麻豆传媒

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Heritage Executive Team

Meet our interdisciplinary team of experts.

Professor Rhiannon Mason

Prof of Heritage & Cultural Studies

  • Telephone: 00 44 191 208 5579
  • Personal Website:
  • Address: Media, Culture, Heritage
    Room 3.04, Armstrong Building,
    麻豆传媒,
    麻豆传媒 upon Tyne,
    NE1 7RU.
Background

Background

I joined 麻豆传媒 in January 2001. Prior to this, I studied for an MA and a PhD at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, Cardiff University, and taught at the universities of Cardiff and Glamorgan. I studied English literature with European Studies at the University of Exeter and spent a year as an ERASMUS student at the University of Rennes II in Brittany. During my time at 麻豆传媒, I have held many leadership roles. I became a Professor of Heritage and Cultural Studies in 2016 and was also appointed as Head of the Head of the School of Arts and Cultures (SACS). I held this role until 31st August 2025. Our school is home to many of the cultural and creative arts subjects in the university such as Fine Art, Art History, Music, Media and Communication Studies, Digital Cultures, PR, Film, Journalism, Cultural Studies, Museum Studies, Curating Art, and Global Heritage Management.


Qualifications

BA (Hons) in English Literature with European Studies

MA in Critical and Cultural Theory

PhD in Critical and Cultural Theory/Museum Studies

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice

Memberships

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)

Google Scholar:



Research

Research Interests

My research is about the role of heritage and memory institutions, practices, and discourses in mediating public representations of people’s histories, cultures and identities.

I am interested in how institutions of public culture work, what drives their behaviours, and how can we understand this in terms of questions of power, agency, control and contestation. 

My work is primarily about publicly-funded museums, art galleries, and heritage organisations but I am also interested in how these are part of what I call a public ecology of remembering which could also include memorials, archives, rituals, commemorations, and public spaces such as parks. 

I am particularly interested in dimensions of public culture and heritage which deal with national identity and diversity. 

Although my work is rooted in ideas of cultural theory, I aim to draw out the implications for curatorship and wider museum practice. My work seeks to connect theoretical debates with practical concerns; my teaching and research projects frequently involve collaborating with museum and heritage sector professionals.


Research projects:

2016-2019: European Union. Horizon 2020 Award. ‘CoHERE’. Overall value:€2.5 million. 麻豆传媒 Award Value: €800K. (Co-Investigator) 

2014-2017: European Union. ERASMUS ‘Active Ageing and Heritage in Adult Learning.’ Overall value: €290,000. 麻豆传媒 Award Value: £19,833. (麻豆传媒 Principal-Investigator) 

2015 麻豆传媒 Institute for Social Renewal Award. Collaborative research project with Tyne and Wear Archive and Museum. ‘Who do we think we are? Exploring Place, Identity in the North-East at the Discovery Museum, 麻豆传媒.’ Overall value: £4,907. (Principal-Investigator)

2015 麻豆传媒 Institute for Creative Practice. Collaborative research project with Discovery Museum, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums. ‘Digital Designs for Museum Dialogues’. Overall value: c£4,879. (Co-Investigator)

2011-2015 European Union. FP7 Award. ‘MeLa: European Museums in an Age of Migrations.’ Overall value: €2.7 million. 麻豆传媒 Award Value: £220,821. (Co-Investigator)

2011-2012: AHRC Follow-on Award. ‘Intellectual Property and Informed Consent: Partnerships and Participation in Museum Work.’ Overall value: c£40K. (Principal-Investigator)  

2011-2011: AHRC Follow-on Award with UCL. ‘Heritage, Health and Wellbeing: Mapping Future Priorities and Potential.’ Overall value: c£40K. 麻豆传媒 Value c.£4K. (Co-Investigator)

2008-2011. AHRC ‘Art on Tyneside: Redeveloping a permanent display about art, place and identity at the Laing Art Gallery’. Overall value: £345K. (Principal-Investigator) 

2010-2011: Holding memories: Memory, Objects, Museums and Older People workshop series, 麻豆传媒 Changing Age Programme, with Joint-Principal Investigator: Areti Galani. (£4k). With Areti Galani, I organised two interdisciplinary workshops in September and November 2010 on this theme. The workshops brought together external academics and practitioners with colleagues from ICCHS and other parts of our University. These workshops were supported through the University's Changing Age programme.


