Brittany Wheeler

Brittany Wheeler has a multi-disciplinary background and an active interest in the museum, migration and public health sectors. Ms. Wheeler currently works as a Repatriation Specialist at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and also serves in a voluntary capacity on the Executive Committee of the New Scholars Network (a branch of the Refugee Research Network, www.refugeeresearch.net).

As a graduate student in Johannesburg, Ms. Wheeler served as an Exhibit Facilitator for the Hotel Yeoville Project (http://www.hotelyeoville.co.za/), a multi-media art project that aimed to share the voices of the migrant community in the neighborhood of Yeoville. She conducted her master’s research on the repatriation of deceased bodies across borders, examining the systems of foreign nationals repatriating bodies from Johannesburg and of Native Americans repatriating remains from the collections of U.S. museums. Her dissertation, "(Un)Rest in Peace: The Agents of Human Remains Repatriation and the Lives of Living Migrants A Study of Agency, Process and Effect in Repatriating Bodies from South Africa and the U.S.A." can be found below. Further, she worked on a report reviewing literature on migration and health in SADC for the International Organization of Migration (IOM).

Ms. Wheeler also holds an M.A. in International Museum Studies from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden (2006).

Key interests: Museums and social inclusion, migration and repatriation, non-profit communication strategies, food security