Manchester School of Art / Staff / Dr Myna Trustram
Dr Myna Trustram
I combine my professional experience as a history museum curator with an interest in psychodynamic perspectives on culture. I studied history at the universities of Essex and Bristol. My doctoral research was published by Cambridge University Press as Women of the Regiment: Marriage and the Victorian Army (1984). I then worked in museums in London, Southampton and Preston and most recently at the People's History Museum in Manchester, and Manchester Art Gallery. I have also worked for five years as an independent cultural consultant.
My interest in the psychodynamics of museums was prompted by literature from the Tavistock Institute and Clinic's tradition of examining public institutions from a psychoanalytic perspective.
My research interests span museum studies, the writing of experimental non-fiction (essay and memoir) and Practice as Research. My primary theoretical framework is psychosocial (psychoanalysis), in particular the ideas of Donald Winnicott, Christopher Bollas and Thomas Ogden. Most of my research and writing projects touch, to varying degrees, on themes of loss, mourning and melancholia.
I joined Manchester School of Art in 2013 where I co-ordinate the Researcher Development Programme within the Postgraduate Arts and Humanities Centre.
Associateships:
Psychosocial Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire.
Nordic Summer University (NSU)
Thinking Space Consultancy and Coaching
A collection of essays on the theme of loss and abundance in the museum
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A memoir about early childhood
Co-editorship of a volume of essays from North European artists about artistic research, with a focus on the 'local'
Flower Diary - a memoir about loss
Myna Trustram is a member of the Visual Culture Research Group.
Trustram, M., Kinnunen, HM., 2015. 'Each Day at a Time', Finnish Broadcasting Company, 3 April 2015.
Trustram, M., Saloranta, E., 2015. 'Windows. A correspondence between Elina Saloranta and Myna Trustram OR Sisters are doin' it for themselves', Nordic Summer University, Druskininkai, Lithuania, 23 July 2015.
Trustram, M., Graff Junior, C., Greenfield, L., Roar, P., 2014. 'Four approaches to the journal', Saudarkrokur, Iceland, 26 July 2014.
Trustram, M., 2014. 'Off by heart - an intervention into forgetting', Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, Vilnius, 28 February 2014.
Trustram, M., 2014. 'On Not Being Able to Read (Flying)', School of Arts, Birkbeck College, London, 30 May 2014.
Trustram, M., 2014. 'Performing the psychosocial: An enquiry into forgetting', Association for Psychosocial Studies Annual Conference 2014, University of Central Lancashire, 16 December 2014.
Trustram, M., 2014. 'Public conversation about autobiographical performance and a performance of Each Day at a Time', Month of Performance Art - Berlin, 14 May 2014.
Trustram, M., 2013. 'Each day at a time - a daily intervention about losing and finding', Nordic Summer University, Ulsteinvik, Norway, 29 July - 3 August 2013.
Trustram, M., Gelder, G., 2019. 'Inside Museum Ricklundgården', Editions etaion shrdlu.
Greenfield, L., Trustram, M., Abrantes, E., 2017. 'Artistic Research. Being There. Explorations Into the Local', NSU Press, Arhus.
Trustram, M., 1984. 'Women of the Regiment Marriage and the Victorian Army', Cambridge University Press.
Trustram, M., Saloranta, E., 2017. 'Windows. A correspondence between Elina Saloranta and Myna Trustram'. In Artistic Research. Being There. Explorations Into the Local.
Piotrowska, A., 2016. 'Psychoanalysis and the Unrepresentable'. In Psychoanalysis and the Unrepresentable: From Culture to the Clinic, pp. 222-230, Routledge.
Trustram, MB., 2013. 'The Little Madnesses of Museums'. In Little Madnesses. Winnicott, Transitional Phenomena and Cultural Experience, IB Tauris.
Trustram, M., 1993. 'History from below at the National Museum of Labour History and other museums in Britain'. In E von Ducker, K Haist, U Schneider (eds.) Europa im Zeitalter des Industrialismus, 292-297, Hamburg: Dolling und Galitz Verlag.
Trustram, M., 1993. 'The labour history approach'. In D Fleming, C Paine and JG Rhodes (eds.) Social History in Museums: a Handbook for Professionals, 73-77, London, HMSO.
Trustram, M., 1986. 'Pin money: pin making in East Bristol in the 18th and 19th centuries'. In Placards and Pin Money, Bristol Broadsides.
Trustram, M., 1983. 'Distasteful and derogatory? Examining Victorian soldiers for venereal disease'. In The Sexual dynamics of history men's power, women's resistance, Pluto Pr.
Junior, CG., Greenfield, L., Roar, P., Trustram, M., 2018. 'Four Approaches to the Journal', https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/512748/512749..
Trustram, M., 2015. 'Dear Bereaved', The Letters Page, http://www.theletterspage.ac.uk/letterspage/index.aspx.
Manley, J., Trustram, M., 2018. ''Such endings that are not over': The slave trade, Social Dreaming and affect in a museum', Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society.
Trustram, M., 2017. 'Accounting for the museum', Journal of Social Work Practice, 31 (2), pp. 265-273.
Manley, J., Trustram, M., 2016. ''Such endings that are not over': The slave trade, social dreaming and affect in a museum', Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, Online First article 2016.
Trustram, MB., 2016. 'Performing the Psychosocial', Journal of Psychosocial Studies, 9 (1), pp. 53-72.
Trustram, M., 2014. 'Asylum and the Museum', American Imago, 71 (1), pp. 67-84.
Froggett, L., Trustram, M., 2014. 'Object relations in the museum: a psychosocial perspective', Museum Management and Curatorship, 29 (5), pp. 482-497.
