Nicole Paula Meehan

I have degrees in applied mathematics, archaeology and american studies.  

After working in the cultural sector in digital and engagement focused roles (Historic Environment Scotland, Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, National Galleries Scotland), I joined the School of Art History, teaching predominantly on the Museum and Heritage Studies programme.  

My research and teaching focuses on the uses of digital technology in museums.  I think broadly about the advantages and limitations of such technologies, and the impact of this upon diverse audiences.  Specifically I am interested in the digital museum object, positioning it as a generative and polyvocal object that is valuable in its own right.  I examine the complex networks of interactions around these objects, as they exist in (post)digital ecologies. Recently I have drawn upon intersectional internet theory to consider matters of digital access and digital exclusion, paying particular attention to digital colonialism.  

In 2013/14 I was the recipient of the UK-US Fulbright Bibliometrics Award, and in 2019 I was a Digital Humanities Fellow at The American Philosophical Society.

My projects include the funded Visualising Transnational Museology online resource, and the open access data visualisation inspired exhibition Investigating Indentured Servitude: Visualizing Experiences of Colonial America undertaken during a digital humanities fellowship at the American Philosophical Society.

Current research examines the value-based judgements enacted by museums in the use of digital technologies in relation to the climate crisis.

digital museum objects; digital access and engagement; museum education; cultural memory; digital humanities; decolonising digital spaces; environmental cost of digital technologies