The Interpret Europe Research Team will support the IE Research Coordinator in a variety of research-related tasks. Are you ready to join?
Tasks for the Research Team will evolve over time and in response to emerging opportunities and requirements. The following gives an outline of immediate tasks for the team:
A list of heritage interpretation courses
The team will collate a comprehensive list of university-level courses that teach and/or research heritage interpretation across Europe (in both cultural and natural heritage contexts). The aim is to also identify teaching/research foci, tutor names and relevant publications.
Research monitoring
Members of the team will regularly check journals for articles of interest to the field of heritage interpretation. They will summarise relevant articles so that insights can be shared with IE members. The summary is not intended as a review, and as such does not require additional work beyond an easy-to-understand summary of key points.
The Research Coordinator will assign journals to team members to ensure that key publications are regularly checked for articles of interest. Team members are encouraged to also summarise and share articles from outside these key publications that are of interest to heritage interpretation. A list of fields that IE considers of particular research interest to heritage interpretation will be shared with the team.
Article summaries will be published for example in the IE newsletter. We hope that this can address the desire expressed by some IE members to stay informed about academic research and developments relevant to the field of heritage interpretation, despite not or no longer being affiliated with a university.
Book reviews
The Research Coordinator and team members will suggest books for review that are considered of interest to the field of heritage interpretation. Unlike article summaries, the book reviews will aim to place the book in a wider discursive context and assess them against that context in such a way that is easily understood by others. The book reviews are intended as discussion points and suggested reading. They will be published for example in the IE newsletter.
Who can become a team member?
Due to the required access to research journals, members for the Research Team will need to have their own access for the time being, as IE cannot currently provide such access. There is no such requirement for book reviewers; however, please be advised that books must currently be purchased by the reviewer where they are not available to borrow from libraries. IE is not currently in a position to reimburse costs for books.
How much time is required?
We ask team members to commit to the group until 31 March 2018. The monthly commitment is not expected to exceed five hours per group member.
How do you sign up?
Please contact me at nicole@nicoledeufel.com by 30th September 2016. Please provide a brief blurb on your experience and background in heritage interpretation, particularly where relevant to the tasks outlined above.
Dr Nicole Deufel is the Research Coordinator for Interpret Europe. She is Director for Museums and Art Collections at a local authority in Germany.
