Staff Profile

I have studies and worked at Newcastle University in the School of Arts and Cultures since 2013. I am currently a Visiting Researcher and an Associate Lecturer.

Currently over the academic year 2022-2023 I am teaching on the following modules:

Semester One

• MCH1025 Introduction to Scholarly Practice
  
• MCH8057 Media Analysis
• MCH8501 Understanding Challenges
• MCH2220: Conflict and Crisis Reporting
  

Semester Two

• MCH8081:  Representations: Feminism, Race and Intersectionality
  

Office hours during Semester One:

Tuesdays 11:00-12:00 and 16:00-16:50

Thursdays 12:00-13:00

Meeting are by appointment -- please email me in advance to book a ten minute slot.

I am a historian by training and undertake research on the modern history of museums, galleries and other cultural institutions. I am particularly interested in understanding how museums and galleries have navigated crises, demonstrated resilience and undergone reinvention. My current projects include writing a book based on my doctoral research titled 'Crisis, Reinvention and Resilience in Museums' for Palgrave Macmillan and a journal article with Dr Daren Kelsey titled 'National Narration and Organisational Crisis'.

• Deans PW. Crisis, Reinvention and Resilience in Museums: Defence and Revolution at the Imperial War Museum, 1933-1950. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. In Preparation.
• Deans PW, Kelsey D. National Narration and Organisational Crisis: A Discourse-Mythological Analysis of the Imperial War Museum. JOMEC Journal 2023. In Preparation.
• Deans PW. Curating the Great War at the Imperial War Museum during the Second World War. In: Cornish,P;Saunders,NJ, ed. Curating the Great War. Abingdon: Routledge, 2022, pp.86-104.
• Deans PW. Kate Hill (ed), Museums, Modernity and Conflict: Museums and Collections in and of War since the Nineteenth Century, Abingdon: Routledge, 2021. Museums and Society 2022, 20(1), 149-151.
• Deans PW. Protective Measures Before the 1954 Hague Convention: The Case of the Imperial War Museum, 1933-1950. In: Cunliffe,E;Fox,P, ed. Safeguarding Cultural Property and the 1954 Hague Convention: All Possible Steps. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2022, pp.57-76.
• Deans PW. The Museum: A Short History of Crisis and Resilience, by Samuel J. Redman, New York, New York University Press, 2022, 232 pp., $24.95 (hardback), ISBN 9781479809332. Museum History Journal 2022, 15(2).
• Deans PW. The Imperial War Museum’s Work To Safeguard Its Collections During The Second World War. Museums and Galleries History Group, 2019. Available at: http://www.mghg.info/blog/2019/5/3/the-imperial-war-museums-work-to-safeguard-its-collections-during-the-second-world-war.
• Deans PW. The Imperial War Museum originally opened as a museum to end all wars – that didn’t last long. London: The Conversation Trust (UK) Limited, 2017. Available at: https://theconversation.com/the-imperial-war-museum-originally-opened-as-a-museum-to-end-all-wars-that-didnt-last-long-72679.
• Deans PW. Gas. In: Hawkins-Dady, M, ed. The First World War A-Z: Assassination to Zeppelin – Everything You Need To Know. London: IWM, 2014, pp.54-55.
• Deans PW. Total War. In: Hawkins-Dady, M, ed. The First World War A-Z: From Assassination to Zeppelin – Everything You Need to Know. London: IWM, 2014, pp.146-147.