Dr Chiara Bonacchi

Lecturer in Heritage

History University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Contact details

ORCID 0000-0002-0872-0614

About me

Overview

BA, MA, PHD

After a BA in Archaeology and an MA in Medieval Archaeology from the University of Florence, I completed a PhD in Public Archaeology from the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Before joining Stirling, in April 2018, I worked as Post-Doctoral Research Associate and Co-Investigator Researcher at the University of Newcastle, Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London, and the UCL Institute of Archaeology.

I have designed, participated in and led a broad portfolio of collaborative research projects in the UK and internationally, focussing on the study of public perceptions and experience of the past, digital co-production and public engagement, data science and digital ethnographies in heritage studies, and heritage values. In Italy, I have spearheaded the set-up of public archaeology as a field of study, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Florence. I have advised and completed commissioned reports for arts and culture organisations and funding bodies in the UK and Europe. I have been invited to give keynote speeches, lectures and presentations around the world, in countries including the UK, Italy, Germany, Norway, Jordan, the US, Mexico and China.

External appointments and memberships

Member of the European Association of Archaeologists.
Member of the Association for Critical Heritage Studies.
Advisory Board member for AP: Online Journal in Public Archaeology.
Advisory Board member for the Italian Journal of Public Archaeology.
Public Archaeology Series Editor, Florence University Press.
Peer-reviewer for: European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies; Advances in Archaeological Practice; Archeologia Medievale; Public Archaeology; Presence; Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage; International Journal of Heritage Studies; Journal of Arts, Management, Law and Society; Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development; Curator: The Museum Journal; Journal of Material Culture; Antiquity; Open Archaeology; Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage.

Publication list

BOOKS & WHOLE ISSUES

Bonacchi, C. (accepted, publication in 2018). Co-Producing Knowledge Online. Connected Communities Foundation Series Reviews, UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Bonacchi, C., Petersson, B. (Eds) (2017). Digital Co-Production in Archaeology. Special Issue of Internet Archaeology 46.
Bonacchi, C. (ed.) 2012. Archaeology and Digital Communication. Towards Strategies of Public Engagement. London: Archetype Publications.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Bonacchi, C., Altaweel, M. and Krzyzanska, M. (2018) The heritage of Brexit: Roles of the past in the construction of political identities through social media. Journal of Social Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605318759713
Hingley, R., Bonacchi, C., and Sharpe, K. (2018) ‘Are you local?’ The ‘indigenous’ Iron Age and mobile Roman and post-Roman population: Then, now and in-between. Britannia. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X18000016.
Bonacchi, C., Hingley, R., and Yarrow, T. (2016) Exploring Ancient Identities in Modern Britain. Archaeology International: 54-57. http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/ai.1909.
Bonacchi, C., Moshenska, G. (2015). A Critical Review of Digital Public Archaeology. Internet Archaeology 40. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.40.7.1.
Bonacchi, C., Bevan, A., Pett, D., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A. 2015. Crowd-funding Community Archaeology. Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage, 3(2): 184-198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/2051819615Z.00000000041.
Wexler, J., Bevan, A., Bonacchi, C, Keinan-Schoonbaert, A., Pett, D., Wilkin, N. 2015 Collective Re-Excavation and Lost Media from the Last Century of British Prehistoric Studies. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 2 (1): 126-142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jca.v2i1.27124.
Vannini, G., Nucciotti, M. and Bonacchi, C. (2014) Archeologia Pubblica e Archeologia Medievale [Public Archaeology and Medieval Archaeology]. Archeologia Medievale. Special Issue: Quarant’anni di Archeologia Medievale in Italia. La rivista, i temi, la teoria e i metodi, 2014: 183-195.
Bevan, A., Pett, D., Bonacchi, C., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A., Lombraña González, D., Sparks, R., Wexler, J. and Wilkin, N. (2014) Citizen Archaeologists. Online Collaborative Research about the Human Past. Human Computation (2014) 1:2:183-197. http://dx.doi.org/10.15346/hc.v1i2.9.
Bonacchi, C. (2014) Understanding the public experience of archaeology in the UK and Italy: a call for a ‘sociological movement’ in Public Archaeology. European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies 4 (2014): 377-400.
Bonacchi, C. (2013) Audiences and values of archaeology on the small screen. Public Archaeology 12(2): 117-131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1465518713Z.00000000035.
Bonacchi, C. (2009) Archeologia pubblica in Italia. Origini e prospettive di un ‘nuovo’ settore disciplinare [Public Archaeology in Italy. Origins and Prospects for a ‘new’ disciplinary field]. Ricerche Storiche 2-3 (2009): 329-350.
Bonacchi, C. (2007) Il castello di Piteccio nell’alta valle dell’Ombrone e il fenomeno dell’incastellamento toscano (secoli XI-XIV) [The Castle of Piteccio in the High Valley of the River Ombrone and the phenomenon of castle settlement in Tuscany (cc.XI-XIV)]. Bullettino Storico Pistoiese. CIX (2007), pp. 59-86.

