KIERSTEN F. LATHAM
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Research. Curiouser and curiouser.
       My research inquiries are led by my curiosity and my interest in what it means to be curious, to be interested, and to wonder. In particular, I am fascinated with the notion of lived experience (phenomenological) and what happens when we consider the fuller, more holistic experiences of museum visitors—what they are thinking, feeling, doing, experiencing—all at once. These inquiries often result from my own wondering about assumptions and things we take for granted.
        As a part of this, I have always been fascinated with universals and foundational questions. What makes us human? What do I share with someone on the other side of the earth, or from a different time? For that reason, I am interested in finding out similarities and differences of common museum activities and how they manifest in different places and cultures across the world. At the same time, I am in awe of the fact that each person is a unique individual, with a particular accumulation of experiences and encounters and a way of seeing the world that is only his or her own. The research I do tends to start with these underlying foundations—asking what all humans share but also exploring individual differences.
       My research agenda has convened around human experience with physical (museum) objects—especially with respect to emotion, perception, sensation, and spirituality—and the conceptual foundations of museums as systems. I have done research on numinous experiences with museum objects, imaginative touch (of museum objects), user perceptions of ‘the real thing’ in museums, contemplative practices in museums, museums as ecological systems, and conceptual ramifications of museum object as document. Most recently, I have been working on developing Positive Museology, positioning museums as centers of meaning-making from a positive (not positivist) point of view.
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What Others are saying:
  • Interview with Carol Bossert of Museum Life, on The Objects of Experience, with Wood and Latham
  • Visitor Studies Association interview
     on Latham's Numinous Experiences article
  • Outstanding Paper Award, 2016,
     Journal of Documentation, Emerald
  • High Distinction Paper Award, 2019, Journal of Documentation, Emerald
  • Museum Questions blog post
     on Numinous Experiences in Museums
  • Museum Studies Network (MSN) Conversations, Inaugural Shelfie #1
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A Selection of Research Publications

Positive museology.
Latham, K.F. & Cowan, B (in preparation, expected 2023).
     Flourishing Museums: Toward a Positive Museology.
     Routledge, U.K.
Latham, K.F. (in press, 2022). Infecting Museums with Joy: 7
     Ways. Library Trends: Special Issue on the Joy of
     Information.

Latham, K. F., Hartel, J., & Gorichanaz, T. (2020). Information
     and contemplation: a call for reflection and action. Journal
     of Documentation,
76 (5): 99-1017.
Gorichanaz, T. & Latham, K.F. (2019). Contemplative Aims for
     Information. Information Research, 24(3), paper 836.
Blog posts here on the website:
  • (2021, June 23) The Purpose of Museums = Love.
  • (2020, May 27). Ten paths toward a flourishing museum.    
  • (2018, November 15). The character strengths and virtues of museums.
  • (2018, August 15) Do we need Positive Museology?

Human relationships with objects.

Latham, K.F. (2016).  Psychological flow and the numinous
     museum experience. University of Michigan Museum
     Studies Working Papers in Museum Studies, Series, 11.

Latham, K.F. (2015). What is the real thing in the museum? An
     interpretative phenomenological study. Museum
     Management & Curatorship
, 30(1), 2-20.
Latham, K.F. (2014). Experiencing documents. Journal of
     Documentation
, 70(4), 544-561.
Wood, E. & Latham, K.F. (2013). The objects of experience:
     Transforming visitor-object encounters in museums.

     Walnut Creek, CA.: Left Coast Press.


Lived experience, lifeworld, and phenomenology.
Gorichanaz, T., Latham, K.F., & Wood, E. (2018). Lifeworld as a
     unit of analysis. Journal of Documentation, 74(4), 880-893.
     [Awarded Outstanding Paper in Journal of Documentation.]
Wood, E. & Latham, K.F. (2011). The thickness of things:
     Exploring the museum curriculum through
     phenomenological touch.  Journal of Curriculum
     Theorizing, 27
(2), 51-65.


Document Theory.
Gorichanaz, T. & Latham, K.F. (2016). Document 
     phenomenology: A framework for holistic analysis. Journal
     of Documentation,
72(6), 1114-1133.
Latham, K.F. (2016). Jungles, rabbit holes, and wonderlands:
     Comparing conceptions of museality and document. In
     Proceedings from the Document Academy [special issue],
     3
(1).
Latham, K.F. (2012). Museum object as document: Using
     Buckland’s information concepts to understand museum
     experiences. Journal of Documentation, 68(1), 45 - 71.
Latham, Kiersten F. (2016). The curious case of floating fixity
     (and its relationship to authenticity). In Proceedings from
     the Document Academy,
 3(2), Article 2.


Spirit in the museum context.
Latham, K.F. (2016).  Psychological flow and the numinous
     museum experience. University of Michigan Museum
     Studies Working Papers in Museum Studies, Series, 11.

Latham, K.F. (2013). Numinous experiences with museum
     objects. Visitor Studies, 16(1), 3-20.
Latham, K.F. (2009). Numinous experiences with museum
     objects. (Doctoral dissertation). School of Library &
     Information Management, Emporia State University,
     Emporia, KS.
Latham, K.F. (2007). The poetry of the museum: A holistic
     model for numinous museum experiences. Museum
     Management and Curatorship,
22(3).


Introspective Methodological.
Latham, K.F. (in press, 2018). The wonders of the Augsburg
     Cabinet: Three ways of experiencing a document. In
     Proceedings from the Document Academy.
Latham, K.F., Gorichanaz, T. and Narayan, B. (2018).
     Encountering the muse: An exploration of the relationship
     between inspiration and information in the museum
     context. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science.
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000618769976




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  • Welcome
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Values
  • Adventures
  • CV
  • Blog
  • Connections