Community Perspectives on Global Health

The purpose of the project was to form a collaborative team of museum staff and volunteers who could explore museum collections and their relationship to global health.

Each member would bring their own unique skills and experience to the project, working together to decide upon and develop the outputs.

Volunteers would gain research skills, museum staff would gain stills in facilitating collaborative research, and the museum collections would be enriched in the process.

Research Team: Volunteers worked in a team with collections staff to investigate global health topics, using museum collections as a foundation. While museum staff shared their expertise, volunteers also contributed their skills and experience in an equitable partnership.

Field Visits: Participants visited significant institutions like the Wellcome Collection and the Pandemic Sciences Institute, offering them first hand exposure to leading research and exhibitions that explore the intersections of health, history, and culture.

Focus on Inequality: The project included targeted sessions that address health inequalities, featuring practical demonstrations and discussions focused around the museum’s Do You Feel Forgotten exhibition. These sessions aim to deepen understanding of how social determinants impact health and to explore potential strategies for mitigating these disparities.

The outputs of the project are still being developed.

One blog written by a project volunteer is already online, and two others are under review.

We are also considering how to incorporate the volunteers’ research into our collections database so that will be attached to the relevant objects, enriching their records from the volunteer’s point of view.

The volunteers shared their work with wider museum staff and University of Oxford alumni through several hands-on presentations.

Tina and Luena also shared the learnings from the project with colleagues in the museums sector at a conference. You can view their talk here.

Educational Impact: The project provided volunteers with a learning experience that covered historical and contemporary perspectives on health by providing them with access to museum collections, expert knowledge, research opportunities and training.

Enriching Collections: The research carried out by the volunteers and their unique perspectives have enriched our historic and cultural understanding of the museum’s health collections.

Community Building: MultakaOxford serves as a platform for bringing together a diverse range of voices, fostering collaboration and mutual understanding. It strengthens community ties by encouraging active participation and dialogue. The collaborative nature of this project allowed for a deeper understanding of cultural traditions and health disparities around the world.

Actionable Insights: The research and discussions generated through this project were intended to produce knowledge that can influence health policies and practices in the future. By connecting historical perspectives with contemporary health challenges, and sharing this work with museum audiences, the project hopes to impact global health equity.

Project Learnings: Museum staff in the project team gained insights into the best ways to collaborate with volunteers, particularly on collections-based research projects, and how to share the findings with the public. These learnings were shared at HSM and with the wider museum sector community.