Background and activities

I am Associate Professor in Cultural Heritage Management. My research interests lie in the intersection of museology, cultural heritage and memory studies, history didactics and digital heritage, I am especially interested in combining research with practice in the heritage field. Since 2019 I act as special adviser for community dialogue at Stiklestad National Culture Centre (SNK).

Completed projects: 

In remote areas of Europe, local history museums struggle to connect with the rapidly changing and increasingly diverse communities around them.

In my doctoral thesis I ask how these museums can recast themselves to strengthen the links to their communities. Combining theoretical deliberations, empirical investigations of the case of two Norwegian islands and a museum experiment, the thesis offers starting points for rethinking the local history museum, while at the same time providing suggestions for locally adapted museum practice.

https://www.transcript-publishing.com/978-3-8376-5191-1/the-local-museum-in-the-global-village

Ongoing research:

MeMin - Mediating Memorial Landscapes.

The MeMin project addresses a challenge that digitalisation poses for cultural dissemination and cultural policy: Access to advanced digital technology opens up endless possibilities, but we lack knowledge about how technology changes the media and the cultural practices which they are part of.

MeMin is funded by the Arts Council Norway, the Falstad Centre and the Faculty of Humanities at NTNU.

On 3 February 2021, project leader Ingvild Hagen Kjørholt gave a presentation at the international webinar «The Digitalisation of Memory», organized by the Falstad Centre in cooperation with POLIN Museum, Warsaw. Recordings from the webinar are available on Youtube (the presentation of the MeMin project starts at 1:22:35).

Teaching: 

NORD2312 - Litterære kulturmøter og kulturell identitet: Norsk som andrespråk (course coordinator)

KULMI1000 Introduksjon til kulturvern (course coordinator)

KULMI2300 Introduction to museology (course coordinator)

KULMI2400 Period of Practical Training and Project Work in Cultural Heritage (course coordinator)

KULMI2710 Local History

KULMI3210 Museology

KULMI3215 Museology and Heritage Learning (course coordinator)

KULMI3090 Master's Thesis in Cultural Heritage Management

ARK3250 Museology

I supervise bachelor and master theses.

Scientific, academic and artistic work

Displaying a selection of activities. See all publications in the database

2020

  • Bäckström, Mattias; Tretvik, Aud Mikkelsen; Hove, Jon Olav; Müller, Insa. (2020) Innspill til Høringsutkast til etiske retningslinjer for norske museer, Norsk ICOM og Norges museumsforbund (ePhorte saksnummer 2020/16248). 2020.
  • Beistad Øvergård, Heidi Anett; Müller, Insa. (2020) The Symbol and Its Stories: Transforming the National Symbol Stiklestad Into an Inclusive Museum. The Inclusive Museum Conference . Inclusive Museum research network; Portugal / digital. 2020-09-03 - 2020-09-05.
  • Kjørholt, Ingvild Hagen; Müller, Insa; Storeide, Anette Homlong; Hjorth, Ingeborg Arntine Heitmann. (2020) Tomme minnesteder og virtuelle rom 75 år etter frigjøringen. Adresseavisen.
  • Müller, Insa. (2020) The Local Museum in the Global Village Rethinking Ideas, Functions, and Practices of Local History Museums in Rapidly Changing Diverse Communities. Transcript Verlag. 2020. ISBN 978-3-8376-5191-1.

2019

  • Tretvik, Aud Mikkelsen; Hove, Jon Olav; Müller, Insa; Næss, Christina. (2019) Ny stortingsmelding om kulturminnepolitikken - innspel frå Program for kulturminneforvaltning, NTNU. 2019.

2018

  • Müller, Insa. (2018) The Local Museum in the Global Village. The Idea, Functions and Practices of Local History Museums in Rapidly Changing Diverse Communities. 2018. ISBN 978-82-326-3376-0.
  • Müller, Insa. (2018) foredrag og diskusjon. Arbeidsgruppemøte "Demokrati og voksenopplæring - museer og minnesteder som utvidet læringsarena . Stiklestad nasjonale kultursenter; Stiklestad. 2018-12-01 - 2018-12-01.

2017

  • Müller, Insa. (2017) Innlegg til debatt: Museenes samfunnsrolle. Museer på vidvanke? Hvor ble det av Tronhjemshistorien . HIFO Trøndelag og Fortidsminneforening; Trondheim. 2017-04-03 - 2017-04-03.

2016

  • Mellemsether, Hanna; Müller, Insa. (2016) From Audience to Participants: Engaging through dialogue. Open Heritage: Changing Museums. Changing Communities. Changing Traditions.
  • Müller, Insa. (2016) Engaging with members of migrant communities through interviews. ICOM Milano: 24th General Conference of the International Council of Museums . ICOM; Milano. 2016-07-03 - 2016-07-09.
  • Müller, Insa. (2016) Interviews as a tool for engaging immigrants with local history. Museum Studies at Leicester 50th Anniversary Conference: The Museum in the Global Contemporary: Debating the Museum of Now . School of Museum Studies at Leicester University; Leicester. 2016-04-20 - 2016-04-22.
  • Müller, Insa. (2016) The dialogic interview: Using interview to generate interest in local history. Open Heritage: Changing Museums. Changing Communities. Changing Traditions.