Blog

August 2021

Announcing the Journal of Museum Education’s New Editorial Leadership

After twelve years of service as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Museum Education (JME), Cynthia Robinson will retire at the end of 2021. Cynthia has been involved with MER since 2006, and her many achievements and positive impacts merit their own celebration, so stay tuned as we honor her further in the coming months.

In the meantime, the MER Board of Directors is excited to announce a new editorial leadership model and appointments for the next chapter of the JME. Over the past year, MER has been engaged in a process of re-envisioning the organization of editorial roles with the aim of setting the journal up to both reflect and advance the field of museum education’s evolution and future growth. We considered the complex nature of producing four annual journals with a volunteer board and limited paid staff, calls from our field for horizontal structures and power sharing, and the standards our values of equity and inclusion demand we work towards.  Ultimately, we decided to transition to a shared leadership model with two Co-Editors of the JME, with term limits to ensure a continued commitment to diversity of voices. We were humbled to have received applications from so many strong and thoughtful candidates. After a lengthy and robust search, Michelle Moon and Nathaniel Prottas were chosen for these new roles.

Michelle Moon brings 20 years experience in museum education and interpretation including as Chief Program Officer for the Tenement Museum, Director of Interpretation and Evaluation at Newark Museum, and Director of Education at the Strawbery Banke Museum. A recognized leader in history museum education, she is active in professional organizations and is the 2021 Programming Chair for the AASLH. She has published numerous articles and two books, including Interpreting Food at Museums and Historic Sites, Public History and the Food Movement: The Missing Ingredient (co-authored with Cathy Stanton). She also brings a demonstrated commitment and skill advancing equity and inclusion work in museums, including as the senior founding leader on the Tenement Museum’s Equity Council. Michelle is also currently the Principal for Saltworks Interpretive Services. She holds an MA in Museum Studies from Harvard University Extension School and a BA in English and Education from Connecticut College.

Nathaniel Prottas  has worked on the JME since 2017, when he was the guest editor of JME 42.3, Does Museum Education Have a Canon?  He then served on the MER board, during which time he created the Virtual Special Issue on the history of museum education, Power Play: How Educators Articulated their Role in the Museum (1973–2014). In winter of 2019 he left the board to fill a new position as Assistant Editor of the JME, and in 2020, the MER leadership team promoted him to his current role of Associate Editor. Nathaniel has spearheaded and shepherded several important JME issues, including JME 46.1: Shared Challenges? Transatlantic Perspectives on Museums in the US and GermanyJME 45.4: Queering the Museum, and JME 45.3: Beyond the Cult of the Author: the Literary Museum Today. He also brings over 15 years of museum experience, and since 2017 he has been the Director of Education and Visitor Services at the Wien Museum (the City Museum of Vienna) in Austria. He holds a PhD in art history from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MA in the same subject from University College, London.

Michelle and Nathaniel will begin their new roles as Co-Editors in January 2022, and will be spending the remainder of this year onboarding with Cynthia and our board. As we usher in a phase of great transition, we know the success of and continued growth of the journal will come from collaboration and mutual support, not least of all from our members and readers. We welcome your conversations on our social media channels or by writing to [email protected].