We're delighted to be welcoming two Postdoctoral Research Associates to the Culture Commons team this month.
Dr Claire Burnill-Maier and Dr Lucrezia Gigante will be working closely with the core policy team and research partners on our open policy development programme on 'the future of local cultural decision making'. They will ensure key findings bubbling up during the research phase are being fed through into the wider policymaking process.
You'll be hearing from Claire and Lucrezia at some over the coming months, so it's a great pleasure to give you a flavour of their backgrounds:
Dr Claire Burnill-Maier
Claire is a Postdoctoral Researcher whose current research explores the role of culture in place and place-making.
Following her research excellence awarded PhD at the University of Leeds, School of Performance and Cultural Industries, examining the relationships between cultural organisations located in cities and their counterparts in the satellite towns on their peripheries, she has held research positions with ‘Here for Culture and Place’ on behalf of the eleven Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) for the Northern Culture and Place Partnership.
Research has included collating evidence and mapping assets in support of investment strategies in culture, heritage and nature as part of wider place-based economic strategies.
Previous research roles have included research associate for Creative Manchester / AHRC Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (the PEC) at the University of Manchester (UK) where she remains an Honorary Research Fellow.
Prior to this Claire was a postdoctoral fellow with the University of Leeds and Research Associate with the Centre for Cultural Value.
Dr Lucrezia Gigante
Lucrezia Gigante, AFHEA, is a Museum Studies researcher with an interest in contemporary public culture and the politics of place-based cultural participation.
With a background in Classics and Art Museum and Gallery Studies, she completed her doctoral research at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, with the support of AHRC Midlands4Cities funding.
In her thesis, titled ‘The Spatial Politics of Art Organisations: Public Programmes as Sites for Cultural Citizenship’, Lucrezia explored how situated cultural practices are invested with political responsibility through the production and reproduction of ideas of place. Her research yielded an original critical model of cultural citizenship for constituency-based, place-responsive public programmes in art organisations.
Lucrezia’s work experience spans academia, where she held teaching and research-focused roles, as well as public programming and digital communications in visual art and heritage contexts (UNESCO Global Network of Water Museums and Pompeii Archaeological Park, among others).