My name is Eleanor and I am in my final year of an English degree at the University of Nottingham.

I have taken modules throughout my degree that have allowed me to view illuminated manuscripts, such as a Middle English module, which has encouraged my passion for working with artefacts and in museums.

I also took part in a volunteering programme at John Rylands Library in Manchester that allowed me to access a working archive and work in their reading room, which was an invaluable opportunity for me.

My postgraduate plans include doing a Masters in Librarianship or Museum studies, which this experience and opportunity will be invaluable for.

I’m Christy, a third-year Archaeology student at the University of Nottingham.

I’m passionate about visual storytelling and diverse cultures. Through my studies, I’ve explored Roman culture through modules like City of Rome and Pompeii.

I created a Roman Bath escape room board game and an online exhibition titled The Dutch-Japanese Trade Relationship during the 17th and 18th Centuries, both earning first-class results.

I believe in the power of visualisation to make history accessible. Currently, I’m undertaking the Leicestershire Museum Collections Placement, co-curating objects and producing 3D models to explore queer narratives.

I’m also digitising archaeological archives for the Derbyshire HER project and volunteering with the Digital Transformations Hub 3D Photogrammetry project and First Aid, gaining research and technical skills.

My love for diverse cultures inspires me to learn languages like French and Japanese, broadening my understanding of different perspectives. I aspire to organise museum exhibitions to celebrate cultural diversity, connect audiences to history, and use innovative storytelling techniques.

My name is Kaitlen Elaine Wood and I am currently a postgraduate student in the International Media and Communication Studies MA.

I have just recently moved to Nottingham, England from the United States of America, where I received a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Science in Global Studies.

During my undergraduate studies, I was awarded two Certificates of Excellence in the Best Overall English Major and Most Outstanding Professional Writing and Rhetoric awards, as well as being a University Honours Scholar. 

In addition, I was president of the Mu Phi chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an international English honours society, and a student representative of the Dean’s Student Advisory Board of the College of Liberal Arts.

During my time at the University of Nottingham, as well as working alongside Culture Leicestershire, I am excited to continue enhancing my academic skills and adding new experiences in research, photogrammetry and 3D modelling, and digital media and marketing to aid in my furthered education and career endeavours.

I’m Eddie (He/They), a current third-year History of Art student at the University of Nottingham.

In my second year I completed the Work Placement Module with the National Justice Museum which broadened my knowledge of museum retail offers and gave me an insight into the heritage sector. This was a rewarding and interesting opportunity, helping to enhance my skills and prepare me for a successful career within the heritage sector. 

I am currently working on my dissertation looking at fifteenth-century images of witchcraft, focusing on the relationship between societal beliefs and the use of images. Whilst it is difficult, the experience and research involved are enjoyable and rewarding.

After I graduate, I would like to gain a post-graduate qualification to enable a career in archives and records management. 

My name is Kate Ratcliff, and I am currently in my second year of Ancient History at the University of Nottingham.

It is quite a time shift from the courses I took at A-Level – Politics, Modern History and Law – but the fundamental skill of argumentation developed over those years put me in good stead for this degree course. In my first year I achieved a solid overall First, with my highest grade being 90 for an essay on women’s freedom. 

I hope to fulfil my passion for continuous learning in a Heritage, Teaching, or Academic Career after University.

So far, I have been able to apply this zeal in volunteer work at my local National Brewery Museum, and by curating guided tours for my family on holidays, most recently involving key sites at Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum, and the National Archaeological Museum at Naples.

My name is Lily, and I am a final year student of History and East European Cultural Studies.

My academic interests lie in Medieval religious history which means I have a lot of experience telling people about niche historical subjects. My passion is making the past accessible and especially teaching others about how history is all around us.

I ran a club in high school where I gave presentations and tours about art history with the goal of educating my peers.

This project combines those passions for me and I'm glad to be helping Leicestershire Museum Collections become more accessible and spread the word about all the kinds of history their artefacts hold.

My name is Emily and I am currently in my second year studying Classical Civilisation.

During my time at University, I have previously volunteered in the Learning Leader’s programme where I delivered lessons on Classics to primary school students.

Alongside this, I am also currently working as a tutor to help students of all ages pass their GCSE’s. These experiences have greatly enhanced my skills in communication and making information accessible for a wide range of audiences.

Additionally, I have recently taken a module focusing on reception artefacts involving Greek myth, which has given me insight into methods of presenting history in different lights, a skill I wish to further in this placement with Leicestershire Museum Collections. 

My name is Conrad, and I am currently a second-year English student, expected to graduate in 2026.

Throughout my studies, I have pursued modules in Middle English and Old English, which reflect my passion for connecting history with literature and art. This interdisciplinary approach has deepened my appreciation for the ways in which cultural narratives shape our understanding of the past and present.

I was drawn to this placement because I am passionate about making arts and history accessible and engaging for diverse audiences.

In addition to my academic pursuits, I bring relevant professional experience from my time working with Emirates Leisure Retail, an international company. This role provided me with hands-on experience in marketing, event coordination, and communications, all of which I believe are valuable for this position.

