About our staff
Dr Chiara Bonacchi
BA, MA, PhD, FSA, FSA Scot, FHEA
Chancellor's Fellow in Heritage, Text and Data Mining and Senior Lecturer in Heritage; HCA and Edinburgh Futures Institute
- Email: chiara.bonacchi@ed.ac.uk
- Room 1.10, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place.
Office hours
Roles
- Co-lead of the HCA Heritage Research Group.
- Member of the International executive committee of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS).
- ACHS UK Chapter member.
- Advisory Board Member of the SGSAH Heritage Knowledge Exchange Hub.
Biography
I am an internationally active researcher in the field of heritage studies. My work focuses on investigating the intersection between contemporary experiences and public uses of the past, identity building, social change and politics in the digital age. Over the past ten years, I have developed interdisciplinary teaching, research, impact and public engagement activities in this area, with the aim to generate research-led innovation with social purpose. In doing so, I have drawn on knowledge, methods and collaborations cutting across the fields of archaeology and history, computing science, sociology and political science.
My most recent book, Heritage and Nationalism: Understanding populism through big data (2022), is the first to leverage millions of social media data points to investigate the ways in which people’s understanding of the pre-modern past shape political identities, with a specific focus on populist nationalist sentiment and narratives. Recent projects I have led or co-led include a major research grant exploring present-day values associated with the Iron Age and Roman past (2016-19) and a Follow-on for impact and engagement award entitled Co-producing Tolerant Futures through Ancient Identities (2022). The latter is a collaboration with Durham University and eight museums and heritage sites in Scotland, England and Wales. It aims to support the development of inclusivity in British society by exposing and challenging antagonistic ways of presenting ‘the other’ in the past and the present. This research has featured in outlets including Nature News, the Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and British Archaeology.
I am also the co-founder of the MicroPasts crowdsourcing platform (2013-present). This website has enabled the co-production of open data and community-based projects in archaeology and heritage through collaborations between people inside and outside heritage institutions. This work has had impact on the cultural and heritage sectors, for example by informing the practices of organisations such as Historic Environment Scotland, Historic England, Arts Council England, British Film Institute, the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.
I serve on the International Executive Board of the Association for Critical Heritage Studies, I am member of the AHRC Peer Review College and have held visiting fellowships including at the Universities of Helsinki and at the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research.
Previous Employment: Before joining the University of Edinburgh, in March 2022, I have held positions as Post-doctoral Researcher at the University of Newcastle and UCL, as Co-Investigator Researcher at UCL, and as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Stirling.
Education: I hold a BA in Archaeology and an MA in Medieval Archaeology from the University of Florence. I completed a PhD in Public Archaeology from the UCL Institute of Archaeology (2012).
External appointments
- Member of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council's (AHRC) Peer Review College.
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
- Member of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland.
- Member of the International executive committee of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS).
- ACHS UK Chapter member.
- Visiting Fellow, University of Helsinki (2019) and Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, NUKU (2022).
- Advisory Board member for: Journal of Open Archaeology Data.
- Advisory Board member for AP: Online Journal in Public Archaeology.
Useful Links
Summary of research interests
Places:- Britain & Ireland
- Europe
- North America
- Culture
- Landscapes & Monuments
- Migration
- Politics
- Society
- Urban
- Antiquity
- Medieval & Renaissance
- Twentieth Century & After
Research interests
- Digital heritage and digital museology
- Heritage transformations in big data ecologies
- Heritage and identity
- The politics of the past
- Heritage and social activism
- Heritage experiences and values
Current research activities
At present, I am undertaking research on the following projects:
AHRC Follow-on Funding project Co-producing Tolerant Futures through Ancient Identities
AHRC JPI research grant Deep Cities - Curating Sustainable Urban Transformations through Heritage
Research projects
This is a selection of the funded projects I have led or co-led:
2023-26, Philip Leverhulme Prize in Archaeology. https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/philip-leverhulme-prize-winners-2022.
2022, PI on the AHRC Follow-on Funding project Co-producing Tolerant Futures through Ancient Identities (CI Richard Hingley, Durham Archaeology).
2020-2021, CI on the Royal Society of Edinburgh workshop grant Narratives of Roman Scotland in the Digital Age (PI Manuel Fernández-Götz, University of Edinburgh; CI2 Rebecca Jones, Historic Environment Scotland).
2019-22, CI on the AHRC JPI research grant Deep Cities - Curating Sustainable Urban Transformations through Heritage (PI Torgrim Guttormsen, Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research).
2016-19, CI on the AHRC major research grant Iron Age and Roman Heritages: Exploring Ancient Identities in Modern Britain (PI Richard Hingley, Durham Archaeology; CI2 Tom Yarrow, Durham Anthropology).
