Vanessa Ferey is an independent professor of museology, qualified as an MCF in France in section 72 History of science and technology.
She holds a doctorate in Museology, Mediation and Heritage from the Université du Québec à Montréal, specialising in Epistemology and the History of Science and Technology. Her thesis, entitled La collection ethnographique du cabinet d’Histoire naturelle du Muséum national de Versailles 1767-2007: trajectoires et interprétations des patrimoines de l’Amérique du Nord, is to be published by Editions scientifiques du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris. Her research was carried out in collaboration with the Musée du Quai Branly, the Musée de l’Homme and the Musée des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon.
She teaches museology at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris and cultural engineering at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, and is an associate researcher at CELAT at Université Laval in Canada, as well as CERLIS (UMR 8070, Sorbonne Nouvelle/Paris Descartes/CNRS/USPC) and LabEx ICCA in France.
Her research is devoted to the study of correspondences, teachings and research that have fostered a culture, a history and a museum policy around the concept of French America. She is particularly interested in the writing of museology through its teachings: contradictory writings, ambiguous narratives, legends. She gives lectures on the epistemology of collections, the discourses and dialogues attributed to them, and the organisation of their knowledge in relation to the living heritage of science museology.
As a member of ICOM-Canada, Vanessa Ferey contributes to content development and research on international projects such as A la recherche du musée, Réflexions ciblées autour de la muséologie entre la France et l’Amérique du Nord d’hier à nos jours : collections, politiques culturelles et innovations muséographiques and Savoirs scientifiques et populaires au musée à l’Accord France-Canada between the Musée du Louvre and the Musée de la civilisation in Quebec.
She regularly works as a consultant for cultural organisations, and is currently in charge of the study for UNESCO on the application of the intangible cultural heritage and ethnology of Cognac.
Linkedin: Vanessa Ferey