Dr Hanneke Booij

Dr Hanneke Booij (she/her) is a Research Fellow at the FORTH2O Partnership based at the University of Stirling. Her research explores resilience, sustainability and just transitions in communities and in heritage and cultural organisations, considering heritage as practices of care and connection.

She has used qualitative, quantitative, and creative methods, and applied place-based and people-centred approaches in both academic and applied settings. Her research has included exploring how people connect to cultural and natural heritage, including the river Clyde, Glasgow City Centre and rural areas across Scotland (Canna, Fair Isle, Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway). She enjoys collaborating with third sector organisations, heritage organisations and community groups.

She was previously a Postdoctoral Impact Fellow, funded through the ESRC Stirling Social Sciences Impact Accelerator Award.

The project 'Co-developing a digital citizen’s action project in Glasgow’s City Centre' aimed to accelerate the impact of my collaborative PhD, which focused on sustainable organisations and sustainable community collaborations. In collaboration with Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, this project took practical steps towards operationalising the place of community engagement in building reuse processes by inviting local people to take me on a city walk to talk about places that hold meaning for them.

Previously, my collaborative PhD with the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust investigated how small Scottish heritage organisations with social purpose navigate and configure resilience and sustainability in their daily practices and through their uses of creative methods. My PhD was funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH).

Prior to starting my PhD, I completed the MSc Heritage at the Centre for Environment, Heritage, and Policy at the University of Stirling in 2018.

I undertook my MSc dissertation in collaboration with National Trust for Scotland: Sustainable Communities; Past, Present and Future. Can Archaeology Resource Management Contribute to Sustainable Island Communities on Canna and Fair Isle?

I had a broad professional career in project management, heritage consultancy, working with archives, events, and HR Management.

I am interested in cultural and natural heritage, the roles of third sector and community organisations as intermediaries of heritage and place, resilience, sustainability, regeneration, participation, community empowerment, (digital) ethnographies and creative methods.

I became an Associate Fellow of Higher Education through the Stirling Framework for Evidencing Learning and Teaching Enhancement in December 2024.

I completed my New to Teaching Short Course at the University of Stirling in 2021.

I have provided guest lectures at the University of Glasgow on the module Cultural Cities and Creative Regions, and the University of Stirling on the MSc Heritage module: Heritage: critical perspectives.

I was a tutor with assessment and feedback BA Social Policy, Alcohol and Society: Policies and Interventions. Leading seminars on Alcohol in Society, Theories of Alcohol Use, Alcohol and Health and Alcohol and Criminal Justice to third- and fourth-year students

In 2023 - 2024, I was a Mentor on the EDI Mentoring Scheme with the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities. In this role, I mentored and supported PhD applicants in applying for SGSAH funding under their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Scheme. My mentorship included providing feedback on the development of their research project, their draft grant proposal and general support of the process.