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I am a senior academic in the School of Museum Studies, Â鶹ÊÓƵ, and part of the award-winning Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG). I am recognised for sector-leading research and impact in race equity and organisational change within the heritage and museum sectors. As Chair of Museum & Society journal, I am involved in nurturing new, international scholarship and research agendas in my field. I am also a recognised leader in distance learning and accessible teaching. For my work in this area, I was awarded a University Distinguished Teaching Fellowship in 2020. I am also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

My research explores the evolution of decolonisation and anti-racism work within cultural institutions. As a cultural historian, I examined the history of the Smithsonian Institution’s responses to racial justice movements over the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First centuries, and the evolution of culturally-focused museums. In my book Negotiating Race and Rights in the Museum (Routledge), I traced the emergence of post-race narratives within professional museum discourse. With the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG), I have undertaken collaborative action research with a range of cultural heritage organisations, such as the National Portrait Gallery and London Museum, to examine and explore organisational cultures and evolving confidence and skills in equity work. I belong to the workforce skills research cluster at the School of Museum Studies, and have undertaken evaluative research for the UK Museums Association on decolonisation.

Bunning, K. (2021) Negotiating Race and Rights in the Museum, Routledge.

Bunning, K. (2018) 'Ethnic heritage for the nation: Debating "identity museums" on the National Mall', in Watson, S., Barnes, A.J. and Bunning, K. (eds.) A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Leicester Readers in Museum Studies, Routledge.

Watson, S., Barnes, A. J. and Bunning, K. (2018) 'Introduction', in Watson, S., Barnes, A.J. and Bunning, K. (eds.) A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Leicester Readers in Museum Studies, Routledge.

Bunning, K., Kavanagh, J., McSweeney, K., and Sandell, R. 2015. 'Embedding Plurality: Exploring participatory practice in the development of a new permanent gallery'. Science Museum Journal, 3, Spring.

I supervise students doing cultural and historical studies of museums and heritage and exploring structural questions around participation collaboration and socially engaged practice. Topics of interest are community museums heritage and identity racial histories contemporary ethnographic museums diversity and decolonising discourses and practices and museum histories.

My current and forthcoming research students are working on:

Trauma and reconciliation in the context of indigenous histories in Canadian museums

Heritage identity and oil sponsorship in Canadian museums

National museums and local embeddedness in Taiwan

Community museums in China

Evaluating the impact of socially engaged practice

Colonial histories and practices within art museums

My teaching is focused on socially engaged practice museums race and decolonial practices. I lead the introductory module for the MA/MSc/PGDip in Museum Studies 'Contemporary Museum Contexts' and the module 'Museums and Change' on our MA/MSc/PGDip in Museum Studies by Distance Learning.

I have a particular specialism in flexible and distance learning pedagogies. In 2015 I played a significant role in developing the first Museum Studies MOOC ‘Behind the Scenes at the 21st Century Museum’ which was developed collaboratively with National Museums Liverpool.

I have been awarded a University Distinguished Teaching Fellowship in recognition of my work on accessible and inclusive curricula for the Â鶹ÊÓƵ. I am also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and currently act as the Director of Distance Learning developments and delivery in the School.