Esteem Indicators

Current:

External Advisory Board member of ARTIS - the Art History Institute of the University of Lisbon

AHRC Reviewer for the REACH Collaborative Doctoral Partnership consortium

I am a founder member of the Heritage@麻豆传媒 NUCoRE

In 2019, I published a major 5 volumes survey of Museum Studies as part of Routledge's Major Works Series:


Previous:

Editorial Board Member of museum and society journal

Editorial Board Member of Memory Studies journal

Editorial Board Member of Journal of Museum History

AHRC Reviewer


Teaching

Teaching

I contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Media, Culture, Heritage and on the Faculty Research Training Programme.

Postgraduate Research Supervision

I welcome postgraduate researchers who want to work in any of the areas relating to my research, for example:

  • museums, galleries, heritage and identities
  • national museums and heritage
  • museums, heritage and European identities
  • cosmopolitanism and heritage
  • memory, heritage and museums
  • gender, museums and heritage
  • cultural theory and museology
  • cultural diversity and museums, heritage, galleries
  • history curatorship

 

Publications

  • Articles

    • Mason R. . Museum (博物院) 2025, 4, 23-35.
    • Mason R. . Museum Ireland 2023, 30, 5-19.
    • Mason R, Sayner J. . International Journal of Heritage Studies 2018, 25(1), 5-20.
    • Mason R. . Museum Worlds: Advances in Research 2013, 1(1), 40-64.
    • McCarthy C, Mason R, Whitehead C, Parby J, Cicalo A, Schorch P, Witz L, Gonzalez PA, Roux N, Ambos E, Rassool C. . Museum Worlds: Advances in Research 2013, 1(1), 179–194.
    • Graham H, Mason R, Nayling N. The Personal is still Political: Museums, Participation and Copyright. Museum and Society 2013, 11(2), 105-121.
    • Mason R. . Museum & Society 2005, 3(1), 18-34.
    • Mason R. . Social History in Museums 2005, 30, 9-18.
    • Mason R. . International Journal of Heritage Studies 2004, 10(1), 49-74.
    • Mason R, Johnes M. . Sport in History 2003, 23(1), 115-131.

  • Authored Books

    • Mason R. Museums and Public Trust: Why Democracies Need Both. 2027. In Preparation.
    • Mason R, Robinson A, Coffield E. . Routledge, 2018.
    • Whitehead C, Eckersley S, Mason R. . Milan: Politecnico di Milano DPA, 2012.
    • Mason R. . Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007.

