Editorial Board

Dr Nuala Morse

Nuala Morse is an Associate Professor in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. Her research explores how museums can function as spaces of care, participation, and wellbeing, with a particular focus on the ‘care work’ of cultural professionals, care ethics in museum practice, and the role of cultural organisations in public health. Her work examines the connections between cultural participation and health, wellbeing, and recovery, with a focus on stroke, mental health and dementia. She is the author of The Museum as a Space of Social Care (2020). Another strand of her research is focused on workforce development, career progression and organisational change within the museum sector, including research in collaboration with the Museums Association.    Nuala teaches on the MA Museum Studies at University of Leicester, and serves as a Management Board Member of the Institute for Precision Health.  She is a Non-Executive Director of the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance, and has had advisory roles for various UK museums including Paisley Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum. At the University of Leicester. She is also an editorial board member for Museums and Social Issues: a journal of reflective discourse.  

Recent Publications

Morse, N., McCann, M., & O’Brien, D. (2026). 'Workforce development: transforming museums or transforming people? Exploring the impact of the UK Museums Association’s Transformers programme, 2014–2018' Museum Management and Curatorship, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2026.2644153 Morse, N., Thomson, L. J., Elsden, E., Rogers, H., & Chatterjee, H. J. (2023). 'Exploring the potential of creative museum-led activities to support stroke in-patient rehabilitation and wellbeing: A pilot mixed-methods study', Arts & Health, 15(2), 135-152. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2022.2032224 Morse, N. (2021) 'Care, repair and the social relevance of museums', Museums and Social Issues 15(1-2), pp.28-38. DOI: 10.1080/15596893.2022.2104815 Thomson, L.J, Morse, N., Elsden, E., and Chatterjee, H.J. (2020) 'Art nature and mental health: assessing the biopsychosocial effects of a ‘creative green prescription’ museum programme involving horticulture artmaking and collections.' Perspectives in Public Health https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913920910443

Jack Butterworth

I am a research management professional, and I lead The National Archives’ research strategy, our fundraising, our funding programmes for archives across the UK, and our relationship with the academic and philanthropic sectors.  I am interested, fundamentally, in making research work: in the financial, institutional, legal and cultural contexts that surround it, in research outside of Higher Education, and in equitable international collaboration. I am Project Lead on three projects: 

1. Digitising the National Farm Survey (Lund Trust, £2.13m)
2. Archives Revealed (four funders including the National Lottery Heritage Fund, £6m)UK-KSA Arabian Peninsula Cultural Research Fellowships (Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia, £819k) 

and Co-Lead on a further two: 

1. PASSAGE (Lloyd’s Register Foundation, £1m) 
2. Spaces, Places and Belonging (AHRC, £1m) 

I was previously a Department Manager at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and before that, managed a biobank and a number of clinical research studies in the UK and sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr Rafie Cecilia

Rafie Cecilia is Lecturer in Museum & Gallery Studies at King’s College London, and an affiliate of the King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Her work looks at the experience of people with disabilities in museums and cultural organisations, as audiences and professionals. Rafie’s current research project ‘Disability Museum AI’ investigates how technology, AI, and digital innovation impact the museum experience of professionals and audiences with disabilities, focusing on disability as an empowering drive in the sector. Alongside her academic career, Rafie works as access and inclusion consultant, collaborating with institutions such as the Wellcome Collection, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the British Museum. 

Recent Publications:

• Cecilia, R. 2026. Disability Museum AI project: https://disabilitymuseumai.com/
• Wilkin, N., Cecilia, R., Wexler, J., Giles, M., Garrow, D., 2024. 'Materialising Mortality: Re-enchanting Grave Goods in the British Museum using Mixed-Method Approaches to Audience Research', Curator: The Museum Journal, 67: 1–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cura.12625
• Cecilia, R., 2024. 'Challenging ableism: including non-normative bodies and practices in collections care', In A. Stevenson and C. Krmpotich, (eds.) Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice. London: UCL Press, chapter 7. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800087040
• Cecilia, R., Moussouri, T., Fraser, J. 2023. 'AltText: an institutional tool for change', Curator: The Museum Journal, 66/2: 225-231 https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12551
• Cecilia, R., 2022. Inclusive visions: the museum experience of young blind and partially sighted visitors. Oxford: BAR Publishing.

