As part of my master’s thesis, my project interprets a queering strategy implemented by the museum. From June to September 2023, I conducted field research by attending the Ethnologisches Museum’s guided tour Beyond the Norm: A queer look at gender and sexuality in the ethnological collection, analyzing the tour’s formative materials and interviewing guides and museum staff. My resulting post-it note intervention queers the knowledge, power, and positionality of the museum through integrating questions raised by the tour, myself and the museum’s participants into the permanent exhibition.

Visitors were able to respond to questions and suggestions, which I had placed as Post Its at various locations in the exhibition, with further Post Its. In a guided tour, I explored these places together with visitors and explained the background to my questions.

Format: Tour and feedback tool
Materials: Post-It notes, Beyond the Norm tour script

About the contributor:

Aria Tilove studies in the Master Research Training Program in Social Sciences at Humboldt University. In addition to writing her thesis, she is a Student Assistant at the Museum für Naturkunde, where she works within the Education and Outreach department on collaborative projects between the museum and Berlin schools.