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Staff Profile

Professor Susannah Eckersley

Professor of Critical Heritage & Memory

  • Email: susannah.eckersley@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0)191 208 2490
  • Address: Room 3.12
    Armstrong Building
    Media, Culture, Heritage
    School of Arts & Cultures
Background

Professor of Critical Heritage and Memory Cultures at Newcastle University, since 2023, and associated research fellow at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam, since 2019.


Previously, I was Senior Lecturer (2019-2023) and Lecturer (2012-2019) at Newcastle University, specialising in Museum, Gallery and Heritage Studies, and also the Head of Research for Media Culture Heritage.


I am lead co-editor of the Routledge Book Series, Critical Heritages of Europe: https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Heritages-of-Europe/book-series/COHERE 


Memberships

I am a member of: Association of Critical Heritage Studies; Memory Studies Association; Museums Association; Museums & Galleries History Group; SIEF; ICOM


Advisory Boards/Steering Groups

Cultures of Memory Research Group at Newcastle University Steering Group member https://research.ncl.ac.uk/culturesofmemory/

Newcastle University Centre for Heritage Steering Group member https://www.ncl.ac.uk/heritage/

Museum Friedland, Germany, Academic Advisory Board Member https://www.museum-friedland.de/


Previous academic management roles within Media Culture Heritage

Head of Research for Media Culture Heritage (2022-2023)

Head of Impact for Media Culture Heritage (2017-2020)

Erasmus/International Exchanges Coordinator for Media Culture Heritage (2014-2017).


Academic & Professional Background

I have a PhD in Museum Studies (Newcastle University 2007), an MA (Hons) in German and History of Art (Edinburgh University 1999) and an MA in Museum Studies (Newcastle University 2001). My postgraduate MA and PhD were both fully funded by scholarships from the AHRC. During my undergraduate degree I undertook an ERASMUS year at Leipzig University, Germany and a key part of my PhD research involved in depth research visits to the Institute for Museum Research in Berlin (funded by the DAAD - German Academic Exchange Service) and to major museums around Germany and the UK. 


Prior to my academic career, I gained professional experience within the cultural heritage sector internationally, including work at:

  • the Alte and Neue Pinakothek - two major art museums in Munich, Germany
  • The Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), for the National Monuments Record Scotland - a national architectural and archaeological archive
  • the Palace of Holyroodhouse - a historic royal palace and major tourist attraction in Edinburgh
  • AKG Images - a commercial arts and history picture library with offices in London, Berlin and Paris


Research

Research Interests

My research interests are interdisciplinary and span the full breadth of what is understood as 'heritage', memory and public culture. Within this I have particular specialist knowledge and interests in: difficult histories (in particular in relation to German history); migration, diversity and representation; populism and contested identities, belonging and memory; cultural policy; museum architecture; museology; built heritage. 


Thematically my research focusses on significant social, political and cultural issues, that often contribute to perceived ‘crises’, such as identities and migration, belonging and exclusion, activism and populism. I address their changing and often contested representation within, and influence on cultural institutions such as museums, memory practices and heritage sites. Further, I analyse the ways in which the past is being adopted and appropriated in contemporary societies (particularly Germany, the UK and Europe) for political purposes, whether by the political, social and cultural establishment or by community or grass-roots actors and activists.


My research therefore goes beyond a simple focus on analysing what museums, heritage sites and memory practices do. Rather, it combines perspectives, theories and methods from multiple disciplines to analyse the complex processes and impacts connected to why, how and with what effects they engage in socio-political issues, particularly in connection to contemporary threats to, or perceived ‘crises’ facing changing democratic societies. The wider significance of this research is in understanding the complex and changing role of social, cultural and political attitudes towards the past (as it is represented in museums, heritage and memory, or used by political actors and activist groups), and in shaping contemporary practices of inclusion, exclusion and belonging.


