Staff profile

Academic Biography 

After completing my MA (hons) in Ancient History in 2015 at the University of Edinburgh and my MA Museum and Artefact Studies at Durham in 2016, I have worked in museum education in the North East of England for almost a decade.  

I am passionate about the role that arts, culture and heritage can play in shaping young people’s lives and opportunities and I have a wide range of experience in developing formal and informal museum education programmes for children and young people aged from birth through to adulthood. In addition, I have also conducted community consultation and engagement linked to the role of faith in society and have been involved in opening a range of new heritage sites. These include Durham Cathedral Museum, Auckland Palace and the Faith Museum in Bishop Auckland.  

Alongside my PhD, I work full time as Partnership Development Lead at The Auckland Project, a heritage and regeneration charity based in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.  

Research  

Through my PhD, I aim to evaluate the educational and social impact that long-term, sustained engagement with a heritage organisation can have on children and young people in County Durham. In particular, I seek to answer whether:  

• repeat school visits over the course of a child’s schooling impact educational attainment. 

• repeat school visits impact students’ pride of place, cultural capital and aspirations. 

• similar impacts are achieved by single visits to arts and heritage organisations with established education programmes. 

• Heritage management
• Museum learning
• Heritage partnerships
• Community engagement
• Evaluation methodologies