BOOK CHAPTERS

Bonacchi, C. (2017) Digital Media for Public Archaeology Research and Practice. In Moshenska, G. (ed.) Key Concepts in Public Archaeology. UCL Press.
Wilkin, N., Bevan, A., Bonacchi, C., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A., Pett, D., Wexler, J. 2015. Crowd-sourcing the British Bronze Age: Initial experiences and results from the MicroPasts project. Proceedings of the Society for Museum Archaeologists Conference.
Bonacchi, C., Bevan, A., Pett, D., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A. (2015) Crowd- and Community-fuelled Archaeology. Early Results from the micropasts Project. In Giligny, F., Djindjian, F., Costa, L., Moscati, P. And Robert, S. Eds. CAA2014, 21st Century Archaeology. Concepts, Methods and Tools. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Paris. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 279-288.
Bonacchi, C. (2014) Archeologia Pubblica al Tempo della Crisi Economica [Public Archaeology at the Time of the Economic Crisis]. In Parello, M.C. and Rizzo, M.S. (eds) Proceedings of the Conference Archeologia Pubblica al Tempo della Crisi, 29-30 November 2013, Agrigento, Italy, pp. 19-23.
Bonacchi, C. (2012) Introduction. In Bonacchi, C. (ed.) Archaeology and Digital Communication. Towards Strategies of Public Engagement. London: Archetype Publications, pp. xi-xix.
Bonacchi, C., Furneaux, C. and Pett, D. (2012) Public Engagement Through Online TV Channels: A Way Forward For The Audiovisual Communication Of Archaeology? In Bonacchi, C. (ed.) Archaeology and Digital Communication. Towards Strategies of Public Engagement. London: Archetype, pp. 50-65.
Bonacchi, C. and Pett, D. (2012) Conclusions. In Bonacchi, C. (ed.) Archaeology and Digital Communication. Towards Strategies of Public Engagement. London: Archetype Publications, pp. 126-130.
Bonacchi, C. (2011) Dalla Public Archaeology all’archeologia Pubblica [From Public Archaeology to Archeologia Pubblica]. In Vannini, G. (ed.) Archeologia Pubblica in Toscana. Un Progetto e una Proposta. Florence: Florence University Press, pp. 103-112.
Bonacchi, C. (2009) La mostra: idea e struttura. Il progetto museologico [The exhibition: concept and articulation: The museological project]. In Vannini, G. and Nucciotti, M. (eds) Da Petra a Shawbak. Archeologia di una Frontiera. Catalogo. Florence: Giunti, pp. 36-46.

EDITORIALS, REVIEWS & RESEARCH UPDATES

Bonacchi, C. (2017) Higher Education and the Creative Economy: Beyond the Campus. The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 47(3): 206-208. DOI:10.1080/10632921.2017.1303414.
Bonacchi, C. (2017) Museum websites & social media. Issues of participation, sustainability, trust and diversity. International Journal of Heritage Studies 23(3): 291-292. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2016.1232301.
Bonacchi, C. Petersson, B. (2017) Digital Co-production in Archaeology. Editorial. Internet Archaeology 46. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.46.1.
Griffith, S., Bonacchi, C., Moshenska, G, Richardson, L. (2015) Editorial. Internet Archaeology.
Bonacchi, C., Bevan, A., Pett, D., Keinan-Schoonbaert, A., Sparks, R., Wexler, J. and Wilkin, N. (2014) Crowd-sourced Archaeological Research. The MicroPasts Project. Archaeology International 17: 61-68. http://doi.org/10.5334/ai.1705.
Burtenshaw, P., Bonacchi, C. (2013) The 17th ICOMOS General Assembly Scientific Symposium ‘Heritage, Driver of Development’. Public Archaeology 12(4): 278-281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1465518714Z.00000000050.
Bonacchi, C. (2013) Review: The Development of Public Archaeology in Italy: A Review of Recent Efforts. Public Archaeology 12(3): 211-216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1465518714Z.00000000044.

REPORTS COMMISSIONED BY GOVERNMENTAL BODIES / HERITAGE INSTITUTIONS

Bonacchi, C. and Willocks, J. (2016) Realities and impacts of museum university partnerships in England. Final report for Arts Council England. https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publication/mupi_literature_review_and_research_report.pdf.
Bonacchi, C. and Galani, A. (2013) 'Culturally engaged? A people-centred approach to understanding digital cultural engagement on social media platforms. Report for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.

DIGITAL OUTPUTS & SOFTWARE

Bonacchi C, Krzyzanska M & Altaweel M (2018) Heritage-of-Brexit. Version: 1 [software]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5966818.v1
MicroPasts crowdsourcing website: http://micropasts.org
Ancient Identities Today project website: http://ancientidentities.org
Research software I have developed: https://github.com/ChiaraBonacchi
Part of the research software developed for Ancient Identities Today: https://github.com/IARHeritages
Research software developed for MicroPasts: https://github.com/MicroPasts

Research

Areas

Digital heritage and data science for heritage studies
Public archaeology
Public perceptions and experience of the past
Cultural participation
Heritage values, politics and identity
Medieval and early modern archaeology in the Mediterranean
Building archaeology and built heritage

Summary

My research started with a focus on medieval and public archaeology and progressively broadened to examine public perceptions and experiences of objects, places and practices from the past that are attributed cultural and social values today, online and offline. In my work, I have utilised interdisciplinary approaches and interpretative lenses drawn from archaeology, history, anthropology, sociology and internet studies.

My PhD in public archaeology explored the ways in which people in different personal, social, physical and socio-cultural contexts engage with archaeology as a discipline and with medieval pasts via museum visitation and television viewing. I then specialised in the conceptualisation, development and evaluation of digital cultural engagement via social media, crowd- and other web-based methods. More recently, I have been applying digital methods, both data-intensive and ethnographic, to study the legacies and contemporary values of ideas and materials from the pre-modern past of Europe. In this context, I have been exploring how the Iron Age to late medieval past is leveraged in political micro-activism on social media through the collection and analysis of big data.

I retain an interest in post-classical archaeology in the Mediterranean, building archaeology and built heritage that I am starting to pursue again both theoretically and empirically, after a break of a few years. In the past, I undertook fieldwork with roles of responsibilities in the areas of medieval and building archaeology and of public archaeology in Tuscany (Italy) and the Petra region (Jordan).

Research grants:

2018, Convenor (with Stuart Jeffrey and Melissa Terras) of R in Heritage Studies training workshop for PG students and heritage professionals, funded by Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (£1,800).
2017, PI on European Social Heritages: Pilot Study, funded buy the UCL Centre for Critical Heritage Studies (£1,959).
2016, PI on the ‘Digital Heritage ‘Big’ Data Hacking and Visualisation’ project, UCL Global Engagement Fund (£2,000), with £800 of additional sponsorship from the UCL Institute of Archaeology Heritage Section, the British Museum and the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. This was a collaboration between the UCL Institute of Archaeology, the British Museum, Harvard University, Michigan University and Carleton University.
2016, Co-I on the AHRC grant (PI Richard Hingley, Durham Archaeology) ‘Iron Age and Roman Heritages: Exploring Ancient Identities in Modern Britain’ (£678,746, of which £348,481 have been personally managed).
2016, funding from Museo Egizio of Turin to start a Public Archaeology programme of activities based on crowd-sourcing (£2,625).

Active projects funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council:

MicroPasts (Crowd- and Community-fuelled Archaeological Research). This is a collaboration between the UCL Institute of Archaeology, the University of Stirling and the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.
Ancient Identities in Modern Britain (Iron Age and Roman Heritages: Ancient Identities in Modern Britain). This is a collaboration between the Departments of Archaeology and Anthropology at Durham University and the University of Stirling.

Outputs

Showing 20 of 31 — See all 31 outputs

Software

Heritage-of-Brexit

Bonacchi C, Krzyzanska M & Altaweel M (2018) Heritage-of-Brexit. Version: 1

Authored Book

Co-producing Knowledge Online

Bonacchi C (2018) Co-producing Knowledge Online. Bristol: Arts and Humanities Research Council. Connected Communities Foundation Series.

Article

The heritage of Brexit: Roles of the past in the construction of political identities through social media

Bonacchi C, Altaweel M & Krzyzanska M (2018)
Journal of Social Archaeology, 18 (2), pp. 174-192. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605318759713.

Article

'Are You Local?' Indigenous Iron Age and Mobile Roman and Post-Roman Populations: Then, Now and In-Between (Forthcoming/Available Online)

Hingley R, Bonacchi C & Sharpe K (2018)
Britannia. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X18000016.

Other

Digital Co-Production in Archaeology. Special Issue of Internet Archaeology

(2017) Digital Co-Production in Archaeology. Special Issue of Internet Archaeology. Online publication - not applicable. Available from: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue46/index.html.

Book Review

Higher Education and the Creative Economy: Beyond the Campus

Bonacchi C (2017) Higher Education and the Creative Economy: Beyond the Campus., Review of:
Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 47 (3), pp. 206-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/10632921.2017.1303414.

