TheSchool of Natural and Built Environment comprises of the well-established disciplines of Architecture, Civil & StructuralEngineering, Geography, Planning, Archaeology & Palaeoecology.
Research is divided into Clusters that are broad rangingand encompassing. These clusters are:The Sustainable Built Environment, Environmental Change and Resilience, Cultureand Society.
About the Role
You will be joining a well-established research team who have a substantial record of publications and strive to help career development within their team. This team has strong international research links and collaborates regularly with international partners.
Under the guidance of Dr Wesley Flannery you will be joining a team of 8 others working on coastal heritage governance issues. Specifically, you will contribute to the exciting PERICLES project comprising a strong interdisciplinary consortium across seven European states encompassing over 15 different disciplines.
Cultural heritage is at risk through diverse drivers, such as climate change, non-cultural heritage sensitive economic and spatial development (e.g. mass tourism), and demographic
change (e.g. decline and agingin rural areas and lack of recruitment to sectors important to coastal and maritime cultural heritage such as inshore fisheries).
This project aims to develop effective mitigation options to ensure cultural heritage preservation by mapping, characterising and assessing the risks facing cultural heritage.
Cultural heritage is rooted in landscapes, seascapes, buildings, stories, traditions, language and cultural practices. It connects people to each other and to the past which helps guide the future through a socio-ecological connection. It has been postulated that the loss of cultural heritage can weaken people's societal attachments to place and to one another potentially increasing strife and a sense of anomie. The protection and advocacy for cultural heritage can strengthen identity and local community.
With calls for growth in different economic sectors, it is important for the project to make an explicit connection between the value of cultural heritage, the risks it faces and the benefits to developing a framework for its preservation to safeguard its enjoyment for future generation's in-turn providing relevant stakeholders(Governments) with sustainable governance for European maritime regions and seas.
You will undertake research and fieldwork focusing on project deliverables tasked to Queen's University Belfast through the PERICLES programme. It is expected you will travel to case study sites regionally, nationally and potentially at EU level so some flexibility will be required.
Candidate Information
For further information, please contact Dr Welsey Flannery, email: w.flannery@qub.ac.uk or telephone: 028 9097 4754