Mansfield, N., Trustram, M., 2013. 'Remembering the buildings of the British labour movement: an act of mourning', International Journal of Heritage Studies, 19 (5), pp. 439-456.
Trustram, M., 2011. 'Response to 'Freud's Antiquities' by Richard D. Lane and Karen L. WeihsPsychodynamic PracticeVol. 16, No. 1, February 2010, 77-78', Psychodynamic Practice, 17 (1), pp. 73-79.
Trustram, M., 2010. 'Collections are not there for 'just in case'', Museums Journal, October 2010, 18.
Trustram, M., 1986. 'To live without struggle: philanthropy for soldiers' wives and widows during the Boer War', Hatcher Review, 47-52.
Trustram, M., 2017. ''Museum is where we start from'', Artistic research symposium of the Nordic Summer University, Saxnas, Sweden, 9-12 March 2017.
Trustram, M. Saloranta, E, 2016. 'Exploring slow museum time', Nordic Summer University, Orivesi, Finland, 29 July 2016.
Manley. J.,Trustram, M., 2015. ''Such endings that are not over': Social dreaming and the legacies of the slave trade', Imagination and Enquiry Seminar Series, School of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire, 11 March 2015.
Trustram, M., 2015. 'Finding a form to enact grief or How I picked flowers for a year.', Trauma, Grief, Loss: The Art of Bereavement, University of the Creative Arts, Farnham, 15 May 2015.
Trustram, M., 2015. 'Little Madnesses: Winnicott, Transitional Phenomena and Cultural Experience', Round table with Annette Kuhn and Jackie Stacey, University of Manchester, 12 May 2015.
Trustram, M., 2014. 'Museum Melancholy: Loss in the midst of plenty', Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, Centre for Psychoanalysis, Middlesex University, 14 June 2014.
Trustram, M., 2014. 'The Shadow of the Museum: Visiting the museum with Winnicott and Bollas', Integration: Psychoanalysis, culture and society in 2014, Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Leeds, 27 March 2014.
Trustram, M., 2013. 'Asylum and the Museum', OPUS Conference, London, 22-23 November 2013.
Trustram, M., 2013. 'Encountering loss: the Kindertransport memorial at Liverpool Street Station', Encounters Conference, Morgan Centre, University of Manchester, 3-4 July 2013.
Trustram, M., 2013. 'The First of England: Photographs of the Kindertransport memorial at Liverpool Street Station', Imagination and Inquiry Seminar Series, University of Central Lancashire, 23 January 2013.
Trustram, M., 2013. 'The inner uses of museum objects', Master class: Object-relating and relating to objects, School for Health Sciences and Social Care, Brunel University, 19-20 April 2013.
Trustram, M., 2012. ''One could not say what one meant': strategies for writing', Nordic Summer University, Brandbjerg, Denmark, 27 July - 3 August 2012.
Trustram, M., 2012. 'Collecting loss: the symbolic meaning of museum objects', Nordic Summer University, Stockholm, 9-11 March 2012.
Trustram, M.Thiara, G., 2012. 'Engaging hard-to-reach groups in research: Lessons from Who Cares? Museums, health and wellbeing', Greater Manchester Third Sector Research Network, Manchester, 23 November 2012.
Trustram, M., 2012. 'Free association in the art museum: an invitation to analyse interview text', Nordic Summer University, Helsinki, 20-22 February 2012.
Trustram, M., 2012. 'The First of England: photographs of the Kindertransport memorial at Liverpool Street Station', Nordic Summer University, Brandbjerg, Denmark, 27 July - 3 August 2012.
Trustram, M., 2012. 'The museum in the mind', Staff research study day, Faculty of Humanities, University of Chester, 26 March 2012.
Trustram, M., 2012. 'When unhoused minds meet housed objects: the emerging museums and health practice', Museum utopias symposium, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, 27-8 March 2012.
Trustram, M., 2012. 'Who cares? Museums, health and wellbeing', Becoming a healthy museum, Thackray Medical Museum, Leeds, 29 May 2012.
Trustram, M., 2011. 'Asylum and the museum', Nordic Summer University, Malmo, Sweden, 3 August 2011.
Froggett, L; Trustram, M., 2011. 'Finding cultural forms for personal experience: a psychosocial perspective on how museums engage participants', Participation and engagement in the arts, knowledge exchange network, Leeds Metropolitan University, 25 May 2011.
Trustram, M., 2011. 'Panel member: Culture effects: the impact of arts and culture', ESRC Impact Agenda Seminar, Institute for Cultural Practices, University of Manchester, 28 June 2011.
Trustram, M., 2011. 'Public collections for public health', The feel good museum, Midlands Federation of Museums, Walsall Leather Museum, 13 October 2011.
Trustram, M., 2011. 'The authentic self and the museum', Chimera Workshop, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester, 27 October 2011.
Trustram, M., 2011. 'Using objects in health care settings', Psycho-oncology study day, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, 8 December 2011.
Trustram, M., 2010. 'Introduction to the symposium, The Unconscious in the Museum', The Unconscious in the Museum, Manchester Art Gallery, 12 November 2010.
Trustram, M., 2010. 'Museum in the mind: the unconscious life of an iconic institution', Responding to corporate panic - creating spaces in organisations, North West Institute of Dynamic Psychotherapy, 2 July 2010.
Trustram, M., 2010. 'Museums and health - the darker side', Museums Association annual conference, Manchester Conference Centre, 9 October 2010.
Trustram, M., 2009. 'Museum in the mind', Showcase seminar, Centre for Museology, University of Manchester, 9 December 2009.
Trustram, M., 2009. 'Museum in the mind: thinking about the psychodynamics of museums', Organisational and Social Dynamics (OPUS), London, 18-19 November 2009.
m.trustram@mmu.ac.uk