Fellowships

October 2019 – present       Associated Research Fellow (Assoziierte Wissenschaftlerin), Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam, Germany


October – December 2020    Visiting Researcher, Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH) Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, funded by DAAD

 

September - December 2016 Visiting Research Fellow Leibniz Research Alliance 'Historical Authenticity' Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam, Germany


Funded Research Projects

As PI:

Cultural Dynamics: Museums and Democracy in Motion (2023-2026) Funded by AHRC-DFG with €901 540


en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place (2019-2022) Funded by HERA under the Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe call with €968 805. Project website: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/encounterpoints/


DAAD Research Visit, Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH) Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany https://www.carmah.berlin/people/s-eckersley/


As Co-I:

CoHERE: Critical Heritages performing and representing identities in Europe (2016-2019) Funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020 with 2.4 million Euro. I was the Deputy Project Coordinator, Dissemination Work Package Leader and Co-Investigator. Project website: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/cohere/


As Researcher:

MeLA: European Museums in an Age of Migration (2011-2015). Funded by the European Commission under FP7 with 2.6 million Euro. Project website: http://www.mela-project.polimi.it/


In 2008 I assisted Dr Aron Mazel on the 'Embedding Apartheid' research project examining the influence of the Afrikaner Broederbond secret society on museums, culture and public life during Apartheid-era South Africa. 


Teaching

Successfully completed PhD supervisions:

2022:

Phil Deans: From a Museum on the World's last War, to a Museum on the Two World Wars: The Wartime Activities and Reinvention of the Imperial War Museum, 1939-1946

Alistair Robinson: Making present (art) history public / Making public (art) history present: How museums of modern art construct the history of the visual art of our time


I currently supervise the following research postgraduate students:

Verena Niepel: Contemporary artists from Turkey in Berlin (working title) 

Samantha Vaughn: Silence and Selectivity: Communicating Communist history in the museum and the making of meaning (working title)

Heather Proctor: The role of the arts and political memory in forming mixed ethnic identity (working title)  

Yusuf Patel: Divergent memories: Sites of apartheid era incarceration and violence. (working title)

Dina Ossama Mohamed Elhusseiny Abdelsalam: Adaptive Reuse of 19th Century Residential Buildings Frameworks in Cairo (working title)


I would welcome proposals from potential PhD students in any of my areas of interest (see the 'profile' and 'research' tabs on this page. 


Current teaching:

Since 2015 I have been teaching on the following modules in Media, Culture, Heritage:


Bachelors level:

MCH 3073 - Research Dissertation: Media, Communication and Culture (formerly COM 3073) - Dissertation Supervisor

MCH 2078 - Shock and Awe: conflict, disaster and emotions in media and public culture - Module Leader, lecturer and seminar leader

MCH3068 - Identity and Belonging - Module leader, lecturer and seminar leader

MCH2011 - Memory Matters - Module leader, lecturer, seminar leader


Masters level:

MCH8058 - Research Methodologies in Media, Culture and Society 

MCH8501 - Understanding Challenges in Museum, Gallery and Heritage Studies

MCH8503 - Communicating and Learning in Museum, Gallery and Heritage Studies

MCH8504 - Caring for Collections in Museum, Gallery and Heritage Studies

MCH8532 - Understanding Academic and Applied Research in Museum, Gallery and Heritage Studies

MCH8599 - Research Dissertation in Museum, Gallery & Heritage Studies - dissertation supervisor

MCH8600 - Professional Practice and Research Project - supervisor


Previous teaching:

Undergraduate

Between 2008 and 2015 I taught on the following modules in Fine Art:

FIN1007 Preliminary Studies in Art History 1 - Seminar leader and lecturer

FIN1008 Preliminary Studies in Art History 2 - Seminar leader and lecturer

FIN3036 - Art & War - Lecturer

FIN3029 - Exhibiting Art - Lecturer 

FIN3097 - Art History Dissertation - Dissertation Supervisor


Postgraduate

Between 2008 and 2016 I taught on the following Masters level modules:

ICS8001 Issues & Ideas in Museum, Gallery & Heritage Studies - Module leader, Seminar leader and lecturer

ICS8003 Communication & Interpretation in Museum, Gallery & Heritage Studies - Practicals leader

ICS8012 History in Museums - Lecturer

ICS8024 Heritage Management 1 - Lecturer 

ICS8099 Dissertation in Museum, Gallery & Heritage Studies - Module leader and dissertation supervisor


Teaching Roles and Pastoral care

Since 2010 I have also acted as a personal tutor to UGT and PGT students

Between 2012 and 2016 I was the Erasmus & Study Abroad Coordinator for Media, Culture, Heritage

Publications