Tegan Kehoe

I'm the first to admit that my website, which is intended to be a one-stop place to see what I've been up to, is the place I'm usually last to update. If you happen to be looking for what I'm doing right now, Twitter (@tegankehoe) is usually a better bet -- although it may be that what I'm doing right now is participating in a Twitter chat, which leads to a flood of tweets on a narrow subject. For the website, I intend to get on a schedule of updating quarterly. So here's what I've been up to lately: I am currently the Exhibits and Education Specialist at the Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. It's a fascinating place to work! You can see what the museum is up to by checking out our Facebook page . I occasionally write guest posts for the museum director's blog column, "Museum Mysteries," at the online magazine Wonders and Marvels. Here's one of my favorite pos...

Last month, I participated in National Novel Writing Month for the first time. The challenge is to write the first draft of a 50,000 -word novel in 30 days, but I was a part of the minority who chose to work in a different format. I drafted a 50k-word book of essays about life lessons from being a museum guide. The working title is " On Creaky Floors: Wit and Wisdom on the Life of a Museum Guide," but who knows how many times that will change as a more final version of the book takes shape.  I celebrate Christmas and I recently finished my present shopping, so now feels like a good time to post this raw (unedited) excerpt about relationships with material things. ~ Becoming a “museum person” also helped me understand and affirm my relationship with material things. I say museum person here rather than guide, because I don’t think this particular kind of self-identification needs to be limited to staff and volunteers -- frequent museum-goers can have this feeling, too. As ...

Royall Must Be Recognized, Not Revered Students at Harvard Law School are calling for a change to the school’s seal, which incorporates the family crest of HLS benefactor Isaac Royall, one of the biggest slaveholders in colonial greater Boston. I’ve often heard people react protectively towards the historic names on buildings, street signs, and other institutions, saying that you can’t try to erase a piece of history just because you don’t like it. I agree on the surface, but as a historian and museum professional who studies how we create and perpetuate public memory, I cannot ignore the fact that we as a society erase or paint over pieces of history all the time. Just as photographs can never be fully objective because something is always left out of the frame, public memory is a process of constant choices. There’s simply too much history to commemorate all of it all of the time, and what we commemorate changes. What’s important is that we as a society choose wisely when we honor ...

I haven't been publishing online very much in the last six months or so, largely because I've been working on projects in other media, such as articles for a forthcoming history textbook, a radio play produced by the Post-Meridian Radio Players , and bringing myself up to speed on two centuries of medical history and innovation for my work as the exhibits and education specialist at the Paul S. Russell Museum at Mass General Hospital. Here's a selection of my recent work which you can find online. Why? A post for Chameleon's Dish Theatre on why small theater matters Self-Care for Museum Students A post on the Tufts Museum Studies blog Transitioning into the Wider World My farewell post on the Tufts Museum Studies blog Moire for a Soiree -- Free Knitting Pattern A 1920's-inspired knitting pattern for a scarf and purse set, designed and written by yours truly.

Here are my posts from my column, "The Wider World," on the Tufts Museum Studies blog from the summer and fall semesters. The Wider World is about ways that museum studies students can be connected with the world outside our grad school bubble in order to better serve the diverse communities that make up the potential audiences of museums where we work and study. Ushers at the Gates of Information Getting to Know a New Area Design with the Public in Mind How Do You Keep Up? What I did… right after my summer vacation Accuracy vs. Authenticity in Slave Quarters — Reflections and A Call To Action Visitor Studies in the Wild? Does the Status Quo Myth Hold Us Back? Part 1 of 2

Kimberlee Cloutier-Blazzard of the Sargent House Museum wrote this sweet little piece introducing me and my work to fans of the museum, where I interned in the summer of 2014 between my first and second years of graduate school at Tufts. Thanks, Kimberlee! Remembering the Past, Building the Future: Our 2014 Graduate Intern

I've been writing the monthly column "The Wider World" for the better part of a year now on the Tufts Museum Studies blog, and it's time for a new announcement -- I am now managing the blog. The blog covers topics related to Tufts museum students' experience, and includes job board that updates weekly. If you are a Tufts Museum Studies student (or perhaps an alumnus?) interested in writing a guest post or a column, contact me at tuftsmuseumblog@gmail.com . If you are interested in learning more about what's going on in emerging minds in the museum field, check out: http://sites.tufts.edu/museumstudents/