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Meet Professor Annie Tindley, a historian using archival research usually related to aristocratic individuals and landed estates

Archival research methods utilise unique primary source documents from archives and special collections. Such sources can include a broad range of materials including manuscripts, unpublished letters, photographs, maps, rare books, illustrations and digital texts. Archival sources are often held in repositories and are increasingly being made available online through digitisation techniques, an issue which has seen increased prevalence in the light of COVID.

Traditionally, archival research methods are applied in a range of fields that involve the study of historical documents such as English Literature, History and Classics, however they are increasingly used by scholars engaged in non-historical investigations on contemporary issues. Archival methods are informed by a number of research philosophies including modernist, postmodernist and feminist approaches, and there is an increasing body of literature around the ethics of archival research.

The Humanities Research Institute and the Institute for Creative Arts Practice host a range of experts in archival research design and methodologies and you can find more information in ‘People’ below.

Newcastle University has an extensive collection of archival material available to access by staff and students. You can find a guide to the Philip Robinson Library’s special collections and archives here.

People 

• Professor Annie Tindley, Professor of British and Irish Rural History 
• Dr Areti Galani, Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultural Heritage and Degree Programme Director 
• Dr Charlotte Veal, Postdoctoral Fellow in Landscape 
• Dr Emma Whipday, Lecturer, School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics 
• Professor Graham Smith, Professor of Oral History
  
• Ian Johnso, Head of Special Collections and Archives 
• Dr James Cummings, Senior Lecturer in Late Medieval English Literature and Digital Humanities 
• Professor Jennifer Richards, Joseph Cowen Professor of English Literature and Director of the Humanities Research Institute 
• Professor Natasha Mauthner, Professor of Social Science Philosophy and Method and Director of Research at NUBS 
• Professor Richard Talbort, Director, Institute of Creative Arts Practice, Professor of Contemporary Drawing and MFA Course Leader
• Professor Sinéad Morrissey, Professor of Creative Writing 

Courses