We will continue to add to this list reading that we find helpful for thinking about our emotions in museum work. Please do feel free to contact us to share relevant resources!
ANDERSON, S., (2021) ‘“We felt unsafe”: Rethinking risk, harm, and safety in museums’, Museums & Social Issues 15:1-2, 4-12.
ARVANITIS K., HARDMAN, A., EYRE, A., WATKINS, J. and KAVANAGH, J. (2023) Archiving disaster support group records: a guide for disaster support groups and professionals, February 2023, University of Manchester.
BANNELL, K., & SEXTON, A., (2024) ‘Affect and rapid response collecting: Exploring the significance of emotion in UK archives’ COVID-19 collecting projects’, Archives and Records: The Journal of the Archives and Records Association Online first https://doi.org/10.1080/23257962.2024.2351378
BELFIORE, E., (2022) ‘Who cares? At what price? The hidden costs of socially engaged arts labour and the moral failure of cultural policy’, European Journal of Cultural Studies 25(1): 61-78.
COLLINS, H., ALLSOPP, K., ARVANITIS, K., CHITSABESAN, P., & FRENCH, P. (2020) ‘Psychological impact of spontaneous memorials: A narrative review’, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy 14(7):1230-1236.
DALE-HALLETT, L., CARLAND, R., and FRASER, P. (2015) ‘Sites of trauma: Contemporary collecting and natural disaster’. In: A. Witcomb and K. Message (eds) The International Handbook of Museum Studies, Volume 3: Museum Theory, Wiley Blackwell: New York. pp.351-552
DE LA BELLACASA, M.P., (2017) Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. Minnesota University Press: Minnesota.
DELISS, C., (2020) The Metabolic Museum. Hatje Cantz Verlag: Berlin.
DUCEY, A. (2010) ‘Technologies of caring labor. From objects to affect’. In: E. Boris and R.S. Parreñas (eds) Intimate Labors: Cultures, Technologies, and the Politics of Care. Stanford University Press: Standford, pp.18-32.
FORTIER, J.P., (2023) Navigating Ambiguity and Boundaries: The Experience of Arts, Health and Wellbeing Facilitators Working with Individuals with Challenging Conditions or Situations. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of London. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17037/PUBS.04671753
FROST, S., (forthcoming) ‘Digital labour is “emotional labour”’. In: R. Parry, V. Dziekan, and K. De Wild (eds) Museums and Digital Confidence: Organisation, Collection, Exhibition. Routledge: London.
GEOGHEGAN, H ., (2013) ‘Emotional geographies of enthusiasm: Belonging to the telecommunications heritage group’, Area 45(1):40-46.
GEOGHEGAN, H., & HESS, A., (2014) ‘Object-love at the Science Museum: Cultural geographies of museum storerooms’, Cultural Geographies 22(3): 445-465.
HAMMETT, J ET AL., (2021) Researcher Wellbeing. Guidelines for History Researchers. Online report. Available at: https://researcherwellbeing.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/
HOCHSCHILD, A., (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. University of California Press: Berkeley.
JANES, R., (2023) Museums and Societal Collapse: The Museum as Lifeboat. Routledge: London.
KAUFMAN, F. Y. (2023) ‘Traumatic histories’. History Workshop. Blog. 29 June. Available at: https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/memory-emotions/traumatic-histories/
LATHAM, K.F., & COWAN, B. (2023) Flourishing in Museums: Towards a Positive Museology. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
LAURENT, N., & HART, M. (2018) ‘Emotional Labour and Archival Practice’, Journal of the Society of North Carolina Archivists 15:13-22.
MAZZANTI, P., & M. SANI (eds) (2020) Emotions and Learning in Museums. A NEMO Report. Available at: ne-mo.org/fileadmin/Dateien/public/Publications/NEMO_Emotions_and_Learning_in_Museums_WG-LEM_02.2021.pdf
MORSE, N., (2020) The Museum as a Space of Social Care. Routledge: London.
MUNRO, E., (2014) ‘Doing emotion work in museums: Reconceptualising the role of community engagement practitioners’, Museum & Society 12:1, 44-60.
MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION (2022) Workforce wellbeing. Survey Report. Available at: https://www.museumsassociation.org/campaigns/workforce/wellbeing-research/
NAISMITH, N., (2019) Artists practising well. Robert Gordon University [online]: Aberdeen. Research Report. Available from: Artists practising well. (worktribe.com)
POWELL, C., SMITH, H., MURRIAN, S., HEARN, S. (2018) ‘This [black] woman’s work: Exploring archival projects that embrace the identity of the memory worker’, KULA: Knowledge, Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 2(1):5.
ROBINSON, C (2021) ‘Museums and Emotions’, Journal of Museum Education 46(2): 147-149.
ROBSON, J. C (2018) ‘Coming undone. Protocols of emotion in Canadian human rights museology’. In: L Smith, M. Wetherell & G. Campbell (eds) Emotion, Affective Practices and the Past in the Present. Routledge: London, pp. 149-162.
TRONTO, J. (2015) Who Cares? How to Reshape a Democratic Politics. Cornell University Press: Ithaca.
VARUTTI, M., (2022) ‘The affective turn in museums and the rise of affective curatorship’. Museum Management & Curatorship. 38:1, 61-75.
VARUTTI, M., (2022) ‘The ’emotional turn’ in museum practice’. Blog post. ICOM News. 14 September. Available at: The ‘emotional turn’ in museum practice – International Council of Museums -International Council of Museums (icom.museum)
VARUTTI, M., (2021) ‘Affective encounters in museums’. In: T. R. Bangstad and Þ. Pétursdóttir (eds) Heritage Ecologies, 129-144 London: Routledge.
WALKLATE, J., (2018) ‘Anxiety: Unease in the museum’. In: S. Knell (ed) The Contemporary Museum: Shaping Museums for the Global Now, 215-232. Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon.