Susan Ashley

Research interests

My current research has two major themes, both aimed at the democratisation of public culture; promoting social equality by challenging and improving cultural institutional practices, and contributing to social justice in relation to challenges of neoliberalism, globalisation and migration. My recent funding awards in the UK and Canada have contributed to this research. Themes are:

• Critically examining the theoretical and political underpinnings of the concept of ‘heritage’ and its impacts on public culture as institutionalised and as performed.

• Understanding, through collaborative research methodologies, the ways that black and ethnic minorities make sense of and assert their ideas about heritage, identity and belonging within national narratives and social conditions.