoria), MA (Canterbury), Dip Tchg (Canterbury).
| On this page: | |||
|
Conal McCarthy has strong links with museums, art galleries and heritage organisations around the country and has worked as a lecturer, educator, interpreter and curator. His research interests include museum history, theory and practice, visitor research, Māori exhibitions, visual culture and contemporary heritage issues. His first book, a study of colonial architecture in North Otago, was published in 2002, and his second book Exhibiting Māori: A history of colonial cultures of display was published in 2007.
Conal is currently conducting research for his next book Ngā kākano e rua: Biculturalism in practice at New Zealand museums which will appear with Te Papa Press in 2011. He has been invited to edit a volume on museum practice in a series of international handbooks of museum studies with general editors Sharon Macdonald and Helen Rees Leahy for Blackwell.
In 2009 he takes up a prestigious Visiting Fellowship in the Research School for the Humanities at the Australian National University in Canberra. He has presented papers at several national and international conferences: in 2008 he was invited to give a paper at a major art history conference in Melbourne (Crossing Cultures CIHA) and in 2009 he was invited to the Monash University Centre in Prato Italy to speak at the conference National museums in a transnational age. Conal has also written articles on a range of topics for a number of journals including: Art New Zealand, Sites, The Journal of Australian Art Education, New Zealand Sociology, The Journal of New Zealand Literature, Te Ara: The Journal of Museums Aotearoa, Museum History Journal, Museum and Society and Museum Management and Curatorship.
Current Teaching
MHST 511 Introducing museums and heritage
MHST 512 Practicum 1
MHST 515 Exhibiting Māori
MHST 520 Historic heritage conservation
Selected publications
Exhibiting Maori: A History of Colonial Cultures of Display. Oxford & New York: Berg, 2007. Also published in New Zealand by Te Papa Press.
Forrester and Lemon of Oamaru, Architects. Oamaru: North Otago Branch Committee of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, 2002.
‘‘Postcolonial pasts and postindigenous futures: A critical genealogy of “Māori art”,’ Crossing Cultures: Conflict, migration, convergence, edited by Jaynie Anderson, 829-34. Melbourne: The University of Melbourne Press, 2009.
“Displaying Natural History: Colonial Museum.” In The Amazing World of James Hector, edited by Simon Nathan and Mary Varnham, 49-61. Wellington: Te Awa Press, 2008.
“Before ‘Te Maori’: A Revolution Deconstructed.” In Museum Revolutions: How Museums Change and Are Changed, edited by Simon J. Knell, Sheila Watson and Suzanne MacLeod, 117-33. London & New York: Routledge, 2007.
“ ‘Our Works of Ancient Times’: History, Colonisation and Agency at the 1906-7 New Zealand International Exhibition.” Museum History Journal 2, no. 2 (2009): 119-42.
With Joanna Cobley, ‘Museums and Museum Studies in New Zealand: A survey of historical developments,’ History Compass Vol 7, 2009, available online at:
http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/history/section_home?section=hico-australasia-and-pacific.
With David Mason. “Museums and the Culture of New Media: An Empirical Model of New Zealand Museum Websites.” Museum Management and Curatorship 23, no. 1 (2008): 63-80.
“Review Article: Museum Factions—the Transformation of Museum Studies” Museum and society 5, no. 3 (2007). Available online at: http://www.le.ac.uk/ms/museumsociety.html
“Hailing the Subject: Maori Visitors, Museum Display and the Sociology of Cultural Reception.” New Zealand Sociology. Special issue: Cultural politics of museums 21, no. 1 (2006): 108-30.
With David Mason. “ ‘The Feeling of Exclusion’: Young Peoples’ Perceptions of Art Galleries.” Museum Management and Curatorship 21 (2006): 20-31.
With Bronwyn Labrum. “Museum Studies and Museums: Bringing Together Theory and Practice.” Te Ara: Journal of Museums Aotearoa 30, no. 2 (2005): 4-11.
