Professor Suzanne MacLeod

Suzanne MacLeod is Professor of Museum Studies and Co-Director of the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG). In RCMG she leads collaborative research with museums, galleries and heritage organisations which draws on diverse forms of expertise to expand and enrich the social value and ethical potential of culture and heritage.

Current projects reach across questions of organisational transformation and inclusive practices and include: research exploring the museum attendance and benefit gap and how research-led forms of museum making might enable museums to move from tracking the socioeconomic gradient in visitor demographics to building audiences that are representative of the wider society; research exploring trans-inclusive museum cultures; research with the National Portrait Gallery asking how museums, galleries and heritage sites can host inclusive conversations; and research with the Science Museum exploring anti-ableist practice and ethical interpretation.

She is author of Museums and Design for Creative Lives (2021) and Museum Architecture: A New Biography (2013) and editor of The Future of Museum and Gallery Design (with Jonathan Hale, Tricia Austin and Oscar Ho 2017), Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions (with Jonathan Hale and Laura Hanks 2012) and Reshaping Museum Space (2005).

I have published widely on museum making including Museums and Design for Creative Lives (Routledge 2020), Museum Architecture: A New Biography (Routledge 2013) and am actively involved in collaborative research including a series of international conferences design workshops and publications.

In RCMG I undertake collaborative research with organisations such as the National Trust, Museum of London, Birmingham Museums Trust and National Museums Liverpool.

• RCMG (2024) Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues. Online.
• MacLeod, S., Sandell, R., Cowan, S., Scott, E-J, Cuzzola, C. and Plumb, S. (2023) Trans-Inclusive Culture: Guidance on advancing trans inclusion for museums, galleries, archives and heritage organisations. Online.
• RCMG (2023) National Museums Liverpool Co-production Framework. Online.
• RCMG and National Trust (2023) Everywhere and Nowhere: Guidance for ethically researching and interpreting disability histories. Online.
• Thomas, M. and MacLeod, S. (2022) ‘Everyday life in a heritage village: film as a process of research and engagement’, in Penz and Schupp (eds) The Everyday in Visual Culture, Routledge.
• RCMG and Museum of London (2021) Museum of London Engagement Framework. Online. 
• MacLeod, S. (2021) Museums and Design for Creative Lives (London: Routledge, 2021).
• MacLeod, S. (2020) Museumsarchitektur, soziale Nachhaltigkeit und Design für ein kreatives Leben in S. Gesser et al (eds.) Das Subjectiv Museum, 97-109.
• MacLeod, S., Thornhill, A., Dodd, J., Sandell, R., Plumb, S., Brouwer, C. and Cuzzola, C. (2020) Isolation and loneliness – opening up new stories and interpretive experiences at Calke Abbey. Online (PDF, 4.85mb)
• MacLeod, S., Dodd, J. and Plumb, S (2018) Isolation and loneliness – opening up new stories and interpretive experiences at Calke Abbey Research Report. Online (PDF, 5.3mb)
• MacLeod, S., Hale, J., Austin, T. and Ho, O. (eds.) The Future of Museum and Gallery Design (London: Routledge, 2017).
• MacLeod S., ‘An Ethical Future for Museum and Gallery Design: design as a force for good in a diverse cultural sector’, in MacLeod, S., Hale, J., Austin, T. and Ho, O. (eds.) The Future of Museum and Gallery Design (London: Routledge, 2017).
• MacLeod, S. ‘Image and Life: museum architecture, social sustainability and design for creative lives’ in S. Greub (ed.) New Museums: Intentions, Expectations, Challenges (Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2017).
• Jones, P. and MacLeod, S. ‘Museum Architecture Matters’, Museum & Society, 14 (1), 2016, 207-219.
• MacLeod, S., Dodd, J., and Duncan, T., ‘New museum design cultures: harnessing the potential of design and ‘design thinking’ in museums’, Museum Management and Curatorship, In Press, Forthcoming 2015.
• MacLeod, S., Sandell, R., Dodd, J., Duncan, T., Jones, C. and Gaffikin, A., Prisoners, Punishment and Torture: Developing new approaches to interpretation at the Tower of London, RCMG/HRP, 2014.
• MacLeod, S., Dodd, J. and Duncan, T., Developing IWM North, RCMG/IWM, 2014.
• MacLeod, S. and Dodd, J., Establishing a Vision: New Walk Museum and the Story of Leicester, RCMG/LAMS, 2013.
• MacLeod, S., Museum Architecture: A New Biography, London: Routledge, 2013.
• MacLeod, S., Hanks, L., and Hale, J. (eds.) Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions, London: Routledge, 2012.
• MacLeod, S., ‘This Magical Place: the making of Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the politics of landscape, art and narrative’, in MacLeod, S., Hanks, L., and Hale, J. (eds.), Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions, London and New York: Routledge, 2012, pp. 48-62.
• Chang, Y. and MacLeod, S., (eds.) Building Identity: The Making of National Museums and Identity Politics, Taipei: National Museum of History, 2012.
• MacLeod, S.. ‘Significant Lives: telling stories of museum architecture’, in Hill, K. (ed.) Museums and Biographies, Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer Ltd, 2012.
• MacLeod, S., 'Towards an Ethics of Museum Architecture', in Marstine J. (ed.) Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics: Redefining Ethics for the Twenty-First Century Museum, London and New York: Routledge, 2011.
• MacLeod, S., ‘Out of Time and Place: The recent history and curious double life of the Sultanganj Buddha’, in Marshall, C. (ed.) Sculpture and the Museum, Aldershot: Ashgate/Henry Moore Institute, 2011.
• Knell, S., MacLeod, S. and Watson, S. (eds.) 2007. Museum Revolutions, London: Routledge.
• MacLeod, S. 2007. ‘Occupying the architecture of the gallery: spatial, social and professional change at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1877-1933’, in Knell, S., MacLeod, S. and Watson, S. (eds.) Museum Revolutions, London: Routledge.
• MacLeod, S. 2007. ‘Civil disobedience and political agitation: the art museum as a site of protest in the early twentieth century’, Museum and Society, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 44-57
• MacLeod, S. (ed.) 2005. Reshaping Museum Space: architecture, design, exhibitions, London: Routledge.
• MacLeod, S. 2005. ‘Rethinking museum architecture: towards a site-specific history of production and use’, in MacLeod, S. (ed.) Reshaping Museum Space: architecture, design, exhibitions, London: Routledge.
• MacLeod, S. 2001. ‘Making museum studies: training, education, research and practice’, Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, Vol. 19, No. 1., pp. 51-61.

Postgraduate Diploma/MA/MSc Museum Studies

Postgraduate Diploma/MA Art Museum and Gallery Studies

Postgraduate Diploma/MA/MSc Museum Studies by distance learning

Postgraduate Diploma/MA/MSc Socially Engaged practice in Museums and Galleries by distance learning

Postgraduate Diploma/MA/MSc Heritage and Interpretation by distance learning

Phd Museum Studies/PhD Museum Practice