De-formation, re-formation, trans-formations: Transitional custody and the disposal of spontaneous memorial collections

This talk offers a transferable framework that advances understanding of disposal in spontaneous memorial collections and reshapes wider debates on disposal across museological and heritage contexts.

• Speaker: Robert Simpson, University of Manchester
• Chair: Dr Jennie Morgan, University of Stirling

Spontaneous memorials are ritualistic, performative, and socially significant sites of collective grief in the aftermath of tragedy. Once dismantled and, if collected by GLAMs, they pose complex challenges: what to retain and when, and how to navigate the ethical, symbolic, and institutional stakes of disposal.

While scholarship has examined their role in memorialisation and societal resilience, and separately the policies of deaccessioning, little attention has been paid to disposal practices specific to spontaneous memorials. I address this gap by exploring how disposal can be both theoretically conceptualised and practically enacted.

Using dialogic interviews, survey data, and international case studies, I build on Robert Hertz’s notion of “second burial” and introduce the concept of transitional custody to analyse the shift from ritual care to symbolic reintegration. I propose a typology of disposal practices structured around three modes: de-formation, involving destruction or irreversible change; re-formation, involving re-distribution or re-circulation into new social contexts; and trans-formation, involving creative or symbolic reworking that generates new meanings and forms of engagement. 

Dr Robert Simpson works at the University of Manchester as a Research Associate for the AHRC-funded Fellowship titled “Digitising Spontaneous Memorials: Healing, Emotional Labour, and Digital Memoriality”.

Since 2019, his research has centred around spontaneous memorialisation and public responses to unexpected tragedy and disaster. His PhD thesis was interested in exploring notions of social solidarity and community resilience in the aftermath of terrorist attacks; how these notions are created and conveyed at spontaneous memorials; and how cultural heritage professionals negotiate the challenges of collecting, interpreting, and understanding memorial objects and their meanings and relevance in a post-memorial museum settings.