Current Students:
| Name | Degree | Thesis topic | Supervision type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mr Hiscock, Alex | PhD | Curating Intangible Online Heritage: The Case of the Antonine Wall and Roman Scotland (AHRC CDP). | Primary |
| Ms Booij, Hanneke | PhD | The past we inherit and the future we shape: Investigating sustainable and creative futures for heritage organisations with social purpose (AHRC CDA). | Secondary |
| Ms Cocks, Hannah | PhD | Beyond GDP: exploring value using discrete choice experiments for coastal heritage (AHRC CDP). | Secondary |
Currently accepting research student applications : Yes
Areas accepting Research Students in:
I am happy to supervise new PhD students in areas related to my specialties, which include:
- Digital heritage and digital museology
- Heritage transformations in big data ecologies
- Heritage and identity
- The politics of the past
- Heritage and social activism
- Heritage experiences and values
- Public archaeology
Publications
The list below is a subset of the information held on the University of Edinburgh PURE system, and includes selected Books, Articles and Chapters. For a full list, including details of other publication types (e.g. reviews), please see the Edinburgh Research Explorer page for Dr Chiara Bonacchi.
BOOKS & WHOLE ISSUES
Bonacchi, C. (2022) Heritage and Nationalism: Understanding Populism through Big Data. London: UCL Press. DOI: 10.14324/111.9781787358010.
Bonacchi, C. (Ed.) (2021) Heritage in a World of Big Data: re-thinking collecting practices, heritage values and activism. Special Issue of Big Data and Society.
Nucciotti, M., Bonacchi, C., Molducci, C. (Eds.) (2019). Archeologia Pubblica in Italia. Florence: Florence University Press.
Bonacchi, C., Petersson, B. (Eds) (2017). Digital Co-Production in Archaeology. Special Issue of Internet Archaeology 46.
Bonacchi, C. (ed.) 2012. Archaeology and Digital Communication. Towards Strategies of Public Engagement. London: Archetype Publications.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Bonacchi, C. (2021) Heritage Transformations. Editorial of Heritage in a World of Big Data: re-thinking collecting practices, heritage values and activism. Special Issue of Big Data and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211034302.
Bonacchi, C., Krzyzanska, M. (2021) Heritage tribalism in Big Data Societies: origin myths and antagonistic othering on Twitter. Big Data & Society 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211003310
Bonacchi, C., Lorenzon, M. (2021) Assessing the transforming social values of cities in the longue durée: a reflection on a Florence neighbourhood from the Middle Ages to the present, European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies, vol 11 (2021): 303-325.
Bonacchi, C., Krzyzanska, M. (2019) Digital research re-theorised: ontologies, epistemologies and ethics in a world of big data. International Journal of Cultural Heritage Studies 25(12): 1235-1247. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2019.1578989.
Bonacchi, C., Bevan, A., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A., Pett, D., Wexler, J. (2019) Participation in heritage crowdsourcing. Museum Management and Curatorship 34(2): 166-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2018.1559080.
Mac Sweeney, N. et al. (2019) Claiming the Classical: The Greco-Roman World in Contemporary Political Discourse. Council of University Classical Departments Bulletin 48(19). https://cucd.blogs.sas.ac.uk/files/2019/02/MAC-SWEENEY-ET-AL-Claiming-the-Classical.pdf.
Bonacchi, C. (2018) Public Archaeology cannot just ‘fly at dusk’: reality and complexities of generating public impact. Antiquity 92(366): 1659-1661. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.231.
Bonacchi, C., Altaweel, M. and Krzyzanska, M. (2018) The heritage of Brexit: Roles of the past in the construction of political identities through social media. Journal of Social Archaeology 18(2): 174-192. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605318759713.
Hingley, R., Bonacchi, C., and Sharpe, K. (2018) ‘Are you local?’ The ‘indigenous’ Iron Age and mobile Roman and post-Roman population: Then, now and in-between. Britannia 49: 283-302. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X18000016.
Bonacchi, C., Hingley, R., and Yarrow, T. (2016) Exploring Ancient Identities in Modern Britain. Archaeology International: 54-57. http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/ai.1909.
Bonacchi, C., Moshenska, G. (2015). A Critical Review of Digital Public Archaeology. Internet Archaeology 40. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.40.7.1.
Bonacchi, C., Bevan, A., Pett, D., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A. 2015. Crowd-funding Community Archaeology. Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage, 3(2): 184-198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/2051819615Z.00000000041.
Wexler, J., Bevan, A., Bonacchi, C, Keinan-Schoonbaert, A., Pett, D., Wilkin, N. 2015 Collective Re-Excavation and Lost Media from the Last Century of British Prehistoric Studies. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 2 (1): 126-142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jca.v2i1.27124.
Vannini, G., Nucciotti, M. and Bonacchi, C. (2014) Archeologia Pubblica e Archeologia Medievale [Public Archaeology and Medieval Archaeology]. Archeologia Medievale. Special Issue: Quarant’anni di Archeologia Medievale in Italia. La rivista, i temi, la teoria e i metodi, 2014: 183-195.
Bevan, A., Pett, D., Bonacchi, C., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A., Lombraña González, D., Sparks, R., Wexler, J. and Wilkin, N. (2014) Citizen Archaeologists. Online Collaborative Research about the Human Past. Human Computation (2014) 1:2:183-197. http://dx.doi.org/10.15346/hc.v1i2.9.
Bonacchi, C. (2014) Understanding the public experience of archaeology in the UK and Italy: a call for a ‘sociological movement’ in Public Archaeology. European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies 4 (2014): 377-400. http://www.postclassical.it/PCA_vol.4_files/PCA%204_Bonacchi.pdf.
Bonacchi, C. (2013) Audiences and values of archaeology on the small screen. Public Archaeology 12(2): 117-131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1465518713Z.00000000035.
Bonacchi, C. (2009) Archeologia pubblica in Italia. Origini e prospettive di un ‘nuovo’ settore disciplinare [Public Archaeology in Italy. Origins and Prospects for a ‘new’ disciplinary field]. Ricerche Storiche 2-3 (2009): 329-350.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Bonacchi, C., Hennessy, K., and Gaylor, B. (submitted, 2023) Creative engagements with heritage ethics in the age of the data deluge. In: A. Pantazatos, T. Ireland, J. Schofield and R. Zhang (Eds) The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Ethics. London: Routledge.
Bonacchi, C. (2022) Digital Public Archaeology. In: Noiret, S. and Tebeau, M. (Eds) Handbook of Digital Public History. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Bonacchi, C. (2020) Forward. In: William, H. and Clarke, P. (Eds) Digging into the Dark Ages: Early Medieval Public Archaeologies. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 173-180.
Bonacchi, C. (2019) Esperienza, Archeologia e Musei. In: M. Nucciotti, C. Bonacchi and C. Molducci (Eds) Archeologia Pubblica in Italia. Florence: Florence University Press, pp. 173-180.
Nucciotti, M., Bonacchi, C., Molducci, C. (2019) Introduzione. In: M. Nucciotti, C. Bonacchi and C. Molducci (Eds) Archeologia Pubblica in Italia. Florence: Florence University Press, pp. 9-13.
Nucciotti, M. and Bonacchi, C. (2019) Il Congresso di Archeologia Pubblica come progetto culturale nazionale. In: M. Nucciotti, C. Bonacchi and C. Molducci (Eds) Archeologia Pubblica in Italia. Florence: Florence University Press, pp. 15-31.
Bonacchi, C. (2017) Digital Media for Public Archaeology. In Moshenska, G. (ed.) Key Concepts in Public Archaeology. UCL Press, pp. 60-72. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/key-concepts-in-public-archaeology.
Wilkin, N., Bevan, A., Bonacchi, C., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A., Pett, D., Wexler, J. 2015. Crowd-sourcing the British Bronze Age: Initial experiences and results from the MicroPasts project. Proceedings of the Society for Museum Archaeologists Conference.
Bonacchi, C., Bevan, A., Pett, D., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A. (2015) Crowd- and Community-fuelled Archaeology. Early Results from the micropasts Project. In Giligny, F., Djindjian, F., Costa, L., Moscati, P. And Robert, S. Eds. CAA2014, 21st Century Archaeology. Concepts, Methods and Tools. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Paris. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 279-288.
Bonacchi, C. (2014) Archeologia Pubblica al Tempo della Crisi Economica [Public Archaeology at the Time of the Economic Crisis]. In Parello, M.C. and Rizzo, M.S. (eds) Proceedings of the Conference Archeologia Pubblica al Tempo della Crisi, 29-30 November 2013, Agrigento, Italy, pp. 19-23.
Bonacchi, C. (2012) Introduction. In Bonacchi, C. (ed.) Archaeology and Digital Communication. Towards Strategies of Public Engagement. London: Archetype Publications, pp. xi-xix.
Bonacchi, C., Furneaux, C. and Pett, D. (2012) Public Engagement Through Online TV Channels: A Way Forward For The Audiovisual Communication Of Archaeology? In Bonacchi, C. (ed.) Archaeology and Digital Communication. Towards Strategies of Public Engagement. London: Archetype, pp. 50-65.
Bonacchi, C. and Pett, D. (2012) Conclusions. In Bonacchi, C. (ed.) Archaeology and Digital Communication. Towards Strategies of Public Engagement. London: Archetype Publications, pp. 126-130.
Bonacchi, C. (2012) Dal progetto museologico allo studio sui visitatori. La mostra Da Petra a Shawbak: un caso di Archeologia Pubblica [From museological planning to visitor studies. The exhibition From Petra to Shawbak: a case of Public Archaeology]. In Vannini, G. and Nucciotti, M. (eds) Proceedings of the Conference La Transgiordania nei secoli XII-XIII e le frontiere del Mediterraneo medievale, 5-8 November 2008, Florence, Italy. Oxford: B.A.R., pp. 479-486.
Bonacchi, C. (2011) Dalla Public Archaeology all’archeologia Pubblica [From Public Archaeology to Archeologia Pubblica]. In Vannini, G. (ed.) Archeologia Pubblica in Toscana. Un Progetto e una Proposta. Florence: Florence University Press, pp. 103-112.
Bonacchi, C. (2009) La mostra: idea e struttura. Il progetto museologico [The exhibition: concept and articulation: The museological project]. In Vannini, G. and Nucciotti, M. (eds) Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una Frontiera. Catalogo. Florence: Giunti, pp. 36-46.