Miss Alina Botezatu

Since October 2022 I have been working on a collaborative PhD with Historic Environment Scotland, funded by AHRC via the Scottish Cultural Consortium. The focus of the project is on the Trinity House, a property in the care of Historic Environment Scotland on behalf of Scottish Ministers. The building and its collection are associated with the long history of the Incorporation of Mariners and Shipmasters of Leith, the port serving the capital of Edinburgh.

I am developing a mixed methods approach aiming to reveal the hidden stories, values and lives of Trinity House and its collection. Through this detailed case study I will propose an integrated, critical approach that can be applied to other built heritage sites with portable collections.

I have a wide range of research interests related to the heritage and museum fields, with predilection for cross-disciplinary, integrative approaches. Prior to my PhD, I have completed the MSc Heritage and the BA Heritage and Tourism at the University of Stirling. In my undergraduate dissertation I have investigated the biography of St Fillan’s relics, connecting them to sacred heritage sites and landscapes, as well as following their lives through museum collecting and display. With my MSc dissertation I focused on the role of public places (‘commons’) and their heritage in negotiating diverse identities, memories and senses of place.

Critical Heritage Studies, Museum Studies, Material Culture Studies