Book Review

Museum websites & social media. Issues of participation, sustainability, trust and diversity

Bonacchi C (2017) Museum websites & social media. Issues of participation, sustainability, trust and diversity., Review of:
International Journal of Heritage Studies, 23 (3), pp. 291-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2016.1232301.

Book Chapter

Digital Media in Public Archaeology

Bonacchi C (2017) Digital Media in Public Archaeology. In: Moshenska & G. (eds.) Key Concepts in Public Archaeology. London: UCL Press, pp. 60-72. https://ucldigitalpress.co.uk/Book/Article/22/47/1631/.

Article

Exploring Ancient Identities in Modern Britain

Bonacchi C, Hingley R & Yarrow T (2016)
Archaeology International, 19, pp. 54--57. http://www.ai-journal.com/articles/10.5334/ai.1909/; https://doi.org/10.5334/ai.1909.

Technical Report

Realities and impacts of museum-university partnerships in England

Bonacchi C & Willocks J (2016) Realities and impacts of museum-university partnerships in England. Museum University Partnership Initiative, funded by Arts Council England. London: Central Saint Martins with NCCPE for the Museum University Partnership Initiative. https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publication/mupi_literature_review_and_research_report.pdf.

Article

Experiments in Crowd-funding Community Archaeology

Bonacchi C, Pett D, Bevan A & Keinan-Schoonbaert A (2015)
Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage, 2 (3), pp. 184--198. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/2051819615Z.00000000041; https://doi.org/10.1179/2051819615Z.00000000041.

Article

Collective Re-Excavation and Lost Media from the Last Century of British Prehistoric Studies

Wexler J, Bevan A, Bonacchi C, Keinan-Schoonbaert A, Pett D & Wilkin N (2015)
Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2 (1), pp. 126--142. http://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/JCA/article/view/27124; https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v2i1.27124.

Article

Critical Reflections on Digital Public Archaeology

Bonacchi C & Moshenska G (2015)
Internet Archaeology (40). http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue40/7/1/; https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.40.7.1.

Conference Proceeding

Crowd-sourcing the British Bronze Age: Initial experiences and results from the MicroPasts project

Wilkin N, Bevan A, Bonacchi C, Keinan-Schoonbaert A, Pett D & Wexler J (2015) Crowd-sourcing the British Bronze Age: Initial experiences and results from the MicroPasts project In: Proceedings of the Society for Museum Archaeologists Conference. The Museum Archaeologist, 35. Society for Museum Archaeologists Conference 2017, Sheffield, 02.11.2015-03.11.2015. Sheffield.

Article

Citizen Archaeologists. Online Collaborative Research about the Human Past

Bevan A, Pett D, Bonacchi C, Keinan-Schoonbaert A, Lombrana Gonzalez D, Sparks R, Wexler J & Wikin N (2014)
Human Computation, 1 (2), pp. 183-197. https://doi.org/10.15346/hc.v1i2.9.

Book Chapter

Archeologia pubblica al tempo della crisi economica

Bonacchi C (2014) Archeologia pubblica al tempo della crisi economica. In: Parello, M.C. aR & M.S. (eds.) Proceedings of the Conference Archeologia Pubblica al Tempo della Crisi, 29-30 November 2013, Agrigento, Italy, 7 ed. Bari: Edipuglia, pp. 19-24.

Article

Archeologia Pubblica e Archeologia Medievale

Vannini G, Nucciotti M & Bonacchi C (2014)
Medieval Archaeology, 2014, pp. 183-195.

Article

Crowd-sourced Archaeological Research: The MicroPasts Project

Bonacchi C, Bevan A, Pett D, Keinan-Schoonbaert A, Sparks R, Wexler J & Wilkin N (2014)
Archaeology International, 17, pp. 61-68. https://www.ai-journal.com/; https://doi.org/10.5334/ai.1705.

Article

Understanding the public experience of archaeology in the UK and Italy: a call for a ‘sociological movement’ in Public Archaeology

Bonacchi C (2014)
European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies, 4, pp. 377-400.

Technical Report

'Culturally engaged? A people-centred approach to understanding digital cultural engagement on social media platforms

Bonacchi C & Galani A (2013) 'Culturally engaged? A people-centred approach to understanding digital cultural engagement on social media platforms. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums. Report for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University.

See all 31 outputs

University of Stirling

Dr Chiara Bonacchi

About me

Overview

External appointments and memberships

Publication list

Research

Areas

Summary

Research grants:

Active projects funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council:

Outputs

Showing 20 of 31 — See all 31 outputs

Teaching

Research programmes

Research themes