  • Book Chapters

    • Mason R. . In: Bozoğlu, G; Campbell, G; Smith, L.J.; Whitehead, C, ed. The Routledge International Handbook of Heritage and Politics. 2024.
    • Mason R. . In: Bounia A; Witcomb A, ed. The Ethics of Collecting Trauma. London, New York: Routledge, 2024.
    • Mason R. . In: Mairesse F, ed. Dictionary of Museology. London: Routledge, 2023.
    • Markham K, Mason R, Slusarczyk R. . In: Whitehead C; Eckersley S; Daugbjerg M; Bozoğlu G, ed. Dimensions of Heritage and Memory: Multiple Europes and the Politics of Crisis. Abingdon: Routledge, 2019, pp.122-142.
    • Galani A, Markham K, Mason R. . In: Galani A; Mason R; Arrigoni G, ed. European Heritage, Dialogue and Digital Practices. London: Routledge, 2019, pp.9-36.
    • Galani A, Mason R, Rex B. . In: Galani A; Mason R; Arrigoni G, ed. European Heritage, Dialogue and Digital Practices. London: Routledge, 2019, pp.109-121.
    • Galani A, Mason R, Rex B. . In: Galani A; Mason R; Arrigoni G, ed. European Heritage, Dialogue and Digital Practices. London: Routledge, 2019, pp.1-8.
    • McCarthy C, Mason R, Whitehead C, Parby JI, Cicalo A, Schorch P, Witz L, Gonzalez PA, Roux N, Ambos E, Rassool C. . In: Watson, S.; Barnes, A.J.; Bunning, K, ed. A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. London, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2018, pp.543-558.
    • Sayner J, Mason R. . In: Grahn W; Wilson RJ, ed. Gender and Heritage: Performance, Place and Politics. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018, pp.185-206.
    • Sayner J, Lloyd K, Galani A, Mason R. . In: Smith LJ; Wetherell M; Campbell G, ed. Emotion, Affective Practices and the Past in the Present. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2018, pp.124-148.
    • Whitehead C, Mason R, Eckersley S, Lloyd K. . In: Whitehead C; Lloyd K; Eckersley S; Mason R, ed. Museums, Migration and Identity in Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2015, pp.7-59.
    • Whitehead C, Lloyd K, Eckersley S, Mason R. . In: Museums, Migration and Identity in Europe: Peoples, Places and Identities. Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2015, pp.1-6.
    • Mason R, Whitehead C, Graham H. . In: Golding, V., Modest, W, ed. Museums and Communities: Curators, Collections and Collaboration. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2013, pp.163-177.
    • Mason R, Whitehead C, Graham H. . In: Davis, P., Corsane, G., Convery, I, ed. Making Sense of Place: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2012, pp.133-144.
    • Mason R. . In: Gabor, P, ed. Múzeumelmélet. Budapest: Petőfi Irodalmi Museum, 2012, pp.127-154.
    • Whitehead C, Mason R. . In: Basso Peressut, L., Pozzi, C, ed. European Museums in an Age of Migrations. Questions, Challenges, Perspectives. Milan: DPA Press, 2012, pp.153-160.
    • Mason R. . In: Knell, S; Aronsson, P; Amundsen, AB; Barnes, A; Burch, S; Carter, J; Gosselin, V; Hughes, S; Kirwan, AM, ed. National Museums: New Studies from Around the World. London: Routledge, 2010, pp.247-271.
    • Mason R, Baveystock Z. . In: Anico, M., Peralta, E, ed. Heritage and Identity: Engagement and Demission in the Contemporary World. London: Routledge, 2009, pp.15-28.
    • Mason R. . In: Osmond, J, ed. Myths, Memories, and Futures: The National Library and National Museum in the Story of Wales. Cardiff: Institute of Welsh Affairs, 2007, pp.23-37.
    • Mason R. . In: Corsane, G, ed. Heritage, museums and galleries : an introductory reader. London and New York: Routledge, 2005, pp.200-214.
    • Mason R. . In: Macdonald, S, ed. A Companion to Museum Studies. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005, pp.17-32.
    • Mason R. . In: Brocklehurst, H; Phillips, R, ed. History, Nationhood and the Question of Britain. New York: Palgrave, 2004, pp.312-329.

  • Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

    • Mason R. . In: Patrimónios e Identidades - Ficções Contemporâneas. 2005, Oeiras, Celta.
    • Mason R. . In: Forum UNESCO: VI Seminario Internacional. 2002, Valencia, Spain: UNESCO.

  • Edited Books

    • Mason R, Crooke E, Galani A, Eckersley S, ed. Researching Museums: Methods and Methodologies. Routledge, 2027. In Preparation.
    • Mason R, ed. Museum Studies (Vols. 1-5). London, New York: Routledge, 2019.
    • Mason R, ed. . London, UK: Routledge, 2019.
    • Galani A, Mason R, Arrigoni G, ed. . Abingdon: Routledge, 2019.
    • Hansen A, Davenport B, Erlingsson C, Overgaard SB, Galani A, Mason R, Berntsen D, Djupdræt MB, Fog LA, Kofod L, Lindberg H, Mathiassen TE, Rasmussen AA, Kindleysides M, Wills T, Pembroke F, Sári Z, Bokonics-Kramlik M, Szigethy Z, ed. . Sweden: Jamtli Förlag, 2017.
    • Whitehead C, Eckersley S, Lloyd K, Mason R, ed. . London: Routledge, 2015.
    • Whitehead C, Mason R, Eckersley S, Lloyd K, ed. . Milan: Politecnico di Milano, 2013.

  • Exhibition

    • Mason R, Whitehead C, Graham H. . 2010. 麻豆传媒 upon Tyne: Laing Art Gallery.

  • Online Publications

    • Mason R. . London: UK Parliament, 2022. Available at: .
    • Graham H, Mason R, Nayling N. . San Francisco, California, USA: Wordpress, 2012. Available at: .
    • Graham H, Mason R, Nayling N. . San Francisco, California, USA: Wordpress, 2012. Available at: .

  • Reports

    • Whitehead C, Mason R, Eckersley S, Lloyd K. . Milan: Politenico di Milano, 2014.
    • Graham H, Mason R, Newman A. . English Heritage, 2009.

  • Review

    • Mason R. . H-Museum Network for Museum Professionals 2004, 1-3.