Other books, chapters and articles

Other books, chapters and articles
Publications on ecology, museums, sustainable development and climate action
Animals as Object and Animals as Signs (2008-12) was a multidisciplinary, international research project initiated by Prof. L E Thorsen of Oslo University, funded by the Norwegian Research Council.
I contributed a chapter to the anthology exploring where our ideas about animals come from, using the example of a rare Arctic gull that is strongly linked with Arctic exploration in the heroic age of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The book was published by Penn State University Press.
This project also resulted in an exhibition at Oslo University Library. My contribution included a rare Ross’s Gull collected by Fridtjof Nansen on his famous ‘Fram’ expedition from the National Zoology Museum, along with books and illustrations, and an old Norwegian flag.



Museums as Cultures of Copies (2015-18) was another multidisciplinary, international project, run by Prof Brita Brenna at Oslo University, again funded by the Norwegian Research Council. My contribution, ‘Mainly Making Models: the scientific use of natural heritage collections’, was on the role that natural history/natural sciences play in understanding the world beyond the museum, and how viewing collections as tools for modelling can help articulate their value in a time of rapid environmental change. The book, ‘Museums as Cultures of Copies: the crafting of artefacts and authenticity’ was published by Routledge.
What next? Museum and heritage education, and sustainable development is a chapter to be published in 2025 in the Museum and Heritage Education Handbook, by Routledge. The chapter aims to promote more attention to the rights-based and rights respecting aspects of education and sustainable development, as opposed to a simplistic ‘careful use of natural resources’ approach to sustainability. The role of education in the Sustainable Development Goals is explored. The chapter encourages practitioners to take practical steps to empower people to understand and take part in environmental action through museum and heritage education. In doing so, they would support people’s rights to education and participation, and to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as well as transforming education to be more meaningful and transformative.
Museum Diplomacy for Sustainable Development and Human Rights is a chapter published in 2023 in Museum Diplomacy: how cultural institutions shape global engagement (edited by Sarah Smith and Sascha Priewe). The chapter outlines a form of inclusive governance based on the Sustainable Development Goals and human rights more broadly, to empower museums to understand their roles in fostering inclusive, bottom-up sustainable development, as well as being more attentive to top-down aspects of providing information on sustainable development agendas including human rights and environmental goals.
I have written many articles on museums, exhibitions, climate action and biodiversity, often based on experiences in developing exhibitions and associated programmes on these topics. A full list of these can be found in my ORCID record.