Congratulations to Dr. Speller and her interdisciplinary team who have been awarded a 2024 grant for their new Research Excellence Cluster: Decolonizing Curation: Addressing the Global Heritage Repository Crisis in the Age of UNDRIP (United nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)
Our research cluster will bring together First Nation and local communities, archive, museum and repository representatives, practising archaeologists, heritage management officers, Indigenous/First Nations scholars and allies across BC, the Americas and beyond to re-imagine the future of data and cultural heritage curation locally and globally and develop solutions for change. Our cluster will address critical issues facing cultural heritage repositories via an ethos of practice guided by Indigenous and other descent community perspectives and moves toward data and cultural heritage sovereignty for First Nations and local communities.
Research Excellence Clusters are interdisciplinary networks of researchers addressing societal and cultural problems, and working together to solve challenges that transcend traditional boundaries associated with departments, institutions, and funding agencies. Funding is awarded through Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters (GCRC) competitions. Dr. Speller’s research cluster is one of 25 new clusters funded through the 2024/25 competition.
