From Intermediaries to Connectors: A Critical Analysis of Proximity in Visitor Studies

Visitor Studies (VS) professionals often gather visitors’ data and report it to stakeholders who can use the findings. This could be a powerful opportunity to democratize visitor-serving organizations by bringing marginalized perspectives into decision-making. In practice, however, this model of researchers-as-intermediaries often maintains or expands inequitable power dynamics. This paper reviews the interactions between visitors, organizational decision-makers, and VS professionals, drawing on conversations with VS professionals to consider how proximity between visitors and organizational leaders influences a study’s overall quality. Seven Visitor Studies professionals offer a range of professional perspectives as museum-based researchers and practitioners, academics, a student, and a nonprofit research practitioner as well as lived experiences of marginalization based on race, ability, gender, sexuality, and more. The paper poses questions that can spark considerations about how VS projects can enact anti-oppressive practices and foster humanizing relationships that promote equity and benefit our field.