Dr Trish Biers and Dr Katie Stringer Clary at the Death and Culture 2022 Conference on museums, heritage, and death, the ethics of human display, curation and working in museums and heritage education

What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Trish Biers and Dr Katie Stringer Clary discuss museums, heritage, and death, the ethics of human display, curation and working in museums and heritage education.

Who is Trish?

Dr Trish Biers is the Collections Manager at the Level of Curator of the Duckworth laboratory (human and non-human primate remains and an archive) in the Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge.

She teaches in the Department about ethics, repatriation, treatment of the dead, mortuary archaeology, and osteology. She has excavated all over the world but specialises in mummies of South America.

She is currently the Museum Representative, on the Board of Trustees, British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) and organises their sub-group on the sale and trade of human remains.

Her research interests include ancient and modern death work, mummy studies, osteoarchaeology and paleopathology, biomolecular archaeology, the Columbian Exchange, and museum studies focusing on displaying the dead, working with human remains, repatriation and ethics in archaeology.

She is also involved in research about witchcraft, folklore, and archaeology. Trish is the ‘other-half’ of MorMortisMuseum with Dr Katie Stringer-Clary.

Who is Katie?

Katie Stringer Clary, Ph.D., currently teaches history and public history at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C.

Since 2007, Clary worked with museums in various capacities from docent to executive director. In her time at museums and as a graduate student in Public History she focused on museum education and inclusion issues, especially for people with special needs.

This research culminated in her 2014 manuscript, Programming for People with Special Needs: A Guide for Museums and Historic Sites.

Through her work, she continues to advocate for accessibility, representation, and equality in museums and historic sites. Clary currently researches the ethics and historical contexts of human remains in museums, dark tourism and ghost tours at historic sites, and the roles death plays in the museum world. Museums, Heritage, and Death, co-edited with Dr. Trish Biers for Routledge Publishing is scheduled for release in 2023, and she also has two chapters in the volume.

Clary works closely with community organizations to preserve and interpret the past. She is also interested in the history of museums, museum administration, digital histories, and community engagement.

In her spare time, she likes to camp and hike, travel, and spend time with her dogs Harry Clary and Brutus, cat Miss Frances, and six chickens.

Find the Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage and Death here.

LISTEN HERE!

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

To cite this episode, you can use the following citation:

Biers, T. and Stringer Clary, K. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 21 September. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.21175312

What next?

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