This Loughborough Urban Heritage Doctoral Colloquium brought together four doctoral researchers from Loughborough University’s School of Design and Creative Arts to share their insights into urban heritage. Their research topics are outlined as follows.
Pegah Aftabi (Year three) · ‘Urban heritage’ is a concept used across a variety of fields; yet it extends far beyond expert-defined, monument-centric structures. Urban heritage is a present-centred, continuously evolving phenomenon defined by everyday interactions between communities and their environments. My research adopts a participatory methodology to study urban heritage from the local communities’ perspective in Loughborough. The project ultimately aims to create a digital map of community-centred heritage, not only to preserve heritage but to empower communities to understand their role in, and take greater responsibility for, its preservation.
Greta Chen (Year two) · My research investigates how locative narratives can be co-created to support the understanding, representation and constitution of everyday heritage. Focusing on Loughborough Market as a pilot site, I designed and deployed cultural probes to collect narratives rooted in lived experiences conveying cultural-heritage significance. Analysis identified four themes: spatiality, temporality, sensoriality and social context, which inform a narrative framework for the next stage: an AI-assisted co-design process for locative media and a distributed and inclusive heritage experience in everyday environments to foster community connection.
Sheida Yazdan Joo (Year one) · Leicester’s urban heritage is shaped by migration, cultural diversity and its representation through visual media. My research examines how film and photography construct narratives of the city, drawing on archival materials and contemporary practices. Through analysing the visual contributions of immigrant communities, the study highlights the role of imagery in placemaking, collective memory and the interpretation of Leicester’s evolving cultural landscape. It aims to situate these representations within broader debates on urban identity and heritage.
Alison Mott (Year one) · My practice-based research explores how participatory and co-creative storytelling activities centred on a town’s industrial textile heritage can bring to light overlooked experiences, strengthen the historical record and foster an individual and collective sense of wellbeing. Through oral history collection, creative-writing activities and intergenerational workshops involving older residents and university textile-design students, I examine how personal narratives can be elicited and shared, generating new forms of heritage knowledge and reshaping perceptions of place and the built environment.
Programme
12:00 Arrive
12:10 Welcome
12:15 TOWN Observatory overview
Speakers
12:30 Pegah Aftabi – The local community perspective
12:45 Greta Chen – Everyday heritage
13:00 Alison Mott – Industrial textile heritage
13:15 Sheida Yazdan Joo – Migration and cultural diversity
13:30 Discussion
13:45 End