Heritage Pathway is a series of training and engagement activities which run termly. Since 2015, Heritage Pathway has provided undergraduate and postgraduate students, along with Early Career Researchers at the University of Oxford with the skills, knowledge and confidence to engage effectively with a wide range of partners in the heritage, museums and cultural sector.
Heritage Pathway is designed and delivered by Alice Purkiss and Dr Rachel Delman and organised through the Humanities Researcher Training and Development Programme.
Through a combination of lectures, workshops and site visits led by expert practitioners, participants understand their research in a wider context and gain experience in the heritage, museums and cultural sector. Heritage Pathway opens up new avenues for careers and collaborations, while reinforcing researchers’ ability to complete their research projects and academic tasks in a timely fashion.
Heritage Pathway enables participants to:
• Understand the opportunities and constraints within each sector of heritage.
• Understand the different language and vocabulary required to create successful collaborations.
• Explore how their research experience and expertise can contribute to organisations.
• Develop the skills and confidence to create collaborative research-led projects.
• Join a cohort of like-minded undergraduates, postgraduates and early career researchers.
• Develop and enhance networking abilities with internal and external colleagues.
Previous sessions have explored themes including:
• Heritage and its Audiences
• Case Studies in Collaboration: Digital Projects
• Researching, Curating and Interpreting Collections
• Careers in the Heritage and Museums Sectors
• CVs and Cover Letters for the Heritage Sector
• Commercial Heritage
• Cataloguing and Digital Projects
• Cataloguing and Spectrum Standards
• Interpretation
• Diversifying Heritage
• Communicating Heritage
• Working with Objects
• Heritage and Landscape
• Heritage and Authenticity
Site visits always include opportunities to meet with senior leaders and managers to discuss the ways in which research and the day-to-day and strategic concerns of sites and organisations intersect. Previous visits include: Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, Black Country Living Museum, and Charleston Farmhouse.
For further information please contact training@humanities.ox.ac.uk.
Heritage Events Michaelmas 2024
Heritage at Oxford: From our own correspondents
Tuesday 5th November 2024, 11am - 1pm, 11am, Colin Matthew Room, Radcliffe Humanities
This session will introduce participants to Heritage at Oxford, showcasing the work of our own students and early career researchers. This will be a participatory session, inviting attendees to get know the work of the heritage team and opportunities for engaging with the sector during your time at Oxford.
Speakers:
- Dr Catherine Jenkinson – Post Doctoral Researcher, University of Oxford and Historic Royal Palaces
- Dr Sterling MacKinnon, Project Manager: Kick-Starting Heritage Innovation, School of Geography and the Environment
Book now >>
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IHR Workshop: Using Archival Research in the Heritage Sector
Wednesday 20th November 2024, Online - registration required
This session will explore how archival research is used within the heritage sector, from curatorial interpretation to conservation and capital projects. Speakers from a range of organisations, career stages and disciplinary backgrounds will reflect on how historical, archival sources are used in heritage sector decision-making today.
Speakers will explore:
- How do archives inform heritage practice?
- Who are the custodians of archives used within the heritage sector?
- Which job families within the sector use archives for their work?
- How can heritage professionals make archives relevant to contemporary audiences?
Speakers:
- Aimee-Anna Akinola, Built Heritage Project Administrator, Blenheim Palace
- Kathryn Maude, Team Leader: Medieval Specialists, with a focus on gender and sexuality, The National Archives
- India Wright, Doctoral Placement Student with Historic Royal Palaces and Oxford Heritage Partnerships and PhD student at the University of Cambridge
- Amilia Gillies, Doctoral Placement Student with Historic Royal Palaces and Oxford Heritage Partnerships and PhD student at the University of Kent
This event is part of the IHR’s People, Place and Community events series and is co-hosted by the Centre for the History of People, Place and Community with the Oxford University’s Heritage Partnerships Team.
Book now >>
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Heritage Pathway trip: Bath Assembly Room & Georgian Bath
Thursday 5th December 2024, 9am - 2pm, Bath Assembly Rooms, Bennett Street, Bath BA1 2QH
This term’s Heritage Pathway trip will take us on a behind-the-scenes visit to the Bath Assembly Rooms in the heart of Georgian Bath. Famous for their association with Jane Austen and Charles Dickens (and more recently Netflix’s Bridgerton), the Assembly Rooms have been owned by the National Trust since 1931 but have only recently come under the charity’s management. Work is currently underway to create an experience that will transport visitors back to the social scene of Georgian Bath in the late eighteenth-century, whilst remaining open during this transition as much as possible.
We will meet with the National Trust team delivering this transformational project, hear about the innovative digital engagement they are developing and have a unique opportunity to explore this historic site while it is closed to the public.
After visiting the Assembly Rooms, we will explore the surrounding streets (including the famous Royal Crescent) with the Oxford Internet Institute's Prof Kathryn Eccles and get hands on with digitising the city’s remarkable Georgian heritage using the technology found in our own pockets.
The trip is free, including return train travel from Oxford to Bath. We will travel together as a group from Oxford to Bath in the morning, but you are welcome to return to Oxford after the day's activities are complete to fit your own plans (you may wish to visit the famous Bath Christmas Markets!).
Please note:
- This course requires a £20 deposit which will be refunded once you have attended the course, or have cancelled your place at least 72 hours before the course start date.
- We will provide you with an off-peak day return from either Oxford (leaving at 9.04am) or Didcot Parkway (leaving at 9.30am). Once the tour is complete, you are free to return home at any point.
- There are some accessibility issues at this site including steps, and the acoustics in one of the rooms can be a challenge. Please don’t see these as barriers as the tour can be accommodated around these accessibility issues. Once you have paid your deposit, we will be in touch to find out your accessibility needs.
Book now >>
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