Lisa Manter, Ph.D.

Having taught courses on literature, film, camp, and queery theory at Saint Mary's College of California for over twenty years, Lisa wanted to find a way to bring the discussion-method of teaching that Saint Mary's is known for into the museum space.  She is passionate about involving museum visitors in the process of meaning making, starting with them selecting the pieces and places they would like to encounter.  She co-created Camping the Museum as a way to foster a participant-led discussion of museum objects, using the lens of camp to make this experience fun, light-hearted and just a bit edgy.

WHO WE ARE

Paul Gabriel, M.A.

Receiving his B.A. and M.A in English from Stanford University in 1988/1989, Paul has been an educator for the last thirty years. He was the Exhibits Director of the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco and has served on the Steering Councils for the Standing Professional Committee on Diversity, the Alliance for LGBT Concerns for AAM, and the Advisory Board of the Cultural Competence Learning Institute. He also co-created an exploratory curriculum on accessibility, diversity and inclusion used by museum professionals throughout California under the aegis of CAM.  For the last fifteen years, he has used his professional expertise as a learning specialist to find novel ways to shed light on the neurological universal access of museums as learning environments, tapping persons with learning and attention vulnerabilities as expert reviewers or leading workshops and trainings built around role-playing to inspire empathy and constructive change. This ongoing passion for seeking new, vital ways to include the voices and experiences of those often excluded or misrepresented (both for visitors and for museum staff), led him most recently to co-create MuseumCamp!, as a fun, fresh way to shake up how people think of museums and use them.