Staff profiles

History and Heritage

Initially, Stuart Burch's academic training was in art history with a specific focus on sculpture. Since joining the School of Arts and Humanities, he has developed a general interest in the role of 'the past in the present' and has been actively involved in developing courses in Heritage Studies and, more recently, Public History. He is committed to the vocational relevance of academic study and in 2009 attained his Associateship of the Museums Association (the AMA is the continuing professional development scheme for the UK museum sector). In addition to Britain, Stuart has an area specialism in the Nordic world, primarily Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia.

Past and present research clients include:

• Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
• English Heritage
• Estonian Institute
• Finnish Institute
• Henry Moore Institute
• Museums Association (Museums Journal)
• Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery
• Oulu City Art Museum.

The project National History - Nordic Culture: Negotiating identity in the museum has been awarded €500,000 funding via Riksbankens Jubileumsfond's 'Nordic Spaces' programme (2008-2012). Stuart Burch is a member of this group along with six other academics from institutions in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland.

In September 2006, Stuart and the physicist, Dr Haida Liang were awarded £10,000 under Nottingham Trent University's Knowledge Transfer initiative. This one year project has enabled the University to collaborate with Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery. The two lead academics have sought to explore the potential for interpreting non-invasive imaging techniques in a museum setting.

A British Academy Small Research Grant totalling £7,484 was awarded to Stuart Burch and Dr David Smith of Glasgow University in October 2005. This was intended to fund an initiative entitled 'Public Monuments, Commemoration and the Renegotiation of Collective Identities: Estonia, Sweden and the Baltic World'. Output from this includes a jointly authored paper in the journal Europe-Asia Studies (published in September 2007).

In 2005, a bursary from the Research Council of Norway (Norges forskningsråd) enabled Stuart to take up a post as visiting researcher at the University of Oslo. This was timed to coincide with a year-long series of events to mark the centenary of Norwegian independence.

The Swedish Institute (Svenska Institutet) awarded Stuart a scholarship in September 2001. This resulted in a number of published papers and presentations on the subject of Swedish museums, monuments and memorials.

Dr Stuart Burch:

• is an associate member of the School of Slavonic, Central and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow and a participant in the UK Baltic Research Group
• is an individual member of ICOM (International Council of Museums) and an Associate Member (AMA) of the Museums Association.
• contributes regularly to the Museums Journal as an exhibition reviewer and commentator.
• is a peer reviewer for The International Journal of Heritage Studies, Europe-Asia Studies and Journal of Baltic Studies.
• is a book reviewer for the journal, Landscape Research.

Stuart Burch is interested in supervising topics which relate to the role of history and heritage in contemporary society. He is, for example, the principal supervisor of an ongoing doctoral thesis examining the ways in which archaeology is implicated in identity formation in present-day Ireland. Future projects might focus on the form and function of local and national museums and galleries; commemorative anniversaries; commemorative monuments and memorials. He is broadly interested in theoretical issues relating to history, heritage and identity. Case studies that relate to Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland or Estonia would be particularly welcome.

Further information may be obtained from the University Graduate School.