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Impact

Members of our Collective are committed to the University of Manchester’s Social Responsibility mission to help shape a fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable world. Our research tackles major global challenges like social and health inequities, whilst also protecting culture and heritage through our collaborations with museums, heritage organisations, charities, and community organisations. We work with partners locally, nationally and globally to magnify underrepresented voices and to create meaningful social impact.

Historical Healing

Members of our collective have delivered a wide range of public workshops and events, educational materials and activities, and heritage trails focused on health and wellbeing that use historical remaking methods and research on early modern (1500-1750) health care practices to tackle health inequities with heritage partners across the UK. This work has enriched the physical infrastructure and interpretation of heritage sites and expanded the historical knowledge and skills of heritage staff and volunteers. It has also influenced the work of regional health policymakers and practitioners. Our partners include Ham House, Little Moreton Hall and Tudor Merchants House (National Trust), Ordsall Hall (Salford Community Leisure), Oakwell Hall and Country Park (Kirklees Council), and Delapré Abbey (West Northamptonshire Council), Manchester Museum and the John Rylands Library. 

Highlights of this work include ‘Sleeping Well at Ordsall Hall‘.

Mortality and Bereavement

Our research uses archaeology and prehistoric burial practices to address contemporary issues around death, bereavement and loss. We have delivered educational resources for primary school children and teachers that address topics relating to death, dying and bereavement to open up healthy conversations about death and to increase wellbeing and people’s connections to place. Our work on cultures of bereavement has also supported the work of charities, museums, and heritage sites across the UK, as has influenced the work of educational policymakers.

Museums and Exhibitions

As experts in historical material culture, our members have curated and contributed to a wide range of high-profile national and international exhibitions and associated lectures and events, as well as conducting practice-based research with museum curators, and influencing collections records, object analysis, and conservation policies. Highlights of our exhibition and digital archive work includes:

 

Chariots, Treasure & Power: Secrets of the Melsonby Hoard, Yorkshire Museum (2026-2027)

Albrecht Dürer’s Material Renaissance, Arts West Gallery, Melbourne (2024)

Albrecht Dürer’s Material World (2023-24)

Nürnberg Global 1300-1600, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (2025-26)

Executions, Museum of London Docklands (2022-2023)

Iron Age Shield Exhibition, Malton Museum (2023)

Grave Goods: Objects and Death in Later Prehistoric Britain (2016-2021)

Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael and the Image Multiplied (2016-17)

Magic, Witches and Devils in the Early Modern World, John Rylands Library (2016)

 

 

Our research has also enriched the collections records and activities of National Museums Scotland, the Museum of London, The Whitworth, the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, the John Rylands Library, the National Museum of Wales, Oriel Mon Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Yorkshire Museum.

Public Events

Our members organise and appear at a variety of public events to share their research and to collaborate with external partners. Some highlights include:

 

Media Appearances

Members of our collective regularly appear on TV, radio, on podcasts, and in news media to discuss their research findings. This work helps to increase public knowledge of historical and archaeological artefacts, and narratives. Highlights of recent work includes:

 

Dr Rachel Winchcombe, ‘Jamestown: from Colony to Cannibalism’, Not Just the Tudors

Prof. Sasha Handley, ‘Tudor Sleep Lessons’, Life Lessons from History

Prof. Mel Giles, ‘After Ancients’, History Hit

Prof. Mel Giles, ‘Bog Bodies’, History Hit

Contact

For further information about our engagement and impact work, or to explore a new collaboration, please email: sasha.handley@manchester.ac.uk

The University of Manchester