Colin Sterling & Anna Woodham – Surviving the Museum – PULSE seminar series 2026

SEMINAR FEBRUARY 19TH 15:00-17:00
UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM: KLOVENIERSBURGWAL 48, ROOM E1.01E

COLIN STERLING – SURVIVING THE MUSEUM
In 1969 The American Museum of Natural History celebrated its 100-year anniversary with an exhibition on the nascent environmental crisis. The exhibition – ominously titled Can Man Survive? – was an immersive audio-visual extravaganza with jagged scenography, stark graphics, hard-hitting imagery and emotive films. The black-box style display was suspended in a vast metal frame constructed inside the monumental Roosevelt Hall. Building on Haraway’s seminal paper on the AMNH (“Teddy Bear Patriarchy”) this talk suggests that Can Man Survive? both subverted and replicated previous arguments made by the museum about the links between nature, culture, health and “degeneracy” in the modern era. Against the backdrop of proliferating visions of collapse, what can this extreme psychedelic exhibition tell us about
current articulations of ecology, health and planetary wellbeing?

Colin Sterling is Assistant Professor of Heritage, Museums and the Environment at the University of Amsterdam. His work explores the political and ecological dimensions of heritage and museums in the past and the present.

ANNA WOODHAM – WORKFORCE EMOTIONS IN CULTURAL HERITAGE ORGANISATIONS
In recent years, emotions have become increasingly central to museum and heritage practice, with institutions embracing emotive themes, activities, and spaces to create meaningful visitor experiences and broaden participation. However, despite this “affective turn,” the emotional experiences and labour of the cultural heritage workforce remain underexamined and insufficiently supported. Existing attention largely focuses on outward-facing roles such as community engagement, outreach, and front-of-house work, or on specific groups like artists in health and wellbeing contexts. This presentation shifts the focus inward to highlight the “emotion work” undertaken by cultural heritage practitioners themselves. It argues that managing and using emotions is now a vital professional skill within socially engaged practice and is reshaping notions of professionalism in the sector. Drawing on findings from a Royal Society of Edinburgh-funded project and a pilot study using emotion diaries and a workforce survey, the presentation emphasises the need to understand staff emotions to build sustainable, inclusive, and
socially responsive heritage institutions.

Anna Woodham is Senior Lecturer in Museum and Heritage Studies at King’s College London. With a background in museum practice and policy, her work spans workforce emotions, collections management and development, including leading or co-leading AHRC-funded projects on care and
sustainability.