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.
The programme team also organised an international trip to Amsterdam to enable participants to explore European research culture, museums and heritage organisations. This trip was scheduled to take place in March 2020 but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis.
For further information please contact training@humanities.ox.ac.uk.
New for 2023: Opportunity to join the Lab in Your Pocket Training Cohort
The "Lab in Your Pocket" (LIYP) is an innovative initiative under the Heritage Pathway programme, new for 2023, serving as a pilot testbed for human-machine collaboration in education and research. Funded by the University, LIYP leverages underutilised smartphone technology to boost education and professional development. Our focus is on enhancing students' digital, heritage, and scientific literacy.
Through Heritage Pathway sessions that are open to all, as well as focussed activities for the competitively-selected LIYP cohort, we aim to guide participants in maximising their own tech resources for professional growth in the heritage sector. The programme is designed to help them build a comprehensive digital portfolio that can be shared with cultural and community stakeholders. Our program includes two hands-on field visits: one centred on objects, and the other on historical architecture and environments.
LIYP is designed to be inclusive, offering all necessary tech support. We value participant feedback, dedicating time for suggestions as part of our co-design pilot. Additionally, participants will co-create a digital portfolio to document experiences, facilitate reflection, and preserve the legacy of the program for all involved.
Applications to join the LIYP cohort will open in Michaelmas term, with full details about the scheme and how to apply provided at the Heritage Pathway sessions and online.
Heritage Events Trinity 2024
Careers in Arts & Heritage: Crafting your CV & Creating a Digital Portfolio
Tuesday 30 April, 11am - 1pm, TORCH Seminar Room, 3rd Floor, Radcliffe Humanities, OX2 6GG
This session will focus on how to boost your employability for the heritage sector. Providing top tips for how to build your practical experience and how to articulate the transferable skills gained through your studies at Oxford, the session will also offer practical guidance for building your own ‘application toolkit,’ including CV and digital portfolios.
This session will be run in collaboration with the Careers Service.
Speakers:
• Damilola Odimayo, Careers Service
• Kathryn Eccles, Oxford Internet Institute
• Alice Purkiss
• Rachel Delman
Book now >>
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Heritage Workshop: Agile objects: object-based learning
Wednesday 15 May, 11am - 1pm, TORCH Seminar Room, 3rd Floor, Radcliffe Humanities, OX2 6GG
Why teach with objects? What affective and educational potential do objects hold?
In this session, we discover why teaching with objects can be so powerful. As our speaker Jim Harris (Ashmolean) has stated: ‘It focuses attention, deepens inquiry and opens up unexpected avenues of exploration. It connects [us] with the material world surrounding [our] studies and enables the sideways glance that can illuminate a whole academic discipline.’ Jim has also stressed that objects can be a valuable starting point, and through them, we can discover ‘the hidden networks of meaning and association they embody. Objects are the complex output of complex humans.'
This session will demonstrate the agility of objects in fostering inspiring, interdisciplinary and inclusive teaching practices.
Speakers:
• Dr Jim Harris, Teaching Curator, Ashmolean Museum
• Rachel Delman .
Book now >>
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Current Issues in Arts & Heritage: Heritage & Young People
Wednesday 29 May, 11am - 12.30pm, Online - registration required
At a time when 16-24 year-olds are the least likely adult age group (up to the age of 75) to visit a heritage venue, this session will consider how sector initiatives are actively seeking to engage younger people – not only as audiences, but also as collaborators in their programmes, research and even organisational governance.
Speakers will reflect on their experiences of both engaging and being young people in the sector to suggest creative and practical ways for how we can engage the next generation of heritage professionals and visitors as the heritage custodians of the future.
Speakers:
• Chania Fox, Youth Participation Officer, English Heritage
• Dr Anna Clark, Engagement Officer, Oxford Preservation Trust (and former Heritage Pathway attendee)
• Carys Owen, Kids in Museums Youth Panellist & MSt History of Art student (and current Heritage Pathway attendee
Book now >>
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