“Objects of Empire? Displaying Maori at International Exhibitions, 1873-1924.” Journal of New Zealand Literature 23, no. 1 (2005): 52-70.
“Pictures at an Exhibition: Trusttum Does Mussorgsky.” Art New Zealand, no. 113 (2004): 54-57, 85, 87. Available online at:
http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issue113/trusttum.htm
With Amy Watson, ‘Regionalism re-assessed. Art in the Waikato,’ Te Ara: Journal of Museums Aotearoa 29, no.2 December (2004): 18-21.
“Art at the Academy: Hamilton’s New Gallery.” Te Ara: Journal of Museums Aotearoa 28, no. 2 (2003): 38-9.
“Stories and Pictures: Susan Wilson and the Art of Illustration” In Katherine Mansfield: Stories and Pictures. Occasional Papers No. 2, edited by Ralph Crane and Sarah Schieff, 40-51. Hamilton: English Department, University of Waikato, 2003.
“The Politics of Display: Negotiating Visual Culture in a Town/Gown Gallery.” Rhapsody 21C: The future of university art galleries and museums in the new century. Launceston, Tasmania, 2005. CD ROM, ISBN 1 86295 240 X
"‘New Zealand Exhibition, Dunedin 1865,’ ‘New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, Dunedin, 1889-90’, ‘New Zealand International Exhibition, Christchurch, 1906-7’, ‘New Zealand Centennial Exhibition, Wellington, 1940'." In Encyclopedia of Worlds Fairs and Expositions, edited by John Findling and Kimberly Pelle, 34-36, 108-10, 87-90, 309-13. Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland Press, 2008.
“Mana Whenua: Summative evaluation report.” Victoria University of Wellington/Te Papa Visitor & Market Research, Wellington, May 2001.
Te Ara o Nga Tupuna Māori heritage trail, Te Aro Pa site, Wellington, Review (history in other media) New Zealand Journal of History 43 no. 1 (2009): 114-117.
South Pacific Museums: Experiments in culture. Edited by Chris Healy and Andrea Witcomb. Monash ePress: 2006. Reviewed in Re-collections: Journal of the National Museum of Australia 2, no. 1, February, 2007 at:
http://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/vol_2_no_1/book_reviews/
‘Review article: Readers in Museum & Heritage Studies,’ Museum Studies Special Interest Group Newsletter, Museums Australia, February 2007, 4pp.
On display: New essays in cultural studies, editerd by Anna Smith and Lydia Wevers, Victoria University Press, Wellington, in Te Ara: Journal of Museums Aotearoa 29 no. 2, 2004, 37.
‘Museum, nation, native: Te Papa, biculturalism and national identity in New Zealand,’ invited paper presented in a panel on ‘Museums of restitution’ at the international conference National museums in a transnational age: A conversation between historians and museum professionals, Monash University Centre, Prato, Italy November 2-5, 2009.
‘Postcolonial pasts and postindigenous futures: A critical genealogy of “Māori art”,’ invited paper presented in the panel ‘Indigeneity/Aboriginality, Art/Culture and institutions,’ at Crossing Cultures, 37th Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art (CIHA), The University of Melbourne, Jan 13-18th 2008.
‘Digital heritage and the culture of new media: An empirical model of New Zealand museum websites’, paper presented to the conference Participating with communities National Digital Forum conference, Wellington Events Centre, November 30, 2007.
‘ “Accurate information instructively arranged”: Hector and the Colonial Museum,’ James Hector Colonial Man of Science, Symposium organised by The Royal Society/GNS Science, Te Papa, November 6, 2007.
‘The future of the museum’s past: Lessons from the architectural history of the museum,’ paper presented to Building for the future: Museums Aotearoa annual conference, Auckland Museum, March 15, 2007.
‘A pocket edition of the Pakeha’? Museums, heritage and modernity in post war New Zealand, Genres of History: Australian Historical Association Biennial Conference, Australian National University, Canberra July 6, 2006.
'Before Te Maori: The prehistory of Māori exhibitions in New Zealand museums’, The museum: A global forum, 40th anniversary conference of the Museum Studies Department, University of Leicester, April 26, 2006.
