Murderabilia Data Gathering in the US

Jack has recently returned from a data gathering trip to the U.S.A at the end of the first year of his PhD. Observations and interviews were carried out over a period of two weeks in September, assisted by a grant from the ESRC overseas fieldwork fund. 

Museum observations and interviews yielded some high quality data supporting Jack’s PhD in morbid culture and the collecting of Murderabilia respectively. Many good connections were also made that are currently being followed up. This data will be complimented by a similar approach carried out in the UK in the months up until Christmas, as well as data gathered online from forums and fan-sites.

Whilst the interviews will mark the beginning of the data collection phase of Jack’s PhD, a preliminary analysis of the observations will be presented much sooner at the Museum’s Alive conference at the University of Leicester, November 2014.

Jack Denham - Overseas Fieldwork Funding Success

Jack Denham (PhD student) has been awarded £1900.00 by the White Rose DTC on behalf of the AQC in order to undertake fieldwork in the USA.

The trip will start with a visit to America's biggest crime museum in Washington DC. Two days are set-aside for an ethnography of the museum and another for follow up interviews. The middle part of the trip is the longest accommodating a visit to America's biggest murderabilia convention, followed by one week set aside for interviews with contacts made at the event.

During this week, a trip to the 'Dime Museum', a popular murderabilia collection in Indianapolis, will also be made. Finally, the trip accommodates a visit to a crime museum in Hollywood boasting the largest murderabilia collection in the world over two days again. This trip has been arranged with the assistance of a gatekeeper with access to many interviewees during the week stopover in Indianapolis.

This trip will contribute a physical dimension to the networks addressed in Jack's proposal, providing valuable first-hand visual data as well as invaluable contacts in this industry. This exposure will also help with an understanding of the value of criminal culture to the consumer - data collected here will form the bulk of the research for his PhD.

Congratulations Jack!