Dr JC Niala, Head of Research, Teaching and Collections
Research summary

Dr JC Niala, Head of Research, Teaching & Collections at the History of Science Museum
I am interested in how our imaginations of nature affect how we treat it.
My doctoral research combined traditional anthropology methodology with public engagement with research to examine the relationship between urban gardeners in Oxford and the spaces which they materialise.
My current research in museology and archaeological practice, traces histories of producing communities through pre and colonial-era collections held in European museums.
I have also worked with different communities to develop Community Action Research a methodology for transformative collections based research.
In the growing season of 2021, I recreated an allotment in the style of the year 1918. This project was a collaboration with an Oxford-based community, arts and horticulture project called Fig, supported by The Humanities Cultural Programme at TORCH. In 2022, our project was awarded the Social History Society's Public History Prize.
CV
JC Niala became Head of Research, Teaching and Collections at the History of Science Museum in 2022.
She previously worked at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London and most recently at Cambridge University Libraries as Head of World Collections.
She studied Social Anthropology at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford.
Recent publications
2022
- Rethinking Relationships and building trust around African collections, Journal of Museum Ethnography 35: 49-62
- Portal: 1918 Allotment Fig
- The Root of the Matter Podcast Series Wellcome Collections
2021
- The Missing Link: Community Contribution and Absence in Archaeology in East Africa with Sherry DavisBulletin of the History of Archaeology31(1): 3-4 (https://www.archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10.5334/bha-660)
- Dig for Vitality: UK urban allotments as a health promoting response to COVID-19Cities and Health5(1): 227-231 (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23748834.2020.1794369)
2019
-
Niala, J.C. (2019, March) Reconstructing Relationships: An autoethnographic account of post-colonial museum encounters. Journal of Museum Ethnography.
Website: www.jcniala.com
Twitter : @jcniala