Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Cultural memory, Culture, Digital resources, Digitisation, History, History of the book

Languages:

	Spoken	Written
French	Fluent	Fluent
Latin	Intermediate	Intermediate
Other:	Greek

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
27-Nov-2025	Reframing failure in Digital Scholarship (co-edited with Michael Donnay (University of London Press, 2025)
20-Nov-2025	Digital Cultural Heritage: access, re-use, value(s), sustainability Monographs (with Jane Winters and Eirini Goudarouli (forthcoming, University of London Press, 2025).
30-Oct-2025	Data-driven AI without data? Infrastructural vulnerability and archival data Journal articles ( in AI & ARCHIVES (Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society  (forthcoming 2025))
18-Sep-2025	‘Together’: interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and participation in digital cultural heritage research. The case of the Congruence Engine project Journal articles (with Arran Rees; Stefania Zardini )   This paper explores how interdisciplinarity, collaboration, and participation are being re-imagined in large-scale digital cultural heritage projects, using the Congruence Engine project as a case study. It examines how the interplay between the inherently collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of Digital Humanities (DH) and the principles of Systemic Action Research (SAR) shapes the project’s practices. In particular, it focuses on infrastructure, documentation, and communication, as well as the development of creative collaborative spaces within the project. These ways of working together in inter- and multi-disciplinary modes, as developed through DH and SAR, offer valuable insights not only into technological innovation but also into the organizational and social models that can bridge human and computational ways of working
02-Apr-2025	‘A Position Paper on AI and Copyrights in Cultural Heritage and Research (EU and UK)’ Journal articles  (with Lehmann, J., Journal of Open Humanities Data, 11: 1 (2025), pp. 1-9)   The long-term, highly divisive discussion between the entertainment industry and the AI sector around the use of copyrighted material for the training of machine learning applications has gained traction with the recent advent of generative AI systems. However, in this debate, the voice of cultural heritage institutions and research libraries is hardly considered. Major publishing houses have begun to reserve the right to perform text and data mining (TDM) on digital assets licensed by them, which is relevant for the development of machine learning applications. Such reservations impair the access of cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) and research libraries’ patrons, such as start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises and companies belonging to the cultural sector. In this discussion paper, we propose a set of differentiated solutions which potentially open up ways in which digital assets which are under copyright may be used for TDM. These solutions consist in the development of new licences, the use of a technical protocol, and in the provision of infrastructures which allow for performing TDM on copyrighted digital assets differentiated according to data providers, data consumers and to the tasks for which machine learning applications are being trained. These proposals aim at furthering the debate on open data – keeping them as open as possible while respecting the interests of right holders and data consumers alike.
03-Jan-2025	Datafication and Cultural Heritage Collections Data Infrastructures: Critical Perspectives on Documentation, Cataloguing and Data-sharing in Cultural Heritage Institutions Journal articles The role of cultural heritage collections within the research ecosystem is rapidly changing. From often-passive primary source or reference point for humanities research, cultural heritage collections are now becoming integral part of large-scale interdisciplinary inquiries using computational-driven methods and tools. This new status for cultural heritage collections, in the ‘collections-as-data’ era, would not be possible without foundational work that was and is still going on ‘behind the scenes’ in cultural heritage institutions through cataloguing, documentation and curation of cultural heritage records. This article assesses the landscape for cultural heritage collections data infrastructure in the UK through an empirical and critical perspective, presenting insights on the infrastructure that cultural heritage organisations use to record and manage their collections, exploring the range of systems being used, the levels of complexity or ease at which collections data can be accessed, and the shape of interactions between software suppliers, cultural heritage organisations, and third-party partners. The paper goes on to include a critical analysis of the findings based on the sector’s approach to ‘3s’, that is standards, skill sets and scale, and how that applies to different cultural heritage organisations throughout the data lifecycle, from data creation, stewardship to sharing and re-using.
