Pararchive Primary Investigator: Simon Popple, Deputy Head of the School of Media and Communication (SMC), University of Leeds 

Simon is lead investigator on the Pararchive project. He has become increasingly interested in the role that digital archives can play in terms of empowerment and capacity building within the communities they represent.  Over a number of projects he has explored the potential for using archival sources and structures as a basis for creative practice and digital storytelling. He is also interested in the potential for these activities to take place in ‘open space’ – beyond the context of the institution. He has worked with the BBC and AHRC on two previous projects dealing with the BBC’s archive of the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike and worked with mining and police communities to examine how they could use the archive to make sense of their experiences and tell their stories in relation to these sources and representations. The second project resulted in the creation of public story films about the strike and formed the inspiration for the current Pararchive project.

Stephen Coleman, Professor of Political Communication, SMC

Stephen is Professor of Political Communication at the University of Leeds, Honorary Professor in Political Science at the University of Copenhagen and Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.  His main research interests are i) methods of political engagement; ii) uses of digital media in representative democracies; iii) intersections between popular culture and formal politics; iv) political efficacy; v) citizenship education; vi) political aesthetics, performance and rhetoric; viii) literary and dramatic representations of politics; and ix) forms of deliberation and decision-making.

Helen Graham, University Research Fellow; Director, Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries and Heritage

Before starting to work at Leeds, Helen moved between roles and fellowships in Museums (Museums Sheffield, Glasgow Museums, National Maritime Museum, Smithsonian Institution) and Universities (The Open University; Newcastle University) – but in each case has focused on the theories and practices of collaborative research and museology.  She is currently working on two AHRC-funded projects, both linked to the Connected Communities programme. The first is Ways of Knowing which draws together a fantastic research team to reflexively experiment with common methodologies of collaborative, participative and action research as a way of exploring the kinds of knowledges they make possible.  The second is a Co-Design Development Grant linked to the Connected Communities programme and called ‘How should decisions about heritage be made?’. A team, with members from community heritage groups, museums, funders and universities, are working together to design the research project which we will then carry out over the following year.

Daniel Mutibwa, Pararchive Research Fellow, SMC

Daniel is attached to Arduino, Manchester and The Ceramic City Stories Group, Stoke-on-Trent. Daniel has studied, taught and researched in the School of Media and Communication where he obtained his PhD in Media and Communications Studies. Daniel’s doctoral thesis explored changing imperatives in the organisation and production of news, documentary film and arts and cultural programming outside mainstream public service and commercial media corporations in what he termed contemporary third sector media and cultural industries. The thesis was based on ethnographic field research at fifteen selected case study companies in Britain and Germany. Daniel’s research interests have since broadened to incorporate emerging innovative business models and growth aspirations of creative SMEs/micro-businesses in the media and creative/cultural industries, the relationship between creative/cultural industries and the physical environment, co-produced research/community-led research/community-based participatory research in a range of realms (e.g., digital spaces and open access-related issues like copyright and ownership, education, health and wellbeing, heritage and regeneration, social care and social welfare), and third sector research, particularly the role of social enterprise and social innovation. More about Daniel’s work can be viewed here.

Fiona Philip, Pararchive Research Fellow, SMC

Fiona is attached to Bokeh_Yeah! Manchester and Brandanii Archaeology and Heritage, Bute.  Fiona has taught at the University of Leeds for five years over a range of fields (gender studies, communications and film studies, and cultural history).  She is interested in using archives to tell different stories (her PhD drew on the Bryher and HD Papers at the Beinecke Library, Yale to re-consider the life and literary and cinematic works of the little-known modernist impresario, Bryher (1894-1983).  Thanks to her previous role on the SMC-based Communicating Copyright Project, Fiona also brings an interest in copyright, and the associated dilemmas and opportunities that Pararchive offers.  Fiona also runs Quair Books.

Andy Turner, Deputy Director of the Centre for Computational Geography (CCG), School of Geography

Andy provides expertise on geographical, linked and open data to the Pararchive project. Andy has always been fascinated with maps, especially mathematical maps and abstract maps developed to represent reality. Andy began his CCG research career in 1997 attempting to forecast the future and develop systems to mitigate risk. In recent years Andy’s research has focused on dynamic simulation and modelling people and society at individual and organisational levels at large scales and high resolutions challenging the capability of the largest computers. Trained in the interdisciplinary setting of the UK e-Science program from 2005, Andy developed a diverse set of interests and looks forward to applying his specialist skills and experience of collaboration and creative linking in the Pararchive project.