Sumitra Upham

Sumitra Upham is a curator and cultural leader based in London. She is currently Associate Director of Curatorial & Public Programmes at Wellcome Collection where she oversee the artistic programme and curatorial direction. Previosuly, Sumitra was Head of Public Programmes at the Crafts Council where she oversaw its exhibitions, public programmes and collections. She co-curated the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial, “Empathy Re-visited: Designs for more than one” and “Dancing Before the Moon” the British Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. She has held curatorial and exhibition positions at the Design Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and White Cube.

Recent Publications

• Plastic pollution – a tale of social injustice”, Plastic: Remaking Our World, V&A and Vitra Design Museum, 2022
• Empathy Revisited: designs for more than one, Onomatopee, ed. Mariana Pestana, Sumitra Upham, Billie Muraben, 2021
• Care: Designers in Residence 2020 Catalogue, The Design Museum, 2020

Professor Jane Henderson

Professor of Conservation, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University I am the Secretary General International Institute for Conservation. I teach on the BSc and MSc degrees in Conservation and Collection Care. I serve on the editorial panel of the Journal of the Institute for Conservation, am a co-opted member on the trustee board of the Welsh Federation of Museum and Art Galleries. I am internationally recognised, I am a visiting Researcher of the Scientific Conservation Institute in Beijing and I serve on the European standards body CEN TC 346 WG11 and on the BSI standard group B/560 concerned with the conservation of Tangible Cultural heritage. Research interests include:

• Decision making
• Delivering excellence in access and use of collections
• Influence techniques
• Disaster or Emergency Preparedness Planning
• Cultural heritage collections in Wales

Recent Publications:

• Henderson, J. 2022. 'Conservators delivering change.' Studies in Conservation 67(S1), pp. 105-111. (10.1080/00393630.2022.2066320)
• Sweetnam, E. and Henderson, J. 2022. 'Disruptive conservation: challenging conservation orthodoxy.' Studies in Conservation 67(1-2), pp. 63-71. (10.1080/00393630.2021.1947073)
• Henderson, J. 2020. 'Beyond lifetimes: who do we exclude when we keep things for the future?' Journal of the Institute of Conservation 43(3), pp. 195-212. (10.1080/19455224.2020.1810729)
• Henderson, J. and Lingle, A. 2020. 'Preventive Conservation on Archaeological Sites: UK Policy and Practice.' China Cultural Heritage 2, pp. 25-35.
• Henderson, J., Waller, R. and Hopes, D. 2020. 'Begin with benefits: reducing bias in conservation decision-making.' Studies in Conservation 65(S1), pp. 142-147. (10.1080/00393630.2020.1787638)
• Lingle, A. M. and Henderson, J. 2020. 'Preserving the archaeological archive.' In: Smith, C. ed. Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Switzerland: Springer, (10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3517-1)

Professor Michelle Henning

Michelle writes and researches on photography, museums, media, modernism and visual culture. Her background is in fine art and cultural studies, but her research has increasingly focused on: museum media and exhibitions displays; a cultural and environmental history of photography; digital photography and social media. Funded by the AHRC she has researched in the archives of the British photographic company Ilford Limited. Previous grants have funded research into taxidermy in museums and the work of the Viennese polymath, social scientist and museum innovator Otto Neurath. She also sits on the editorial board of photographies journal, Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens and the journal Visual Culture in Britain. She has been involved in collaborative and advisory work with various UK institutions including Bristol Museums and Archives, Arnolfini and Tate Liverpool. She has been a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and of the jury for the Crespo Foundation After Nature prize at C|O Berlin.

