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Staff Profile

Dr Katie Markham

Lecturer

  • Email: katie.markham@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: Room 3.10
    Armstrong Building
    Queen Victoria Road
    Newcastle University,
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Background


I joined the MCH team in 2016 as a part-time lecturing associate and was appointed as a full time Lecturer in 2020. Over this time I have taught on a wide range of undergraduate, and postgraduate modules in our department. I am module leader for two modules on the BA Media, Communication and Cultural Studies programmes; "Race, Culture and Identity" and "Intersectional Approaches'.


My research sits at the intersection of critical heritage, museum, and tourist studies. I am particularly interested in exploring the crossover between community museums and tourism in countries that are emerging from conflict. A monograph, dedicated to exploring these themes, will be published with Routledge in 2023. Alongside Dr Emma Coffield, I have also spent the last three years working on the project "Beyond Employability", which explores the perceptions and experiences of students looking to enter the creative and cultural industries. I draw strongly on critical race, intersectional and decolonial perspectives within my research, and am invested in questions of how to build an anti-racist University. 


I am the DPD for our MA Museum Studies, Curating Art and Global Heritage Management Programmes and Co-Director for EDI in SACS. I am also one of four Co-Directors for the Centre for Heritage. 


Qualifications


PhD. "The person inside it has to be part of it'": Empathy, Post-Conflict Heritage and Troubles Tourism in Northern Ireland" (University of Leeds) - 2017


MA Contemporary Literature and Culture (University of York) - 2013


BA English and Related Literature (University of York) - 2011 


Memberships

Fellow of Advance HE (formally the Higher Education Academy)

Research

Research Interests. 


My research lies at the intersection of heritage, cultural studies and tourism, where I have particular interests in the fields of 'difficult' heritage, conflict and community museology.


My PhD thesis "The person inside it has to be part of it'": Empathy, Post-Conflict Heritage and Troubles Tourism in Northern Ireland" subjected the study of empathy to the critical lenses of feminist, critical race and decolonial theory, considering the manifestation of these issues in relation to Belfast's troubles tourism industry. Within this, I particularly focused on representations of the past as found in paramilitary museums, and the phenomena of black cab mural tourism, where I explored ideas of affective relations, humour, kitsch and community heritage practices. I am currently in the process of developing this thesis for monograph publication, and will be seeking to extend this research in the future in relation to other, post-conflict community heritage sites. 


Outside of these fields I also have strong research interests in decolonial and anti-racist practices and have explored these themes in relation to Higher Education spaces (between 2021-2024 I was the lead on an internal School project that explored how we could further our anti-racist and decolonial teaching) and as they apply to museums and heritage sites. Along with my Co-Is Dr Emma Coffield and Dr Jess Crosby, I have also developed a body of work that explores student experiences of employability in relation to the cultural sector and Arts and Humanities degrees.


I welcome PhD applications in any of the areas outlined above.

Teaching

Undergraduate. 


At present I contribute to a wide variety of modules as part of the Media, Communications and Cultural Studies degree programme, however I am currently the module leader for the following: 

MCH2065: Race, Identity and Culture

MCH2005: Intersectional Approaches 


Postgraduate. 


I am the DPD for our Museums, Galleries and Heritage Programmes and supervise dissertations in these areas as well as contributing to some of the modules.

Publications