Robin Boast

Dr. Robin Boast is the Deputy Director of the Museum and the Curator for World Archaeology. He coordinates the MPhil Graduate Course on Museums: History, Theory and Practice in the Department of Archaeology and is the Lecturer for the History of Science in Archaeology. He lectures on the history and sociology of scientific practice in the Department of Geography and is a Senior Research Associate in the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Science. He was the Director of the innovative Virtual Teaching Collection Project in the 1990s, and more recently a Visiting Professor at the European University Institute in Florence Italy, Director of the Local Knowledge and Diversity Research Group for Web 2.0 local knowledge systems, a member of the Museum Documentation Association Standards Committee, and a member of the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (DCMS) Web Advisory Group. He has 38 years of experience in computer (and later on-line) access to museums and has been an expert advisor to the EU, British Government and numerous museums and heritage organizations. Personal Research Statement: My research centres on the disciplinary gap between knowledge practices and technologies (including but not limited to ICT), anthropology, history and philosophy of knowledge and sociology of technology. I am primarily interested in those institutions and their technologies which maintain and collect knowledge, or at least claim to. I’m interested in the ongoing and changing traditions of managing, sharing, transforming and communicating knowledges. This is why my research has to bridge so many disciplines, it’s not by choice, but traditional knowledge practices, which includes the contemporary sciences and technologies, are practices that have deep historical traditions and a dynamic contemporary life. My work is not simply about exploring and writing about these histories and practices, but is deeply 'immersive', though I always just thought of it as getting mucked in and havi