RESEARCH

The Suffolk Centre for Culture and Heritage

Close-up of metal letterpress printing blocks

“Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations.” — UNESCO

What we do

Developing interdisciplinary creative communities and practices, through research and knowledge exchange, exploring the value of culture and heritage in all our lives.

  • Creative Health
  • Creative Cultures
  • Creative Industries
  • Creative Heritage
  • Creative Lives

We connect people through inclusive creative practices, critical research and collaboration that offers potential for belonging, renewed understandings of ourselves and others, aiming for positive change. 

Vision 

We believe heritage lives in the everyday — in landscapes, languages, creative expressions and collective memory. Through curiosity driven approaches to society and creativity, history and humanities, AI, digital and creative industries, we not only preserve but transform heritage into new forms that speak to contemporary life. Whether you’re a student,  academic researcher, artist, community partner, or policymaker — the Suffolk Centre for Culture and Heritage is a welcoming place to build our cultural futures.

Find out more about the Centre for Culture and Heritage

Events

Upcoming events within the Centre for Culture and Heritage.

Find out more
Aerial view of four cyclists

"The expertise of the supervisors and their interest in the students and their work is second to none."
Current PhD Students

Name: Anne McGee
Subject: History
Working Title: The reality and representation of female criminality in rural Suffolk between 1780 and 1820

Name: Amanda Markwell
Subject: History
Working Title: “Such methods of barbarism” An exploration of the violence towards women during the British campaign for women’s suffrage, 1906-1915

Name: Jayd Green
Subject: Creative Writing
Working Title: The Stranger Sea: a novel.  A Rewilding of Nature Writing in the context of eco-criticism and environmental activism

Name: Muriel Moore-Smith
Subject: Creative Writing
Working Title: H’s Code, a. novel. A creative re-assembly of a hidden life. Writing Historical Fiction and Family Memory. 

Name: Richard Glass
Subject: History
Working Title: Suffolk Agrarian Change 1840 - 1875

Name: Kavari Woodward
Subject: Creative Writing
Working Title: A Memoir of Marginalisation and Exclusion: Exploring the Quest for Identity and Belonging Within my Bi-Racial Family

Name: Molly Britton
Subject: Creative Writing
Working Title: The Muse of Vienna, a novel: Seeking truth in biographical research

Name: Adetomiwa (Tommy) Ademuyiwa
Subject: English/Linguistics
Working Title: Language Acquisition and Learning amongst students with special educational needs towards achieving academic excellence. A case study of Federal College of Education, Oyo, Nigeria

Name: David Stone
Subject: Art and Creative Writing
Working Title: Ghosts in the Landscape: Commemorating the Forgotten: developing art practice and creative writing to investigate the realism both forms seek to reach.

Name: Michelle Pocock
Subject: Art with Creative Writing
Working Title: A phenomenological exploration of the lived experience of long-term illness as a transformative process in memoir and photography

Name: Laura May
Subject: Creative Writing
Working Title: No Expectations: how visual images can act as a catalyst for creation and build a body of ekphrastic poetry

Name: Charlotte Yule
Subject: English Literature
Working Title: Great Women’s Houses: Building Becoming in the Lives and Works of Woolf, Du Maurier, Christie and Winn

Name: Loretta MacInnes
Subject: Creative Writing
Working Title: Fractured: A multi-dimensional memoir of the impact of a rare disease diagnosis on a family

Name: Caroline Roberts
Subject: English Literature
Working Title: Peril in the House: Investigating motherhood in the works of Agatha Christie

Name: Sarah Waterson

Subject: Creative Writing

Working Title: Doublethink A thriller and a redemptive morality tale

Student Quotes

University of Suffolk is large enough to have a diverse and stimulating creative writing community yet small enough to be personal.
My supervisions have been insightful and encouraging, thus giving me the necessary support to produce the best of work of which I am capable.
You need to be passionate about your creative ambition but prepared to see it become very different from what you originally intended.
Having the supervisor who is right for you is crucial. I have been fortunate to have someone so engaged with what I'm doing: challenging, rigorous, encouraging, and endlessly supportive.
I have met other students whose writing and vision I really admire.

  • Gill Lowe – Visiting Fellow in English
  • Ashley Hickson-Lovence – Visiting Fellow in Creative Writing
  • Jamie Bernthal-Hooker – Visiting Fellow in English and Creative Writing
  • Cristian Ilbury – Visiting Fellow in Linguistics
  • Kath Cockshaw MA FRSA - Visiting Fellow at The Suffolk Centre for Culture and Heritage

Our People

Dr Amanda Hodgkinson

Amanda is an award-winning internationally published novelist, journalist and writer.

Amanda Hodgkinson staff profile photo

Dr Michael Sauter

Michael is Associate Professor of History and an historian of early modern Europe, with specialisations in intellectual history and the history of science.

Michael Sauter staff profile photo

Dr Lindsey Scott

Lindsey is Course Leader for MA Creative and Critical Writing and award-winning lecturer specialising in children’s literature and adaptation.

Lindsey Scott profile photo on yellow background

Dr Susan Barnet

Originally from Los Angeles, Susan works across multiple media and has an MFA in film from the California Institute of the Arts.

Susan Barnet 1

Aishani Jayasinghe

Aishani is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture and a practising architect of 20 years. Originally from Sri Lanka, she has a portfolio of more than 150 projects.

Aishani Jayasinghe

Dr Matthew Bowman

Dr Bowman is a widely-published art critic and historian. His research focuses on twentieth century and contemporary art, criticism, photography and more.

Matthew Bowman staff profile photo

Dr Andrea Smith

Andrea is Lecturer in English and Creative Writing. Her career prior to joining the University included working for two Suffolk newspapers and the BBC.

Andrea Smith staff profile photo

Dr Louise Carter

Louise is a Lecturer in History, whose interests include gender in Georgian society, early-modern witch hunts and the impact of war on childhood.

Louise Carter staff profile photo

Nigel Ball

Nigel Ball joined the University of Suffolk in 2007 and is a Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design and Head of Arts.

Dr Jenny Amos

Dr Jenny Amos is a socio-phonologist who specialises in modelling dialect variation, lecturing in Linguistics at the University of Suffolk.

Jenny Amos staff profile photo

Dr Vivienne Aldous

History lecturer Vivienne Aldous spent more than 20 years as a professional archivist and brings practical archival research experience to the University.

Dr Darragh Martin

Darragh is Course Leader, BA (Hons) English and writes novels, plays, and stories for children.

Darragh Martin staff profile photo

Dr Harvey Osborne

Harvey is Course Leader for History at the University of Suffolk and a historian of modern Britain.

Harvey Osborne staff profile photo

Dr Nicola Foster

Nicola is an Associate Professor in Visual Arts.

Nicola Foster staff profile photo

Dr Mark Edwards

Dr. Mark Edwards is a renowned practitioner and academic with his work exhibited in major photographic collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).

Mark Edwards staff profile photo

Dr Marco Spada

Urban planner and architect Marco specialises in urban narrativity, sustainability and circular economy, as well as the steel industry in developments.

Marco Spada staff profile photo
The entrance to The Hold
Suffolk Reflections books