Biography
Based in Kingston, Ontario, Dr. Simge Erdogan-O’Connor is a museum leader, educator, and scholar whose work explores how museums build relationships across communities, cultures, and borders. Her research focuses on cultural diplomacy, museums and democracy, participatory accessibility, and diaspora identity.
As a core team member of NACDI, Simge has examined the global engagement of museums in North America, including research on the Royal Ontario Museum’s international initiatives and collaborative work with the Aga Khan Museum and the Idaho Museum of International Diaspora. She co-authored a chapter with R.S. Zaharna in an Edward Elgar volume on cultural diplomacy, and in 2026 co-curated a global engagement training series for ICOM Canada that reached more than 200 museum professionals.
Simge currently serves as the Director of the Canadian Museum of Health Care, Canada’s national museum of health and medicine, and co-founder of Holarch, a cultural partnership practice. She teaches at the Ontario Museum Association's Certificate in Museum Studies Program and in the MA in Arts Management at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico. Her fifteen-year career spans Türkiye, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Mexico, and her publications appear in Museum & Society, Museum & Social Issues, and edited volumes.
She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Queen’s University, an MA in Museum Studies from UCL, and a BA in History from Boğaziçi University. Her work has been recognized with the Kingston Museum Association’s Paul O. Robertson Award for Leadership and Innovation and the Kingston Young Professionals 40 Under 40 Award.