About

I completed my Ph.D. at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, with a thesis that examined the history and development of commercial activity in the UK museum and heritage sector.

I then worked as a researcher on the Mapping Museums project at Birkbeck. This was a collaboration between museum studies scholars and computer scientists to understand trends in the independent museum sector in the UK between 1960 and 2020. The project created a searchable museum database and produced a series of academic outputs and reports. Our research continued from 2020 as Museums in the Pandemic, at which point we studied how the museum sector navigated the lockdowns associated with COVID-19.

From 2018 to 2023, I was Assistant Professor at Chapman University in Southern California, where I helped to establish and build an academic programme in the Creative and Cultural Industries, one of the first of its kind in the USA.

I joined the Centre in the Autumn term of 2023.

Research

I am currently completing a monograph entitled ‘Consuming Culture: A History of Museum Merchandizing’, which is under contract with Routledge as part of their ‘Research in Museum Studies’ series. This is the first historical examination of the development of merchandising, trading infrastructure, and commercial practices at museums and heritage sites in the UK. It attempts to show that such activities are longstanding - museums have engaged with commercial enterprise from their earliest beginnings in the 1600s - and to explain the underlying cultural and economic factors that have influenced how museums have deployed such practices.

More recently, my interests have turned to how museums are responding to the unfolding climate crisis. An initial segue into this area has been to think about how museum shops can become more sustainable. Such steps initially involve a change to operational activities, such as eliminating single use plastics and considering product materials but lead to more interesting questions about how museums can develop connections with local artisans to create more holistic, locally centered cultural experiences for visitors. At the furthest end of these enquiries is the question of whether museums need shops and whether they could ultimately be replaced with equally valuable visitor experiences.

I am exploring ways of developing my interests further to explore radical new museologies centered around notions of degrowth and repairing human-nature connections. This includes critiquing the institutional underpinnings of museums (e.g. permanence, building, collections) and reimagining more dynamic, responsive museum models drawing on successful community-driven initiatives. This involves thinking about how museological techniques can be deployed outside of traditional museum structures and new types of business models to support such ventures.

Beyond these specific interests, I have also written about museums and social media, heritage and cultural policy, the history of museums.

I am currently co-editor (with Dr. Colin Sterling) of the journal Museums and Social Issues.

PhD supervision

I am interested in supervising Ph.D. studies in areas of museum and heritage studies that relate to social and economic issues. I am particularly interested in supervising projects in the following areas:

• Museums and commercial activity [e.g. business models, funding, sponsorship]
• Museums and the climate crisis [e.g. exhibitionary practices/operational processes]
• Museums and sustainable development;
• Museums and social justice;
• Museum histories [e.g. institutional histories; development of professionalism];
• Museum geographies;
• Cultural policy [UK/USA];
• Alternative/Experimental museology;
• Cultural memory and memorialization.

If you are interested in these areas, or have a project you’d like to discuss, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Selected publications

Larkin, J., Ballatore, A. & Mityurova, K. 2023. Museums, Covid-19, and the pivot to social media. Curator: The Museum Journal, 66 (4): 629-646

Candlin, F., Ballatore, A., Larkin, J., Liebenrood, M., Poulovassilis, A. & Katerinchuk, V. 2023. The UK Museum Boom 1960-2019: Continuity and Change. Cultural Trends

Larkin, J. 2022. ‘“A new and seductive temptation”: The introduction of museum catalogue stalls and the emerging focus on the visitor.’ Proceedings of IV Encuento Internacional Turistas, visitantes, seguidores. El público de los Museos entre los siglos XIX y XXI: perspectivas de future. Spanish Ministry of Culture, pp. 137-151

Larkin, J. 2021. Rethinking museum shops in the context of the climate crisis. Nordisk Museologi: The Journal of Nordic Museology, 30 (3): 29-44

Candlin, F., Larkin, J., Poulovassilis, A. & Ballatore, A. 2020. The Missing Museums: Accreditation, surveys, and an alternative account of the UK museums sector. Cultural Trends, 29 (1): 50-67

Candlin, F., Larkin, J., Ballatore, A. & Poulovassilis, A. 2020. Mapping Museums 1960-2020: A report on the data. London: Birkbeck, University of London.

Larkin, J. 2016. ‘All Museums Will Become Department Stores’: The Development and Implications of Retailing at Museums and Heritage Sites. Archaeology International, 19: 109–121.