Saturday 25 April, 11:30–12:45
Free, booking required
Attenborough Studio
Interpreting Nature Under Empire: Stories from the Collections
Discover untold stories from natural history collections and explore how colonial power shaped our understanding of nature. Join us to rethink how museums interpret the past and shape a more equitable future.
When is a species officially ‘discovered’ and defined? Why do species go extinct? What can the tangled histories of extinction and empire teach us about our role in shaping the planet’s future?
In this session, historians and researchers will uncover the layered histories behind some remarkable specimens. Through them, we’ll explore how colonial expansion fuelled scientific collecting and how Indigenous and other local expertise have often been sidelined.
Behind every specimen lies a human story. Natural history collections are more than preserved plants and animals. They reveal how nature was collected, sometimes hunted and studied over time, whose knowledge shaped the record and whose was left out.
Discover how extinction is more than a scientific idea, leaving legacies that continue to shape today’s climate and biodiversity crises. As museums rethink how collections are interpreted, we’ll consider what it means to share these stories thoughtfully, and how this might help foster a better relationship with the natural world and each other.
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Speaker biographies
Dr Isabel Davis
Cultural historian Isabel is our Research Leader in Collections and Culture, supporting our researchers. She brings arts and humanities perspectives to the world-class specimen, library and archive collections we care for. A particular priority of hers is to surface the colonial histories and legacies of the collections. Her spirit animal is the rat.
Samia Dumbuya
Samia is the founder of The People’s Ark and the Black Ecofeminist Network. She’s also a Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Fellow focused on climate education, community resilience and building more just, inclusive climate futures.
Professor Sadiah Qureshi
Sadiah holds a Chair in Modern British History at the University of Manchester. Her latest book Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction explores the entangled histories of extinction and empire in the making of the modern world. She can’t bear the thought of living in a world without birdsong, trees or tigers.
Charlotte Wood
Charlotte is a PhD student in our Collections and Culture Research Theme partnered with the Archaeology Department at the University of Cambridge. Her research explores the variety of agents, materials and cultural practices involved in mammal collecting in nineteenth-century East Africa.
Visiting information
All ages are welcome, but content is recommended for ages 16+.
We recommend arriving at least 15 minutes early to allow time to get to the Attenborough Studio.
When you arrive at the Museum, show your ticket to our staff to jump the queue.
Accessibility information
This event is wheelchair accessible.
If you’re unable to wait in queues for long periods, speak to our security staff and they’ll fast track your entry.
Seating is available in the event space.
Guide dogs are welcome at the Museum. Water for them is available on request.
The nearest accessible toilets are on the Ground Floor of our Orange Zone. We also have a Changing Places toilet on the Ground Floor of our Blue Zone.
Blue Badge parking spaces are available. Request a parking space by emailing us at [email protected].
We can provide you with a wheelchair or folding chair to carry if you email us at [email protected].
If you have any questions or would like to discuss accessibility requirements, email us at [email protected].
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