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Salsabilla Sakinah

Salsabilla Sakinah

(she/her)

Graduate Tutor

School of Journalism, Media and Culture

Overview

My name is Salsabilla Sakinah and I am currently a PhD student at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC) Cardiff University. Previously, I obtained bachelor degree in Archaeology from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia, and Master of Museum Practice degree from Newcastle University, United Kingdom. Prior to doing the PhD, I was working as a museum consultant in Indonesia. My main job was assisting museums and heritage sites to perform their role and function better and serve the society as their audience better, in term of developing interpretive exhibition, educational programme, and collection management. 

I am particularly interested in the topic of digital heritage, digital media use in museum, interactive-participatory design in museum, museum-based community empowerment and museum activism. I am always captivated by the idea that museums as cultural institutions should play a role in society. Not only keeping collections for the sake of themselves, museums should also do their functions in preserving and promoting cultural heritage to benefit the greater community. Side by side with the recent massive use of digital technology in museum, I also believe that the existence of this kind of new media in museum should be more than just 'to attract' people's attention. More than that, digital technology should be able to help museums achieve their mission, perform their role and function better, and bring more benefit for society. Based of those interests, for my PhD research, I specifically study how the in-gallery digital interactives can facilitate museum activism.

Research

There are a lot of challenges but also opportunities related to the use of immersive experiences in museums, from gaining more awareness from the audiences to delivering particular messages and enhancing visitor experiences. On the other side, there is a growing discussion about museum activism, which emphasises that museums – with their authority and resources to construct society’s norms and values – have the power and potential to bring a broader socio-political and environmental mission. 


My research is situated in the intersection between the use of immersive experiences in museums and museum activism by specifically exploring how visitors’ engagement with the immersive experience in a museum plays a part in achieving the museum activism objectives. This research will focus on environmental activism, as the museum world is now paying more attention to this issue (such as reflected on the theme of the International Museum Day 2023 and courses offered by Museum Association UK). However, there is still relatively little empirical research about museum and environmental activism (compared to museum and social justice activism). This research specifically studies Indonesian museums because most existing study about climate change and environmental crisis’ representation in museums comes from the Global North (such as Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand), but very little comes from the Global South perspective such as Indonesia.

Teaching

In the 2023-2024 academic year, I am teaching as a seminar tutor in the following modules:

  1. Autumn term: Advertising and Consumer Society (first-year module)
  2. Spring term: An Introduction to Media Audiences (first-year module)

Contact Details

Email SakinahS@cardiff.ac.uk

Campuses Two Central Square, Central Square, Cardiff, CF10 1FS

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Heritage, archive and museum studies
  • Communication technology and digital media studies