Queering Science Museums, Science Centres, and Other Public Science Institutions

This chapter discusses approaches to queering public science institutions including science museums, science centres, zoos, and maker-spaces. It examines queering processes from two perspectives: the institutions’ public spaces (‘frontstage’) and behind the scenes organization and activities (‘backstage’). This chapter highlights the tensions of queer identities between performative and structural changes in the institution and implications of performative actions highlighting the exceptionality of queer identities in turn reinforcing norms around acceptable lives and pathways in the process.