20-Sep-2024	‘Sustainable Growth of Multilingual Open Publishing Projects: The Case of Programming Historian’ Journal articles (with Quiroga, R Hawes, A , & Chevrie, C. ), The Journal of Electronic Publishing (2024 27(1)
01-Dec-2022	Embracing Decline in Digital Scholarship beyond Sustainability. In The Bloomsbury Handbook to the Digital Humanities, James O'Sullivan (ed) (pp. 309–316). Bloomsbury Academic. Chapters This chapter approaches sustainability in digital scholarship from a comprehensive point of view, beyond a dynamic network of technologies, infrastructures, people, financial, and managerial decisions battling about the longevity of digital outputs. I explore  the political and institutional contexts in which sustainability is being implemented in Digital Humanities environments, from technological preservation over time, project-bound frameworks, ethical innovation, responsible credit and evaluation to inescapable failure as part of our practice.
01-Sep-2022	Surfacing multiple perspectives on keywords for the Congruence Engine; embracing multiplicity, interdisciplinarity, and mutual learning Journal articles (with Stefania Zardini Lacedelli and Arran J Rees)   This article explores collaborative conversation as a method to surface multiple perspectives on community engagement and forms of knowledge creation in the Congruence Engine project. Our exchanges naturally converged around four main areas: the multiple meanings of the term ‘community’ and the nature of these relationships; the modes and spaces for engagement; the different nature of knowledge emerging from these interactions; and, finally, a series of practical issues and challenges that can act as potential barriers. The article also reflects on the opportunities of dialogic writing to enable participatory, inclusive and polyvocal approaches in the development of a national collection.
01-Sep-2022	The role of digital humanities in an interdisciplinary research project Journal articles (with Jane Winters)    This discussion paper will reflect on the contribution of digital humanities (DH) to a complex interdisciplinary project like the Congruence Engine. It begins by considering how DH has developed within the larger history of interdisciplinarity in the humanities, crossing boundaries within and between disciplines and sectors, and facilitating collaboration and knowledge exchange. It discusses the growth of large-scale digital projects in the humanities, shaped by the nature and scope of the data increasingly available to humanities researchers, by the new kinds of research questions that can be asked, but also by changes in broader funding and policy landscapes. It considers three recent projects which exemplify the value of DH in interdisciplinary contexts, before reflecting on how DH methods and approaches have influenced the shape of the Congruence Engine. It situates the practices of the Congruence Engine in the wider context of knowledge exchange, focusing in particular on the concept of ‘trading zones’, and draws out the complementarity between the bridging or translational role of DH and the systemic action research framing of the project. Finally, it highlights the value of responsible openness not just in relation to published research outputs but to research practice and process.
28-Feb-2022	Connected Histories of the BBC: Opening up the BBC Oral History Archive to the Digital Domain Journal articles This article describes the computational and data-related challenges of the “Connected Histories of the BBC” project, an interdisciplinary project aiming to bring into the public realm some of the hidden treasures of the BBC's own Oral History Archive through the creation of an openly accessible, fully searchable and interconnected digital catalogue of this archive. This project stands as an interesting case study on the tensions between “computational” and “archival”, by critically designing and employing computational approaches for an historical, complex Oral History collection of scattered analogue records of various forms with an archival pre-history. From data acquisition, modeling, structuring and enhancement, metadata, data analysis procedures, to web design and legal issues, this paper discusses the various computational challenges, processes and decisions made during this project, while showcasing the principles of (re)usability, accessibility, and collaboration throughout its course. Added
08-May-2019	Diversity and inclusion in digital scholarship and pedagogy: the case of The Programming Historian Journal articles (with James Baker; Maria José Afanador-Llach; Brandon Walsh)    This article presents several inclusion and diversity policies and strategies for digital scholarship and pedagogy, using The Programming Historian as a case study. By actively supporting and working towards gender diversity, as well as multilingualism, cultural inclusivity and open access, The Programming Historianaims to further enhance what is meant to be open in the context of access, diversity and inclusion in digital scholarship and pedagogy.

