Dr Daisy Abbott, a researcher based in the School of Information and Technology at The Glasgow School of Art, has published a policy briefing ‘Creating Space for Multiple Narratives’ for museums and the wider cultural sector handling sensitive issues exploring colonial histories. This new policy briefing is informed by insights from Dr Abbott’s ‘Decolonising the British Empire Exhibition of 1938 through Augmented Reality Narratives’, a research project which was undertaken and staged as an exhibition at The Glasgow School of Art in 2025.
‘Creating Space for Multiple Narratives’ recommendations are focused on trauma-informed, racially literate approaches for educators handling sensitive historical topics. Abbott encourages that cultural and learning spaces should be a “supportive, non-interrogative” environment where students can explore difficult histories without pressure. Abbott’s guidance advocates for multimodal and dialogic methods—such as sensory storytelling and artefact handling—which are practical tools for cultural institutions working with diverse learners, including those who face language barriers or experience digital exclusion. Finally, by highlighting the importance of everyday infrastructure like libraries and museums, the policy encourages educators to see learning as a site for connection that extends beyond the frame of the institution into the local community and public spaces.
The 1938 Empire Exhibition was one of Scotland’s largest public events, yet its history is now largely absent from Glasgow’s collective memory. For today’s diverse communities, particularly people seeking asylum, migrants, people of colour, and young people, the legacies of empire continue to shape experiences of identity, representation, safety, and belonging. Understanding how people make sense of these narratives has clear implications for heritage, culture, equalities, integration, and anti-racism policy.
Dr Abbott’s research identifies three core themes:
Healing, Safety, and Wellbeing: Workshops created a restorative environment where participants could navigate grief and trauma while also finding “laughter and joy”. This theme highlights the urgent need for carefully facilitated, racially literate spaces within cultural and educational settings.
Belonging and Everyday Infrastructures: Participants emphasised that parks, libraries, free museums, and walking groups are essential “belonging spaces”. For those facing financial precarity or restricted mobility, these infrastructures are crucial for “orientation, wellbeing, and community connection”.
Growing Racial Literacy and Shifting Understanding: Engaging with the 1938 Exhibition allowed participants to “critically reframe assumptions” about colonialism, propaganda, and Scotland’s role within empire. This process helped link historical dynamics to contemporary racism.
The findings suggest practical ways in which cultural, equality, and educational policy can support more inclusive public memory, with several policy considerations. It calls for investment in racially literate, trauma-informed facilitation and the embedding of local histories of empire into equality work. Policymakers are urged to resource public infrastructures as vital sites for participation and to support heritage practices that will value multiple perspectives, rather than centring a singular story. Ultimately, decolonisation is described as creating a space for multiple narratives through accessible, multimodal communication that makes history welcoming and informative for all.
Dr Daisy Abbott is an interdisciplinary researcher and research developer whose work currently focusses on game-based learning, serious games, 3D visualisation, and issues surrounding digital interaction, documentation, and interpretation in the arts and humanities. Abbott is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Certified Leading Practitioner of Learning Development.
Dr Abbott’s policy document can be downloaded HERE. Further information on Dr Abbott’s published research can be found HERE.
Further details on the research project and exhibition “Decolonising the British Empire Exhibition of 1938 through Augmented Reality Narratives”, can be found HERE.
For further information please contact press@gsa.ac.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About The Glasgow School of Art
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is internationally recognised as one of Europe’s leading independent university-level institutions for education and research in the visual creative disciplines. Our studio-based, specialist, practice-led teaching, learning and research draw talented individuals with a shared passion for visual culture and creative production from all over the world.
Originally founded in 1845 as one of the first Government Schools of Design, the School’s history can be traced back to 1753 and the establishment of the Foulis Academy delivering a European-style art education. Today, the GSA is an international community of over 3500 students and staff across architecture, design, digital, fine art and innovation in our campuses in Glasgow and Altyre (in the Scottish Highlands) and a thriving Open Studio programme delivering non-degree provision to over 1500 students annually.
About the School of Innovation and Technology (SIT)
The School of Innovation and Technology’s (SIT) explores future opportunities for innovation by considering alternative ways of living in the present. SIT aims to integrate social and technological innovations in a way that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries associated with art and science and so examine complex questions in fields as diverse as healthcare, education, technology and pressingly within the context of the climate/ecology crisis.
