Jessica Turner wants to know what stays with us after an experience ends, and how it changes what we do next.

As a curator and doctoral researcher in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen’s University, she studies how complex subjects change meaning as they move between forms of representation. Her research asks how curatorial practice can alter the conditions of encounter and, in doing so, reshape the narratives that guide interpretation.

In 2024, Jessica curated Contemplating Glaciers – A Dialogue, a multisensory exhibition that brought artists and scientists together around glacier loss. Wanting to know whether its effects lasted beyond the gallery, she surveyed visitors on what they learned and whether the experience influenced their engagement with climate change. That work became the starting point for a broader investigation into the long-term impact of climate exhibitions on public engagement.

She now hopes to develop a shared framework that helps curators trace those effects over time, informing how future exhibitions are imagined.