• Henning, M, 2024, A Dirty History of Photography: Chemistry, Fog and Empire(Chicago: University of Chicago Press)
• Henning, M, 2024, 'Photography's Other Sensitivities', Media Theory 8:1
• Henning, M, 2018, Photography: the Unfettered Image (London: Routledge)
• Henning, M, 2015, Museum Media, Vol. 3 of The International Handbooks of Museum Studies (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell)
• Henning, M, 2006, Museums, Media and Cultural Theory (Maidenhead; Open University Press)

Professor Heather King

Professor Heather King’s research examines the ways in which educators foster learner engagement with science across many contexts including schools, museums, the natural environment, and non-formal spaces such as maker-spaces. In particular, her work focuses on social and environmental justice concerns with respect to science education practice. Heather is co-chair of the Science and Technology Education Research Group at King’s College London and teaches modules in STEM education leadership, in STEM Making and Creating, and in Education in Arts and Cultural Settings. She is also the Vice President for Education at the British Science Association.

Dr Charlotte Sleigh

Charlotte Sleigh is a researcher, writer and practitioner across the science humanities (science and history, literature, theology) and science communication. In recent years Charlotte has been involved with a number of art and science projects (e.g. Chain Reaction!, 2013 and Metamorphoses, 2017) and various forms of climate science communication. She has done consultancy and engagement projects for organisations including the Royal Society, local business and a UK City Council, as well as freelance work in editing and coaching for writing. Examples of her writing for general readers can be found at Noema and Aeon magazines and at Wellcome Stories.

Charlotte has long-standing academic research interests in human-animal relations, their science and representation. Besides this, she has written widely on science and literature (Literature and Science, Palgrave 2010) - and on science fiction and early fandom in Britain. In recent years, Charlotte come to focus on intersections between theology and science; she is currently research consultant for the international project Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science.

Charlotte is a former editor of the British Journal for the History of Science and former president of the British Society for the History of Science.

Selected publications

• Sleigh, C, 2020, Human (Reaktion)
• Sleigh, C, 2016, The Paper Zoo (British Library/Chicago)
• Sleigh, C, 2012, Frog (Reaktion)
• Sleigh, C, 2010, Literature and Science (Palgrave)
• Sleigh, C, 2007, Six Legs Better (Johns Hopkins)

Dr Tim Snelson

Tim Snelson is associate professor in media history at the University of East Anglia. Tim’s research addresses the relationships between media, social and medical histories, focusing particularly on popular film and media genres (horror, true crime, psychological thrillers); media and mental health; youth and digital media; audiences and cinemagoing; material cultures; and screen heritage. His research has been published in journals including Media History, History of the Human Sciences, Science Museum Group Journal and Cultural Studies, and in monographs Phantom Ladies: Hollywood Horror and the Home Front (Rutgers University Press, 2015) and Demons of the Mind: Psychiatry and Cinema in the Long 1960s (Edinburgh University Press, 2024). He was primary investigator on two recent Arts and Humanities Research Council grants on media and mental health, researched and delivered in collaboration with the British Science Association and Science Museum Group.

Selected publications

• Snelson, T, Macauley, W, and Kirby, D, 2024, Demons of the Mind: Psychiatry and Cinema in the Long 1960s (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press)
• Snelson, T, Booth, T, et al, 2024, 'Objects of the Mind: Using film to explore the entangled histories of media and mental health', Science Museum Group Journal 21
• Snelson, T, 2021, 'From In Two Minds to MIND: the Circulation of "Anti-Psychiatry" in British Film and Television in the Long-1960s', History of Human Sciences 34:5, pp 53-81
• Snelson, T, Macauley, W, 2020, ‘The Influence of “Psychiatrist Friends” on British Censorship in the 1960s’, Journal of British Cinema and Television 17:4, pp 473-499
• Ruiz, Polyanna, Snelson, T, et al, 2020, ‘“Look at What We Made”: Communicating Subcultural Value on London’s Southbank’, Cultural Studies 34:3, pp 292-417