Date of Award

Spring 6-12-2026

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Anthropology

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Anthropology

First Advisor

Christina F. Kreps

Second Advisor

Alejandro Ceron

Third Advisor

Luc Beaudoin

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Anthropology, Community-musuem collaboration, Critical museology, LGBTQIA2S+, Museum studies, Queer studies

Abstract

Traditionally, histories of LGBTQIA2S+ individuals have been excluded from mainstream conversations and censored from public records. This exclusion was evident in how LGBTQIA2S+ history is retold in museum spaces. Over the past few decades, public institutions have shifted how LGBTQIA2S+ histories are communicated, with efforts to include more diverse histories and perspectives. During the summer of 2025, I conducted a museum ethnography of the Neville Public Museum’s Telling Our Stories: LGBTQ+ Voices of Northeastern Wisconsin to answer the research question: How does community engagement enhance the representation of the LGBTQIA2S+ community in a local museum in Northeastern Wisconsin? Through this ethnography, I conducted participant observation, staff and community member interviews, website analysis, and collected online survey responses. The findings from this research contribute to conversations about the community-museum collaboration process and its role in enhancing representation in exhibitions.

Copyright Date

6-2026

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Frances Kerkhof

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

152 pgs

File Size

230 MB

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