Miranda Lowe
{{short description|British museum curator}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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| name = Miranda Lowe
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| occupation = Natural historian
Curator
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| discipline = Natural history
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| workplaces = Natural History Museum
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Miranda Constance Lowe {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FLS|FRSB}} is a British museum curator. She is principal curator of crustacea at the Natural History Museum, London and a founder member of Museum Detox.{{cite web |title=Miranda Lowe |url=https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/staff-directory/miranda-lowe.html |website=www.nhm.ac.uk |publisher=Natural History Museum |access-date=23 September 2020 |language=en}}
Career
She has particular expertise in peracarida and coral taxonomy, and she manages the museum's collections in crustacea and cnidaria. She has published work on the museum's collection of 182 glass sea creatures made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.
She is a committee member of NatSCA, the Natural Sciences Collections Association.{{cite web |title=Miranda Lowe |url=https://www.natsca.org/committee-members/miranda-lowe |website=www.natsca.org |publisher=Natural Sciences Collections Association |access-date=23 September 2020}}
In 2018 Lowe and Subhadra Das of the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy co-authored "Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural history collections",{{cite journal |last1=Das |first1=S. |last2=Lowe |first2=M. |title=Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural historycollections |journal=Journal of Natural Science Collections |date=2018 |volume=6 |pages=4–14 |url=https://natsca.org/sites/default/files/publications/JoNSC-Vol6-DasandLowe2018.pdf |access-date=23 September 2020}} described by the Linnean Society's head of collections as "eye-opening".{{cite web |last1=Charmantier |first1=Isabelle |title=Black Lives Matter in our Collections |url=https://www.linnean.org/news/2020/06/11/black-lives-matter-in-our-collections |website=The Linnean Society |access-date=23 September 2020 |date=11 June 2020}} They went on to be founding members of Museum Detox, an organisation bringing together BAME museum workers in the UK.{{cite web |last1=Imbler |first1=Sabrina |title=In London, Natural History Museums Confront Their Colonial Histories |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/decolonizing-natural-history-museum |website=Atlas Obscura |access-date=23 September 2020 |language=en |date=14 October 2019}}{{cite web |title=About us |url=https://www.museumdetox.org/museumdetox-about-us |website=Museumdetox |publisher=Museum Detox |access-date=23 September 2020 |language=en}}
In July 2020 Lowe was appointed as a Trustee of York Museums Trust.{{cite news |url=https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/18578725.york-museums-trust-appoint-two-new-trustees/ |title=York Museums Trust appoint two new trustees |date=13 July 2020 |work=York Press}}
In September 2020 she appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity, when her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was a moon jellyfish.{{cite web |title=Series 15, Episode 3 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mswk |website=The Museum of Curiosity |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |access-date=23 September 2020}}
In December 2020 she explained about bias in the fossil record within the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture about Planet Earth given by Christopher Jackson.{{cite web |title=CHRISTMAS LECTURES 2020: Planet Earth: A user's guide |url=https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/2020-planet-earth-a-users-guide |website=The Royal Institution |access-date=28 December 2020 |archive-date=23 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423083900/https://www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/2020-planet-earth-a-users-guide |url-status=dead }} Four months later she was elected Chair of the Board of Trustees overseeing the United Kingdom arts diversity charity Culture&.{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |last3= |first3= |last4= |first4= |last5= |last6= |first6= |date=2021-03-19 |title=Two 'inspired appointments' to Culture& Board aim to strengthen museums sector ties |url=https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/news/two-inspired-appointments-culture-board-aim-strengthen-museums-sector-ties/ |access-date=2022-06-02 |website=Museums + Heritage Advisor |language=en-GB}}
Selected publications
- {{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=C. Giles |last2=Lowe |first2=Miranda |title=The Natural History Museum Blaschka collections |journal=Historical Biology |date=February 2008 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=51–62 |doi=10.1080/08912960701677531 |s2cid=85173379 }}
- {{cite book |editor-last1=Boulter |editor-first1=Carolyn J. |editor-last2=Reiss |editor-first2=Michael J. |editor-last3=Sanders |editor-first3=Dawn L. |last1=Lowe|first1=Miranda|last2=Boulter|first2=Carolyn J.|title=Darwin-Inspired Learning|year=2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-94-6209-833-6 |pages=273–284 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eKhFBgAAQBAJ&dq=lowe&pg=PA273 |access-date=24 September 2020 |language=en |chapter=Darwin's Barnacles: Learning from collections}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Sivell |first1=Duncan |last2=Beale |first2=Joe |last3=Reilly |first3=Nicky |last4=Lowe |first4=Miranda|display-authors=etal |title=The wildlife garden at the Natural History Museum: Developments of the flora and fauna. Update 2018-2019 - Twenty-four years of species recording |journal=The London Naturalist |date=November 2019 |volume=98 |pages=248–258 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337455944 |access-date=24 September 2020}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Syperek |first1=Pandora |last2=Wade |first2=Sarah |last3=Lowe |first3=Miranda |last4=Sabin |first4=Richard |title=Curating Ocean Ecology at the Natural History Museum: Miranda Lowe and Richard Sabin in conversation with Pandora Syperek and Sarah Wade |journal=Science Museum Group Journal |date=27 May 2020 |volume=13 |issue=13 |doi=10.15180/201314|doi-access=free }}
Honours and awards
In November 2020 she was included in the BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Power list 2020.{{cite web |title=Woman's Hour Power List 2020: The List |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5f6X3JsVjcGXfXstdbYxhkk/womans-hour-power-list-2020-the-list |website=BBC Radio4 |access-date=16 November 2020}}
In 2021, Lowe and Subhadra Das were awarded the Society for the History of Natural History President's Award. The citation said that "their efforts have together sent a clarion call to museums and heritage organisations to acknowledge colonial histories and to take action."{{Cite web |title=SHNH President's Award |url=https://shnh.org.uk/awards-honours-medals/shnh-presidents-award/ |access-date=2022-06-02 |website=Society for the History of Natural History |language=en-US}}
Lowe was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to science communication and diversity in natural history.{{London Gazette|issue=63714|supp=y|page=B10|date=1 June 2022}}
References
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External links
- [https://www.inpursuitofplants.co.uk/post/ep7-decolonising-natural-history-with-miranda-lowe Ep7: Decolonising natural history with Miranda Lowe (In Pursuit of Plants)]
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:British women curators
Category:Employees of the Natural History Museum, London
Category:21st-century British zoologists
Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Biology