Judith Spaargaren

Having shut down as a prison in 2013 and re-opened as a museum dedicated to the prison’s history in 2016, Peterhead Prison Museum is a part of Scotland’s cultural heritage portfolio, though not without its challenges. Having been a site of incarceration for 125 years, its heritage includes narratives of crime, punishment, and death. Though these narratives contrast starkly against the idea that tourist sites must be pleasant, it provides a draw to those visitors more interested in dark tourism.

My research aims to analyse discourse in tourism, heritage, prison, and museum studies to examine the curatorial challenges Peterhead Prison Museum must face. By placing the museum in a wider context of international prison museums, I intend to show how Peterhead can evolve its strategies in showcasing narratives of the difficult historical topics which exist within Scottish prison heritage. Additionally, by working closely with the museum, I will be conducting qualitative research into how visitors from both the community and further afield engage with the prison, aiming to further evolve the ways in which Peterhead can evolve as a site of public history, both to its local community and tourists.