Fiona C. Hutchison

School: The Business School
Department: Management
Research Centre/Unit: Centre for Sport, Leisure and Tourism Research

My first degree was MA (Hons) in History at the University of Edinburgh. While completing my final years I became interested in working for the museum sector. I obtained work experience at the Kirckaldy Museum and Art Gallery and the Royal Armouries Museum at the Tower of London. Having enjoyed these placements I moved to Amsterdam to study for a Masters in Museology (museum/ heritage studies). This involved a healthy combination of theoretical discussion and practical training. As part of this degree I worked as Curator of the National Piping Museum in Glasgow for 5 months. I have also worked other museum related roles in Edinburgh.

I therefore have practical experience working in the museum and heritage sector. My reseach interests are based around public history, the policy landscape surrounding culture and the arts and evaluation of impacts in the sector. My masters dissertation topic was about the display of national history in the National Museum of Singapore. In 2010 I took up an ESRC funded PhD studentship working in partnership with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, a regional museum in Exeter. This project intends to measure the socio-cultural impacts of the museum on its local population. With this Ph.D I am able to blend my academic and practitioner interest in museums with development of social science research skills.