Beyond 'diversity' initiatives: Interrogating whiteness towards a decolonisation of the museum space.

将目光转向白人和种族在多大程度上有助于博物馆的去殖民化，在多大程度上可以创造更多的种族包容性空间？最近博物馆空间的非殖民化运动在很大程度上被博物馆解释为使殖民博物馆的白色空间多样化。然而，正如苏玛亚·卡西姆所说：有色人种经常被引入来提供自然资源——我们的身体和我们的非殖民化思想——这些资源被剥削，然后被丢弃。[…我们不应该把责任放在有色人种身上——无论是作为促进者还是作为博物馆的观众——我们需要改变叙述，问问博物馆如何在不继续剥削有色人种的情况下，为其白人多数观众促进去殖民进程。卡欣(2017)。这项研究试图超越“多样性”倡议，专注于拆除作为规范的白人形象，并将“种族”及其遗产暴露在博物馆空间中，作为非殖民化的核心。这并不是说“多样性”不重要。然而，我认为博物馆空间内的“多样性”项目坐落在没有挑战的白人结构中，导致博物馆试图解决的种族主义殖民遗产永久化。鉴于瞬息万变的伦理环境，各机构都在与种族遗产作斗争，并呼吁采取行动，本研究旨在扩展我们对非殖民化和种族意识博物馆实践和游客参与的理解。通过对“种族”展览的发展，以行动为基础，对白人作为一种种族化状态的原始见解，本研究试图为白人创造一面镜子，作为对博物馆“种族”扫盲工作的高度重要贡献。该博士将采取多方法的方法；通过观察和反思的方法收集数据，研究展览案例；并通过“种族”展览生成数据。作为一个社会干预的研究项目，它旨在探索性地调查展览对“种族”作为一种结构对参观者和博物馆工作人员的影响，以帮助回答我上面提到的首要研究问题，以及以下两个子问题：当白人“看到”白人时会发生什么？通过将白色的凝视转移到自身，通过改变主客体动态，是否可以创造新的观看方式？在博物馆展览中揭示“种族”的社会建构，能在多大程度上对白人和少数族裔在观众、工作人员和机构层面上如何看待“种族”和种族主义产生积极的变化？本研究旨在通过对种族平等工作方式的逐步改变来影响博物馆部门，从而为知识提供原创性贡献。学者和实践者越来越多地要求将“白度”作为这一过程的基本组成部分进行识别和分析（Jenson, 2011; Monserrat， Wee和Gamaker, 2020; Kassim, 2017），但这一领域的重要和强有力的研究很少，如果有的话。

To what extent can shifting the gaze onto whiteness and race contribute to decolonisation in museums, and to what extent can this create more racially inclusive spaces?The recent drive to decolonise the museum space has largely been interpreted by museums as diversifying the colonial museum white space. However, as Sumaya Kassim states: Too often people of colour are rolled in to provide natural resources - our bodies and our decolonial thoughts - which are exploited, and then discarded. [...] Rather than place the onus on people of colour - either as facilitators or as an audience for the museum - we need to flip the narrative and ask how the museum can facilitate the decolonial process for its white majority audience in a way that does not continue to exploit people of colour. (Kassim, 2017). This research seeks to move beyond 'diversity' initiatives to focus on dismantling the image of whiteness as the norm, and exposing 'race' and its legacy in the museum space as central to decolonisation. This is not to say that 'diversity' is not important. Yet I ague 'diversity' projects within the museum space that sit within unchallenged white structures result in perpetuating the racist colonial legacy the museum is attempting to address. In light of a rapidly changing ethical landscape, where institutions are struggling with racial legacies and calls to action, this research aims to extend our understanding of what decolonial and race-conscious museum practice and visitor engagement looks like. Using action-based, original insights into whiteness as a racialised status elicited through the development of an exhibition on 'race', this research seeks to create a mirror onto whiteness as a highly significant contribution to museum 'race' literacy work. This PhD will take a multi-method approach; collecting data through observational and reflective methods studying exhibition case studies; and generating data through an exhibition on 'race'. As a research project that is a social intervention, it intends to be an explorative investigation into the impact of an exhibition on 'race' as a construct on visitors and museum staff, in order to help answer my over-arching research question stated above, in addition to two sub-questions as follows: What happens when white 'sees' white? In shifting the white gaze onto itself, and by changing the subject-object dynamic, can new ways of seeing be created? To what extent can exposing the social construction of 'race' in a museum exhibition create positive change in how 'race' and racism are addressed by white and racially-minoritised people at audience, staff, and institutional levels? This research intends to offer an original contribution to knowledge in order to impact the museum sector by offering a step-change in how racial equity work is approached. Identifying and analysing 'whiteness' as a fundamental part of the process is increasingly called for by scholars and practitioners (Jenson, 2011; Monserrat, Wee and Gamaker, 2020; Kassim, 2017), yet there is very little, if any, significant and robust research in this area.