My name is Bryony Reeves, a Masters student studying Classics.

I graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2024, with a first-class degree in Ancient history.

For my dissertations (undergraduate and postgraduate alike) I focus on underrepresented women in the ancient world, specifically women of the East.

Volunteering on this project has already given me the passion and inspiration of those within the culture sphere, something that I wish to share.

After my studies I aspire to become a curator, where I will apply the skills, I have learnt in both my volunteer role and degree.

I am a proactive, positive individual with experience in hospitality with more than five years of frontline customer service experience.

I am not afraid of hard work or taking the initiative - or cracking the occasional joke! 

My name is Aimee, I am a second-year History and Politics student hoping to go into either teaching or heritage.

I am most excited for the opportunity I have been given to engage with the history of the LGBTQ community and my own connection to it, as well as the chance to gain valuable experience within heritage in a way that is meaningful to me.

I am a third year English student at the University of Nottingham.

I am very interested in history and have previously helped with the University’s Vikings for Schools programme.

I hope to be able to use my passion to contribute to Leicestershire Museum Collections and learn something new!

My name is Julia, and I am currently in my final year of my French and Russian degree.

I have just returned from my year abroad where I studied Russian in Estonia and worked as an English assistant in a French Lycee.

I am currently doing my dissertation on Soviet cinema.

My name is Arwyn, and I am currently in my first year of an English with Creative Writing degree at the University of Nottingham.

Though only a few short months into my university experience, I have already been offered many unique and educational experiences, such as taking part in this placement with Leicestershire County Council, which I am very proud to have been selected for.

I am a third year Philosophy and Psychology student, working on the CRDE Leicestershire Museum Collections project.

Spanning the collection, research, 3D-production and marketing of my seelcted object, I am excited to work on all-pervasive aspects involved in making Leicestershire’s archives more available to the public. I am particularly interested in how we assimilate parts of our identity with ordinary objects, and what it means to access aspects of ourselves reminiscent in figures from the past. 

I worked at the University’s Digital Transformations Hub last year, turning local archives into public documents; I found this incredibly interesting and therapeutic. This new project allows me to go beyond just the processing of information, to doing the research behind the significance of objects and their narratives, and how to convey this.

In my day-to-day life, I love researching family history. This is namely via photo albums or letters, some from as early as the 1890s, alongside grandparents relaying mundane details about their childhood bedroom, or their Father’s first car.

These conversations strengthen my present relationships, as well as providing the most direct access into family identity. In this way, I like to engage in the more personable aspects of history - the areas that families or groups converge on, and what this means. 

My name is Ziying Tang. I'm an international student from China studying International Media and Communications at University of Nottingham.

I'm currently on placement with Leicestershire County Council and University of Nottingham, where I'm expanding my skills in digital tools and exploring the intersection of technology and cultural heritage.

With a keen interest in cultural heritage, I'm passionate about exploring how technology can enhance our understanding of local communities and histories. I'm excited about learning how technology can support knowledge sharing and community engagement, and I'm looking forward to applying these experiences to future projects.

My name is Isabel Ilett and I am a second year Music and Music Technology student who had the opportunity to work on the 3D Photogrammetry Project as part of the Digital Transformations Hub over the past academic year.

This placement contributed to my Nottingham Advantage Award and provided me with an insight into using different software and technological equipment to create 3D models of artifacts donated from Lakeside Museum as well as Leicestershire Museum Collections. 

Being able to digitise these objects through hundreds of captured photographs from different angles was an intriguing concept to me, and something I am interested in learning more about in the future.

Hi, I'm Dan, a third-year undergraduate student studying Ancient History at the University of Nottingham.

I have been volunteering for 2 years and having the opportunity to work with Leicestershire County Council on this project has been a really fulfilling experience, filled with trials and tribulations that culminated in satisfying successes.

I particularly enjoyed working on the butterflies for the Villiers Revealed Virtual Exhibition and hope you enjoy them too! 

I hope to continue working in and around the heritage sector as I move on to my post-graduate life, as there really is nothing quite like it.

Esther Shaw is part of Culture Leicestershire (CuL)’s participation team and works with communities to promote well-being through connecting and sharing culture and heritage.

As part of CuL’s audience development strategy, Esther has worked with faith groups at Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre and Charnwood Museum, co-curating exhibitions and developing meaningful and lasting relationships with underserved audiences.

Esther felt inspired to explore LGBTQ+ hidden histories after meeting the curator E J Scott and visiting the Museum of Transology in Brighton.

Esther loves visiting museums and is fascinated by the power of objects, pictures and sounds to prompt people’s stories.

As Senior Curator for Leicestershire County Council’s Museums, Alison Clague makes the collections in Leicestershire Museums care accessible through research, exhibitions, web content and social media.

Alison loves sharing Leicestershire Museums' wonderful objects and the stories they can inspire with diverse local communities across the county.

Alison's team works with volunteers, community groups and higher education providers to spark inspiration and promote a sense of place.

