Towards Sensibilities of Caring with and for Museum Objects in a University Context

Abstract

Within the prevalent logic of the neoliberal university, teaching and learning are subject to academic audits, performance indicators and quality assurance measures. These impact on the relationships between educators and students, placing an emphasis on self- over collective interests, aspirational mobility, and a culture of ‘speed’ and productivity that leaves little time for reflection. The effects of this are perhaps even more acutely felt in former polytechnic (post-92) universities, where the focus lies on employability, the creative industries, and vocational training. In this context, what does it entail to bring care into the learning environments? This paper considers the activist potential of embodied pedagogies to generate ways of knowing that confront discourses of neoliberal education. Drawing on object-based pedagogic practice with students in face-to-face sessions at the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture (Middlesex University), the paper considers how such encounters might generate radical practices of care. How might the museum formulate arguments which challenge institutional expectations to perform in the knowledge-based economy? To what extent might these spaces open possibilities for an alternative “commons” beyond neoliberal logics?.