Heritage Pathway is a series of training and engagement activities which run termly. Since 2015, Heritage Pathway has provided undergraduate and postgraduate students, along with Early Career Researchers at the University of Oxford with the skills, knowledge and confidence to engage effectively with a wide range of partners in the heritage, museums and cultural sector.
Heritage Pathway is designed and delivered by Alice Purkiss and Dr Rachel Delman and organised through the Humanities Researcher Training and Development Programme.
Through a combination of lectures, workshops and site visits led by expert practitioners, participants understand their research in a wider context and gain experience in the heritage, museums and cultural sector. Heritage Pathway opens up new avenues for careers and collaborations, while reinforcing researchers’ ability to complete their research projects and academic tasks in a timely fashion.
Heritage Pathway enables participants to:
• Understand the opportunities and constraints within each sector of heritage.
• Understand the different language and vocabulary required to create successful collaborations.
• Explore how their research experience and expertise can contribute to organisations.
• Develop the skills and confidence to create collaborative research-led projects.
• Join a cohort of like-minded undergraduates, postgraduates and early career researchers.
• Develop and enhance networking abilities with internal and external colleagues.
Previous sessions have explored themes including:
• Heritage and its Audiences
• Case Studies in Collaboration: Digital Projects
• Researching, Curating and Interpreting Collections
• Careers in the Heritage and Museums Sectors
• CVs and Cover Letters for the Heritage Sector
• Commercial Heritage
• Cataloguing and Digital Projects
• Cataloguing and Spectrum Standards
• Interpretation
• Diversifying Heritage
• Communicating Heritage
• Working with Objects
• Heritage and Landscape
• Heritage and Authenticity
Site visits always include opportunities to meet with senior leaders and managers to discuss the ways in which research and the day-to-day and strategic concerns of sites and organisations intersect. Previous visits include: Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, Black Country Living Museum, and Charleston Farmhouse.
For further information please contact training@humanities.ox.ac.uk.
Heritage Events Trinity 2026
AI and the Future of Everyday Heritage
Wednesday 20th May, 11am - 1pm, Seminar Room 00.056, The Schwarzman Centre
Artificial Intelligence is now part of day-to-day practice across the UK heritage sector, from heritage and collections management and research, to visitor experience, and general business operations. Many organisations are thinking about whether to, how and when to use AI, and how to plan and resource it effectively and ethically.
This session will focus on innovation in the sector through a case study of Leeds Castle’s Pilgrimage of Love: Eleanor of Castile exhibition, which culminates in the Castle's Chapel with 'An Audience with a Queen', an interactive, environment-aware AI avatar of Eleanor of Castile that responds to visitors in real time. In the session, we will hear how the curatorial, operational and technical elements of the project interact and explore the decisions underpinning the experience. In particular, how openness about limitations, recording and risk supports trust and empowers visitors.
During the session we will consider:
- How heritage organisations are using AI across collections, visitor experience and organisational operations, and what that means for “everyday” heritage practice.
- What transparency needs to look like in visitor-facing AI, including what the system knows, what is and is not recorded, and how uncertainty is handled.
- How to manage the tension between accuracy and conversational ability, including the risks of misinformation and false authority in AI-generated answers.
- How the Heritage sector is engaging with skills, training and confidence gaps
- How authenticity, risk and co-production can be used as practical frameworks for responsible innovation, including community partnership as a strategy for risk mitigation.
Speaker: Dr Dominique Bouchard, Heritage and Engagement Director, Leeds Castle
Lunch will be provided. Please note dietary requirements during the booking process.
Book your place: AI and the Future of Everyday Heritage
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Connecting Communities: Engaging local audiences with Oxford’s Gardens, Libraries
Wednesday 3rd June, 11am - 1pm, Seminar Room 00.056, The Schwarzman Centre
This week’s specialist speaker will introduce the work of Oxford’s GLAM – Gardens, Libraries and Museums – and the ways in which they are working together to better understand, involve and serve audiences across Oxford and beyond through innovative partnerships at local, regional and national levels.
Speaker: Tom Freshwater, Head of Audience and Engagement Support, GLAM
Lunch will be provided. Please note your dietary requirements during the booking process.
Book your place: Engaging local audiences with Oxford’ Gardens, Libraries
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Heritage Pathway Trip: Stratford-Upon-Avon
Wednesday 17th June, all day
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) is the independent charity that cares for the world’s greatest Shakespeare heritage sites in Stratford-upon-Avon, and promotes the enjoyment and understanding of his works, life and times all over the world.
For our Trinity Term Heritage Pathway trip, we’ll visit Stratford and hear from SBT staff about how they engage audiences with Shakespeare’s legacy across a complex, multi-site operation in busy market town today.
Bookings will open soon.
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