How about our well-being?
Increasingly, we are thinking about the well-being of museum visitors. For example, we place trigger warnings at the entrance to rooms where sensitive topics are broached, such as slavery history or death, and inclusive language is commonplace in many museums. But what about museum staff (and volunteers)? As a museum professional, you may encounter fraught themes and objects at many times. But also with structural and institutional racism - and that has a big impact on our well-being. What can we learn from abroad, where sometimes hotlines and support groups already exist in this area?
Someone who can share a lot about this is Abeer Eladany. She works as an Egyptologist and Curatorial Assistant at the University of Aberdeen and does research on the well-being of museum employees.
Practical Information
- Monday, Dec. 2, 2024
- 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
- Online via Zoom (or copy this link into your browser: https://zoom.us/j/96319826870)
- Participation is free, registration is not required
- Have questions for Abeer in advance? Send them to communicatie@icom.nl
About the Speaker
Abeer is a Curatorial Assistant at the University of Aberdeen Collections. She is an Egyptologist, a museum professional, and an archaeologist. Abeer has worked in the Egyptian Museum at the start of her career in Egypt and has over 30 years of experience working in the museum sector both in Egypt and in the UK. She studied at Cairo, Helwan, Manchester and Aberdeen universities. Her main research interests are related to mummified Ancient Egyptians, History of Egyptology, and Museology, particularly Ethics and Repatriation. Recently, she became interested in Wellbeing and is an advocate for the museum force mental health and wellbeing.
Abeer is a trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society, chair of its Collection Committee and a member of the Museums Galleries Scotland board of trustees. She has been elected to join ICOM UK board of trustees and she is its treasurer since 2023. She is a member of ICOM Working Group on Decolonisation, collaborating with international colleagues from the archaeological and museum sectors to provide recommendations for ICOM and museums worldwide.
In 2020, Abeer joined the Slavery, Empire and Scottish Museums steering group that has published its recommendations following a large public consultation regarding how Scotland’s existing and future museum collections and spaces can better recognise and represent a more accurate portrayal of Scotland’s colonial and slavery history.