‘Maori and colonial cultures of display: New Zealand’s contribution to world fairs’, Association for Museum History Annual Conference, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. October 27, 2005.
‘The politics of art display: Negotiating visual culture in a town/gown gallery,’ Rhapsody 21C: The future of university art galleries and museums in the new century, University of Tasmania, Launceston, May, 2005.
‘Althusser among the Māori: Exhibited culture and visitor response 1970 – 1990,’ Conference of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Auckland University, December 2004.
‘Recolonisation’s culture: Making peoples through museum exhibitions 1900-1920,’ New Zealand Journal of Literature Seminar: From Maning to Mansfield – Writing New Zealand, Waikato University, December 2004.
Seminars and other invited presentations
‘1906 and all that: History, heritage and Māori culture at the New Zealand exhibitions,’ inaugural lecture in the public lecture series, Te Manawa Museum Society, Te Manawa, Palmerston North, 8 June 2009.
Respondent to paper by Jeffrey Sissons ‘Anthropology and the Architectonics of power,’ as part of the one day symposium hosted by the MATTER Research Initiative, ‘A material turn? Multi-disciplinary explorations,’ School of Visual and Material Culture, Massey University Wellington 22 May 2009.
Chair of panel Destination culture: New visitor research in museums and cultural tourism at Museums, tourism and the visitors experience INTERCOM conference, Rotorua, Nov 24-8, 2008.
Thinking through museums: A short course in museum history, theory and practice. Five illustrated lectures for board and staff on museums and change, museums and community, visitors studies, museums and Māori, governance and ethics. Auckland Museum Aug-Dec 2008.
‘Making peoples in museums: History, theory, politics’ Cultural tides on the Pacific Rim, Waitangi Seminar, Pukeariki, New Plymouth, Fri Feb 8, 2008.
“Museums as civic laboratories”: Why we should ban the word ‘culture’ from government policy,’ paper presented in a panel discussion with Christopher Doig (Southern Opera) and Anthony Wright (Canterbury Museum) ‘The cultural sector: Now and into the future,’ Ministry for Culture and Heritage, March 29, 2007.
‘Museums and cultural diversity: Framing the question,’ keynote address Diversity Forum: Museums panel discussion, National Services Te Paerangi, Te Papa, August 21, 2006.
‘Museums, Māori visitors and the culture of display: Notes towards a new model of cultural reception,’ Media Studies seminar series, Victoria University of Wellington, August 3, 2006.
‘Creating the white stone city: The architecture of Forrester and Lemon,’ Victorian heritage celebrations, Whitestone Civic Trust, Oamaru Opera House, November 18, 2005.
Catalogues and other publications:
‘What do pictures really say?’ Doris Lusk’s Pump station Tuam Street, 1970. From the VUW art collection, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, 2006, pp38-9.
‘Biography of a Tokoroa artist: A conversation with Leafa/Janice Wilson,’ Homeboy/Homegirl ’04: Tokoroa Reprezent, catalogue of the exhibition at the Calder & Lawson Gallery, Academy of Performing Arts, and the Tupu Gallery, Tokoroa, August 2004, n.pag.
Toss Woollaston: A Retrospective. Education kit. National Art Gallery and Museum, Wellington, 1992. This education kit comprised sheets on 9 works by Woolaston with accompanying resources.
With Karen Mason, Works from the national collections. National Art Gallery, Wellington, 1990. This education resource comprised 8 education sheets with 1000 entries on works by artists Mantegna, Copley, Gully, Nairn, Weeks, Angus, Mrkusich, and Karaka.
‘Who takes Art History? A study of secondary school art history students in Christchurch,’ Student papers series No.2 (Research Unit, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1986).
‘The Architectural Profession,’ W.B.Armson: A colonial architect rediscovered (Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, 1983).
Museum Detective: Exhibiting Culture
| About us | Degrees | Courses | Apply | Staff | Links | Contact us |
Updated: 24 June, 2009 © 2003 Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand