Developed tools

Why (not) participate!? A deck of cards to help plan and evaluate participatory work in museums. Created with Cassandra Kist, Franziska Mucha and Inge Zwart, as part of POEM, an EU H2020 project.

Talks, interventions and moderated discussions

‘Exhibiting Scotland in Europe’, presentation as part of Reading Scotland, Scotland Hub at the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, November 2022.

‘Participatief werken in de (museums)praktijk’, presentation for and conversation with students from the Reinwardt Academie, Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin, June 2022.

Moderation of the conversation with directors Jonas Egert and David Preute about the film ‘Backswing’, Film viewing and discussion ‘My home is my Golfplatz’, Europäische Kulturtage, Museum Europäischer Kulturen, August 2021.

‘The Archive of Forgotten Memories’, One Stop Shop, Conference ‘What’s Missing? Collecting and Exhibiting Europe’, Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, June 2019.

Q&A with Dr Rastko Sknepnek and Susanne Boersma, Dundee Science Festival, Dundee, November 2017.

Facilitated workshops

REMIX Workshop. With Franziska Mucha. Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin, February 2020.

Why (NOT) participate?! A workshop with museum practitioners on participation. With Inge Zwart and Franziska Mucha. Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin, November 2019.

Family workshops. Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, November 2015 – July 2016.

Teaching

Guest lectures and contributions

‘Participation in heritage’ as part of the MA seminar ‘Makeshift Europe’ with Magdalena Buchczyk. Institut für Europäische Ethnologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, December 2022.

‘Participatory museum work with forced migrants’ as part of the seminar ‘Museum und Migration’ with Joachim Baur. Institut für Kunst und Materielle Kultur, Technische Universität Dortmund, December 2022.

‘Participation in museums’ as part of the course ‘MOVING THINGS: Ethnographically Accompanying an Exhibition Project on Forced Migration’ with Andrea Lauser and Friedemann Yi-Neumann. Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 2 December 2021.

‘daHEIM: Glances into Fugitive Lives as an example’ as part of the course ‘Community-Based Research: Social Impact Evaluation in the Cultural Sector’ with Nils Geib. Institute for European ethnology/cultural anthropology, University of Hamburg, 11 May 2021.

‘Ethics of Memory Practices’ as part of the course ‘The Ethics of Dark Heritage’ with Lázsló Munteán and Charley Boerman. Radboud University Nijmegen, 1 February 2021.

‘Defining Curating in Museums’ as part of the course ‘Curating the Digital in Everyday Life’ with Christoph Bareither. Institut für Europäische Ethnologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 23 May 2019.

Full courses

‘Museums and migration – On the ethics, practices and potential outcomes of exhibiting migration’. Institute for European ethnology/cultural anthropology, University of Hamburg, Winter semester 2021-22.

Speaking Dutch [beginners/intermediate/advanced]. Institute for Modern Languages, University of Sheffield, Winter semester & Summer semester 2016-17.

Non-academic publications and blog posts

Boersma, S., Kambunga, A., Kist, C., Moraitopoulou, E., Mucha, F., Tan, Q., Zengenene, D. Validating new tools: One step closer to developing practical outputs for POEM. Contribution for the POEM Newsletter. Issue 7, 2021. Access online.

Tietmeyer, E. & Boersma, S. Looking back at Knowledge Hub 7. Contribution to the POEM Newsletter, Issue 7, 2021. Access online.

Boersma, S. Reflecting on the ethical implications of social inclusion. Contribution to the POEM Newsletter, Issue 6, 2021. Access online.

Boersma, S. & Mucha, F. What’s Missing? Reflections on the thought-provoking conference at Museum Europäischer Kulturen, 26-28 June 2019 in Berlin. Contribution to the POEM Newsletter, Issue 3, 2019. Access online.

Boersma, S., Moraitopolou, E. & Theocharidou, M. The POEM Image Film: A participatory project. Contribution to the POEM Newsletter, Issue 2, 2019. Access online. Or view the POEM film.