Publications available on SAS-space:

Date

Details

Oct-2022

The role of digital humanities in an interdisciplinary research project PeerReviewed This discussion paper will reflect on the contribution of digital humanities (DH) to a complex interdisciplinary project like the Congruence Engine. It begins by considering how DH has developed within the larger history of interdisciplinarity in the humanities, crossing boundaries within and between disciplines and sectors, and facilitating collaboration and knowledge exchange. It discusses the growth of large-scale digital projects in the humanities, shaped by the nature and scope of the data increasingly available to humanities researchers, by the new kinds of research questions that can be asked, but also by changes in broader funding and policy landscapes. It considers three recent projects which exemplify the value of DH in interdisciplinary contexts, before reflecting on how DH methods and approaches have influenced the shape of the Congruence Engine. It situates the practices of the Congruence Engine in the wider context of knowledge exchange, focusing in particular on the concept of ‘trading zones’, and draws out the complementarity between the bridging or translational role of DH and the systemic action research framing of the project. Finally, it highlights the value of responsible openness not just in relation to published research outputs but to research practice and process.

Consultancy reports:

Date	Details
2025	‘Towards a National Research Software Engineering Capability in Arts and Humanities Research: a Roadmap’, (with Beavan, D., Piza, A., Gillespie, S., Buchuck-Wilsenach, C., Bailey-Ross, C., Jake, B., Chalstrey, E., [...] Westerling, K. )   The increasing importance of digital methods in Arts and Humanities (A&H) research presents exciting opportunities and significant challenges. As ideas become more ambitious and projects grow in complexity – leveraging software development, large-scale data analysis, visualisation tools, and new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) – the need for dedicated research software engineering expertise has never been greater. However, Research Software Engineers (RSEs) remain in short supply, are unevenly distributed across institutions, and often lack the skills and training necessary to address A&H-specific research challenges. Meanwhile, many A&H researchers struggle to access the collaborative technical expertise required to innovate effectively and exploit the potential of digital methods. This Roadmap outlines a strategic plan to establish a national, people-centred A&H RSE Capability, ensuring that digital expertise is accessible and sustainable within A&H research.
2024	Ethics as Practice: Report on the 1st Discovery Project Ethics Workshop (with Rutherford, A., Foxton, K., & Perry, S. ) (Towards a National Collection, 2024).   As part of the Towards a National Collection (TaNC) programme, five Discovery Projects have been funded, each responding uniquely to TaNC’s aim to “empower and diversify audiences by involving them in the research and creating new ways for them to access and interact with collections.” (n.d.) A workshop, held on 23 January 2024, brought together representatives from the Discovery Projects and the TaNC programme directorate to explore ethical concerns and develop recommendations for policy and practice. This report outlines the workshop methodology, objectives, and provides a synthesis of group discussions to inform future interdisciplinary and cross-sector research programmes.
2024	“Data Matters”: Report on the Towards a National Collection Discovery Projects focus group on data management, documentation, and archiving practices in digital cultural heritage projects (with Hawkins, A., (Towards a National Collection, 2024). With the increase in digitisation and datafication of cultural heritage over the past few decades, cultural heritage data has become a potentially valuable resource for knowledge production that has been heavily invested in by both public and private investments. It has, however, thus far been under-utilised, with several barriers existing that prevent its reuse. One significant barrier is the lack of clear records or descriptions of how data has been created, collected and processed - also known as data documentation - and standardised methods for recording, managing, maintaining and sharing this information. In summer 2024, representatives of the Towards a National Collection (TaNC) Discovery Projects attended a focus group to discuss and exchange experiences, challenges and potential solutions on issues around data documentation, processing, archiving and publication. This report presents the key findings and recommendations that developed out of these discussions, and outlines the primary challenges in data management and documentation identified by the five TaNC Discovery Projects, including: Accessing data that can be reused is a complex and time-consuming process. Datasets used and created by projects often are not openly available, increasing barriers to their future reuse. Insufficient documentation of how data was created, collected or processed makes it difficult to understand, and analyse data. Ongoing reassessment of data-related decisions, requires continuous resources to refine or change processes. Creating documentation to capture datasets and to document decision-making processes is resource-intensive (financial, time, knowledge and skill). Establishing and maintaining the necessary infrastructure to store, analyse and share data is resource intensive, and a lack of centralised infrastructure leads to wasted resources and unnecessary environmental impacts. Data focused tasks are frequently undertaken on an ad-hoc basis, often without the involvement of dedicated data specialists, leading to inefficiencies and potential gaps in expertise.
2023	iDAH Research Software Engineering (RSE) Steering Group Working Paper This working paper resulted from two (hybrid) workshops conducted in May and June 2022, chaired by Professor James Smithies (King’s College London) at the request of Tao-Tao Chang, AHRC Head of (Research) Infrastructure. The workshops were conceived and organised by Dr. Anna-Maria Sichani (AHRC Policy and Engagement Fellow), and hosted at The Alan Turing Institute. Contributors are listed in Appendix 4.
2021	Report on the AHRC Digital/ Software Requirements Survey 2021: Where is Investment Needed? (with Shoaib Sufi and Emily Bell) A report by the Software Sustainability Institute (www.software.ac.uk) (SSI) on the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UKRI AHRC) community to better understand views on digital/software tools, experience of development of such tools, practices, learning intentions and preferences around how projects involving digital/software should be resourced. The report was originally intended to help inform the digital infrastructure funding being envisaged by the AHRC. In its final form we believe it's of use and interest to the AHRC and other arts and humanities funders, organisations which support arts and humanities research and practice, communities of practice, members of AHRC's community and to individuals wanting to learn more about these topics whether to inform their own practice or to understand the space.