In the past year (2023), Alison has co-ordinated the redisplay of the Hallaton Helmet and worked on the development of Leicestershire Museums Collections LGBTQ+ strand.

Pippa Vidal Davies is the Volunteering Manager at Culture Leicestershire.

Pippa has spent over 20 years championing the incredible power of volunteers in cultural spaces across the East Midlands and abroad, all sparked by her first volunteering adventure at age 12, restoring an 18th-century naval hospital.

Together with the Culture Leicestershire team, she creates opportunities for people to be the givers and recipients of transformative experiences through volunteering.

If you would like to find out more about the volunteering opportunities on offer at Culture Leicestershire, from regular, longer-term volunteering to micro-challenges that only take minutes, please check our volunteering page: https://www.cultureleicestershire.co.uk/volunteering/ 

I’m a Community Participation Worker at Culture Leicestershire, with 20 years of experience in the museum sector.

I’m passionate about connecting with people and creating meaningful cultural experiences.

One of my proudest achievements was leading the Do You See What I See? project, culminating in the Charnwood Community Curators exhibition—a co-curated experience developed alongside underserved audiences.

I’m supporting my colleagues on Villiers Revealed, an LGBTQ+ project exploring hidden histories.

I believe in the power of museums to inspire, connect, and give voice to everyone’s story, and I strive to make culture accessible and relevant for all.

Amanda’s passion is co-creating with communities whose voices, stories and connections are not fully represented or shared in cultural sites, assets and services.

Amanda has been a specialist in this area for over 25 years. She is passionate about exploring and sharing how cultural empowerment can change lives. When travelling the world for 6 years she made it her mission to establish meaningful cultural projects in at least every continent. These ranged from building new orphanages in Cambodia, using digital technology to support the recording of tribal languages with Aboriginal elders in Australia, working with families with HIV and AIDS in Ethiopia, supporting Tibetan refugees in India and Palestinian refugees in Beirut.

Recent projects Amanda has led on with Culture Leicestershire include Black Lives Matter Too!, 50 years of Ugandan Asian’s in the UK, Exploring Memories of Migration through objects, and Home Is Where We Are!-Gypsy and Traveller Voices.

Amanda is proud of leading on the successful Arts Council National Portfolio organisation bid for Culture Leicestershire 2023-26. This inspired a unique partnership with the University of Nottingham and Creative Leicestershire to lay the foundation for developing the first co-created Cultural Strategy for the Council.

Amanda acts as Chairperson for the East Midland’s Heritage Volunteering Group and leads on National Heritage Volunteer Leader of The Year Awards.

Richard Knox has worked across Leicestershire Museums for 34 years as an archaeologist and as a site manager. 

Richard's biggest achievements were the redisplay of Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre and of the 1620s House and Garden at Donington le Heath.

Richard now leads a small team, working with Culture Leicestershire colleagues and external partners to ensure that Leicestershire Museums' permanent and temporary exhibition interpretation and formal and informal learning activities on offer, across the five Museum and Heritage sites, are relevant, interesting, accurate and accessible to all.

Richard and his team also work with research volunteers to ensure they are able to represent their communities in Leicestershire Museums'  programme.

I started off my career as a microbiologist, and my PhD at the University of Southampton involved a multidisciplinary approach, applying ecological population theory to bacterial biofilms. 

After a change of career, I am now working as the Laboratory Manager for the Archaeology Labs at the University of Nottingham. 

I love creating 3D models using the Labs' 3D scanners and carrying out X-rays of metal and bone items using our X-ray cabinet. 

I am also enjoying learning how to use and analyse spectra that we create with our pXRF machine.

Vicki has worked in the School of Humanities Marketing and Events team for 10 years, for eight years as the team leader.

Before that, she worked as a freelance sub-editor, mainly with the weekly trade magazine The Bookseller.

Prior to that, she worked in a printing firm doing page layout and design.

Matt manages the University of Nottingham’s Digital Transformation Hub in the Faculty of Arts.

He provides access and support for staff and students who wish to use the Hub’s equipment and software to enhance their teaching and research with digital content.

He also provides advice and runs workshops on the creation, manipulation and use of digital media in teaching, research and heritage projects. 

Matt annually recruits and mentors a team of student volunteers who work on real world arts and heritage digitisation projects organized and supervised in collaboration with academic staff and external partners.

He also manages two scholarship postgraduate Research Associates, who provide support for student projects and users of the Hub.

Student volunteers gain invaluable digital skills and work experience which supplement their studies and enhance their CVs.

Daniel H. Mutibwa teaches in the areas of:

• the political economy of the media, cultural, creative, heritage, and digital economy industries;
• innovative community-led approaches to placemaking;
• community-based participatory practice;
• information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D);
• critical digital media studies
• science and technology studies;
• and academic-policy engagement across the above-named areas.

He is the author of Cultural Protest in Journalism, Documentary Films and the Arts (2019) and co-editor of Communities, Archives and New

Collaborative Practices (2020) and Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture (2025).

See Daniel's full profile