Postdoctoral Affiliate
JC Niala is an anthropologist of the imagination and a Museum Anthropologist. Her interdisciplinary work includes two distinct yet interconnected areas: the study of human-nature interactions and the transformative potential of community participatory research in museum settings. As an anthropologist of the imagination, her doctoral work at the School of Anthropology and Museum of Ethnography (SAME), University of Oxford, supervised by Dr Elizabeth Ewart, examined the complex interactions of urban gardeners in the city of Oxford with their material spaces.
In museum studies, Niala's work is collaborative with a focus on community participatory research. Her projects, such as 'Rethinking Relationships and building trust around African collections' and 'Tracing Nubian archives through time in Kenya and the U.K.,' reflect her interest in the transformatory potential of collections based research.
Niala uses podcasts as part of her public engagement with research practice. Her podcast exploring what plants teach us about being human was made in collaboration with Wellcome collection can be. Here is a link to her podcast featuring multiple stories from objects in the African collections at the Horniman Museum and Gardens. ‘Afrohistoryscapes’ was made in collaboration with Horniman community action researchers.
