Heritage Research Networking Workshops

June 2019

You may be aware that Durham University has many strengths in ‘Heritage’ research and engagement. Work in varied departments and schools highlight the tangible, intangible, natural and cultural forms of heritage; support and expertise can be found, for example, through colleagues in IMEMS, the World Heritage site, CVAC, the Library, the University Museums to name but a few. This variety of expertise fosters both disciplinary and interdisciplinary methods of working.

From a Research Development perspective, we would like to build on the existing activities of these centres with an exploration of future research directions relevant to external funding providers such as the AHRC, HERA, the British Academy, all of whom have strong ‘Heritage’ focal points.

We’d like to be better able to articulate breadth of our ‘Heritage offering’ to our various contacts and funders; review who we work with and who we should be working with in order to provide the most relevant support; most importantly, get a sense of what you feel to be the emergent research topics in your area; finally, for those who are interested in applying for external funding, we will work with you to develop your ideas.

To this end, we will be hosting a series of three two-hour workshops to explore this further: Prof. Mike Crang has kindly agreed to facilitate discussions with support from Research Development. In the first workshop, we will explore our areas of expertise, discuss possibilities for collaboration and begin to explore how our strengths align with the requirements of our funders. The second and third workshops will serve as follow-up discussions, content to be determined sequentially:

• Workshop 1: 3rd June, 1pm – 3pm to include a light lunch, Alington House, 4 North Bailey, Durham
• Workshop 2: 20th June 2pm – 4pm, tea and coffee available, Derman Christopherson Room, Calman Centre
• Workshop 3: Date/venue tbc

We’d like to invite you to participate in these workshops, whether you are interested in collaborative external grant funding or not, it would be great to have positive input to this conversation on current and emergent research themes.

The hope is that people will be able to commit to all three dates in the first instance as experience suggests that the most exciting ideas tend to emerge over time, when the immediate and more obvious ideas have been exhausted. This is not, however, obligatory – please do attend any that you are able.

If you are able to join, please respond to research.development@durham.ac.uk – feel free to let us know at this point what you’d like to get out of this endeavour and we will try to incorporate it – also any access or dietary requirements you may have.