The Imperial War Museum, London: A Century of Reinvention

该项目旨在纠正帝国战争博物馆至今没有实质性历史的事实。该博物馆成立于1917年，以纪念第一次世界大战，已发展到应对一个世纪的持续战争。它现在是一个具有国际重要性的机构，拥有广受好评的展览计划和精湛的收藏品，包括世界上最好的二十世纪英国艺术收藏品之一。当它准备庆祝百年纪念，并在伦敦遗址启动一项新的展览计划时，缺乏对其历史的适当研究已成为一个严重的障碍。学生奖学金将回答这一迫切需要的展示实践和政策在伦敦博物馆在过去的一百年中的扩展分析。该项目的出发点是该机构（华丽地安置在Bedlam的前场所）的明显坚固性与它所经历的不断变化的过程之间的对比。它邀请学生追求各种研究问题有关展览在博物馆，其中可能包括但不限于：策展的反应连续冲突和转变态度的战争;空间的变化使用在伦敦博物馆在其不同的位置;博物馆如何对待其收藏的折衷性质，它结合了军事文物和美术展览;以及该博物馆在国际上越来越多和复杂的纪念馆和战争博物馆中的地位。具体的调查和最终的论点将从学生的档案研究中产生。学生将与博物馆工作人员密切合作，开发一个项目，该项目将为博物馆正在进行的展览审查提供信息。他/她将为博物馆的口述历史和新的在线百年展览收集材料，从而帮助创建和分析博物馆的历史和藏品。博物馆藏品的主题性质使其成为跨学科分析的理想选择。该项目将使在许多领域工作的学者受益，包括博物馆研究，战争研究和艺术史，所有这些都是布里斯托大学的研究优势。该项目的撰写和传播将在几个层面上发挥作用，包括在线展览和面向普通读者的出版物，以及论文和由此产生的学术出版物。

The project is designed to redress the fact that there is as yet no substantial history of the Imperial War Museum. Founded in 1917 to commemorate the First World War, the museum has developed in response to a century of continual warfare. It is now an institution of international importance, with an acclaimed exhibitions programme and superb collections, including one of the best collections of twentieth-century British art in the world. As it prepares to mark its centenary, and to initiate a programme of new displays at the London site, the lack of proper research into its history has become a serious handicap. The studentship will answer this pressing need for an extended analysis of display practice and policy at the London museum over the past hundred years. The project takes as its starting point the contrast between the apparent solidity of the institution (housed magnificently in the former premises of Bedlam) and the process of constant change which it has undergone. It invites the student to pursue various research questions concerning exhibiting at the museum, which may include but are not limited to: curatorial responses to successive conflicts and to shifting attitudes to war; the changing use of space at the London museum in its various locations; how the museum has treated the eclectic nature of its collection, which combines military artefacts and fine-art displays; and the museum's place among the growing number and sophistication of memorials and war museums internationally. The specific lines of enquiry and eventual argument will emerge from the student's archival researches.The student will work closely with museum staff to develop a project which will feed in to the museum's ongoing review of its displays. S/he will contribute to the gathering of material for an oral history of the museum and to a new online centenary exhibition, thereby helping to create, as well as to analyse, the museum's history and collections. The thematic nature of the museum's collection makes it ideal for cross-disciplinary analysis. The project will benefit academics working in a number of fields, including museum studies, war studies and the history of art, all of which are research strengths at the University of Bristol. The writing up and dissemination of the project will function at several levels, including the online exhibition and a publication for general readership, in addition to the thesis and resulting academic publications.