Dr Marenka Thompson-Odlum

Research Summary

Marenka Thompson-Odlum is Research Curator (Critical Perspectives) at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Her doctoral research at the University of Glasgow explored Glasgow’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade through the material culture housed at Glasgow Museums.  At the Pitt Rivers Museum, she is the lead researcher on the Labelling Matters project, which investigates the problematic use of language within the Pitt Rivers Museum's displays and thinking through ways of decolonisation through re-imagining the definition of a label. Marenka is also leading an ArtFund project to commission new objects for the Museum's collections, build new relationships with indigenous communities, and enhance the Museum's displays.