Dr. Woodbury’s research intersects museum studies, mobility studies, and art history. Her current work considers how museums respond to crisis and institutional critique through mobile initiatives such as traveling exhibitions. She also considers museum labor and representation as rendered through archival documentation and current museum employment practices. Her work encompasses the digital humanities as well as traditional written forms such as peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.
Book Project
Exhibiting Democracy
Developing out of Dr. Woodbury’s dissertation research, this book project examines the history of collections decentralization as a democratic practice at American art museums.
Digital Humanities
The Federal Community Art Center Initiative
This StoryMap represents a preliminary effort to map the Federal Art Project’s community art center initiative, one of the most ambitious arts-sharing programs of the New Deal. It is also a place for readers interested in CACs to share their research, with the eventual goal of collecting all data under a singular project. All participants who share their data will be credited as researchers and collaborators in this initiative.
The Roswell Museum
This Scalar book examines the early history of the Roswell Museum as a Federal Community Art Center. Featuring period documents and photographs, this book invites viewers to explore the Roswell Museum’s history in an open-ended manner that emulates the process of archival research while providing context through text and visualizations. This project was the final assignment for a Digital Humanities seminar, taken in the fall of 2018.
Changing World Views
This digital exhibit explores the complex histories of world maps as political, economic, and scientific objects through a selection of works from the Mariners’ Museum collection. The exhibit features more than twenty different examples spanning from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. This project developed out of an assistantship at the Mariners’ Museum during the 2018-2019 academic year.
Project members: Erika Cosme, website designer; Sara Woodbury, content writer; Bill Barker, map consultant.
Facemasks
Facemasks is a personal exhibit created on Omeka in 2020 that meditates on the significance of masks in the era of COVID-19. Dr. Woodbury created this exhibit because drawing facemasks enabled her to process her thoughts and feelings about them as complex signs in contemporary American culture.
Events
Museums in Crisis
Museums in Times of Crisis, William & Mary Equality Lab, March 26, 2021
This half-day virtual symposium addressed museum responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises. Dr. Woodbury co-organized this event while serving as a graduate fellow at William & Mary’s Equality Lab, an academic space dedicated to fostering equity through the digital humanities.
Finding Home
Finding Home: Placemaking in the Spatial Humanities, William & Mary Equality Lab, October 23, 2020
This symposium explored the concept of “home” through the spatial and digital humanities. Dr. Woodbury co-organized this event while serving as a graduate fellow at William & Mary’s Equality Lab, an academic space dedicated to fostering equity through the digital humanities.
Other Projects
William & Mary/St Andrews Overview
William & Mary/St Andrews Joint Degree Program Comprehensive Assessment, 2022
During my 2021-2022 assistantship as the Graduate Fellow for the Joint Degree Programme between William & Mary and the University of St Andrews, Dr. Woodbury compiled the first data-driven study of the Program and its professional trajectories. After creating an alumni network on LinkedIn, she collected data on graduates regarding their current positions and geographic locations. She synthesized this information into charts and other visualizations, grouping alumni by graduation year as well as field of study. The resulting study provided an overview of the Joint Degree Programme and its professional outcomes to better meet student interests and needs.