Government/policy work:

Date	Details
2025	BRAID researchers' response to UK Government copyright and AI consultation  (with Westenberger, P., Bryan-Kinns, N., Bunz, M., Collett, C., Heravi, B., Miltner,K. M., Moruzzi, C., & Townsend, B. A (2025).
2025	BRAID researchers' response to the call for contributions on artificial intelligence and creativity issued by the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Alexandra Xanthaki. (with Miltner, K. M., Moruzzi, C., Parker, M., Potapov, K., & Westenberger, P.)

Research Projects & Supervisions

Research projects:

Details
AHRC Policy and Engagement Fellowship in Digital Research Infrastructure This project will focus on the development of a technical specification and architecture of a federated research infrastructure of Arts and Humanities in order to enhance national digital research capability of the Arts and Humanities research community. By working closely with stakeholders and the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure Committee, this project will explore and define the design and development requirements of a robust data services and interlinked digital repositories ecosystem that will ensure integration, connectivity, discoverability, interoperability and access for our cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral datasets. The project will also focus on the skills development aspect of the research community, through the planning of a national digital skills programme for the Arts and Humanities.
Responsible data, models & workflows: Responsible AI digital skills provision for the cultural heritage community Led by Dr Anna-Maria Sichani, School of Advanced Study, University of London Partnered with The National Archives Funded by BRAID- AHRC This fellowship will tackle the training needs for responsible AI adoption within the cultural heritage sector. Partnering with The National Archives, the fellow will help develop and embed a comprehensive digital skills training provision for responsible AI for the cultural heritage community to empower informed, responsible and ethical use of AI. Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a transformative opportunity to enhance and curate digitised or born-digital cultural heritage collections, facilitating seamless exploration, analysis, and interconnection for the research community and the general public. However, given the plethora of new AI concepts, tools, and methods, as well as the necessary data-related considerations, professionals and researchers in the cultural heritage field lack a robust responsible AI skills provision that will empower a considerate and sustainable integration of AI methodologies and best practices in their everyday professional and research practice. These shortcomings in responsible AI skills result in what looks like a patchy and flawed integration of AI in the cultural heritage, with lower quality or availability of datasets, alongside practices that raise urgent social, legal and ethical questions. ‘How can we embed responsible AI (RAI) literacy skills across the cultural heritage community to empower informed, responsible and ethical use of AI?’ This fellowship aims to address the above challenge by developing a structured and comprehensive, yet flexible infrastructure towards a comprehensive digital skills training provision that places communities of practice at its epicentre and encompasses key aspects of AI, responsible data principles, data models, workflows, ethics checklists, and case studies, tailored specifically to the needs of professionals and researchers working with cultural heritage data, helping spread Responsible AI literacy more evenly across and beyond the sector. The project will be hosted at the Digital Humanities Research Hub, School of Advanced Study. By mobilising a cross-sectoral network of stakeholders through a series of community-building events (focus groups, workshops, edit-a-thons), the fellowship will seek to approach a training provision for responsible AI for the cultural heritage community as an infrastructural, community-driven investment, offering an important and timely intervention that will future-proof cultural heritage professionals and researchers working in these areas and help spread Responsible AI literacy more evenly across and beyond the sector. This fellowship aims: – to define a responsible and sustainable AI research culture and practice within the UK cultural heritage community – to establish a network of stakeholders that will support knowledge exchange on RAI developments within the UK cultural heritage community – to assess domain-specific RAI training needs and priorities – to develop a RAI training workbench that will foster wider adoption of RAI standards and sharing of best practices within the cultural heritage community, including datasheets, model cards, legal, ethical, social and environmental considerations – to develop a white paper with recommendations on RAI training provision for the cultural heritage community in order to benefit from and utilise newly-produced knowledge around responsible AI – to infuse the AI ecosystem at large with cultural heritage community’s commitments to responsibility and care, including quality awareness, documentation, transparency and awareness for biases through a series of presentations in public fora and conferences.

Available for doctoral supervision: Yes

Professional Affiliations

Professional affiliations:

Name	Activity
Archives and Technology Committee of the Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland)	Research Representative
European Association of Digital Humanities	Executive Committee member

Collaborations:

Name	Type	Activity	Start date	End date
Software Sustainability Institute	Fellow	Fellow	08-Sep-2018

Consultancy & Media

Available for consultancy:

Yes

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