Linda Norris

Staff | Senior Specialist, Methodology and Practice

Linda Norris, Senior Specialist in Methodology and Practice plays a key role in ICSC’s capacity-building work conducting trainings and workshops for museums, historic sites and memory initiatives including the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation; Conner Prairie, the War Childhood Museum, and the National Human Rights Museum of Taiwan. She was project director of the interpretive revitalization of Maison des Esclaves, Africa’s first World Heritage Site, completed in 2023.

As the co-author of Creativity in Museum Practice, Linda is an international leader in facilitating conversation and action surrounding the ways creativity can transform museums, shape more compelling narratives and create deeper, more inclusive community connections. She writes and speaks widely about the ways that museums, historic sites and memory initiatives can create more just futures. Recent writings include: “Lifelong Anti-Oppression Learning for Museum Professionals,” with Braden Paynter, Journal of Museum Education, Volume 47, Issue 4 (2022); “Yes, and: Museums as Safe Places and Social Spaces” in What is a Museum? Perspectives from National and International Museum Leaders, Kate Quinn and Alejandra Pena, eds, Rowman and Littlefield, 2022; and What Does It Mean to Be a Site of Conscience? “Good Trouble” Across the Globe, Space and Culture, Volume 25 Issue 2, May 2022.

Linda was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Ukraine in 2009, a Fulbright Specialist to Ukraine in 2014 and continues her involvement with the museum and cultural heritage sector in Ukraine during the full-scale war. She holds an M.A. in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program and a BA from Cornell University. She is also an adjunct instructor in the Johns Hopkins University’s online Museum Studies and Cultural Heritage Programs, teaching courses such as International Experiments in Interpretation and Cultural Heritage Interpretation.