I am a Digital Humanities researcher, currently working as a postdoc at the Archaeology Data Service, University of York. My role involves a combination of research, project management, and data mapping for archaeology and cultural heritage, working across the ARTEMIS and ECHOES projects and aggregating data to the ARIADNE infrastructure. My research interests include metadata modelling and Linked Open Data applied in an ancient, historical, or cultural heritage context, as well as broader Digital Humanities issues, such as openness, research infrastructures, usability, and sustainability.
Prior to joining ADS, I worked as a postdoc on the AHRC-funded Tools of Knowledge project. This work involved remodelling a legacy Microsoft Access database of scientific instrument makers to an events-based Linked Open Data model, developing an ontology of scientific instrument types for making connections to collections data, and more detailed modelling to produce case studies for particular objects and assemblages, based around the idea of object itineraries. I have also worked in postdoctoral roles on the Congruence Engine project (part of the AHRC-funded Towards a National Collection programme), where I focused primarily on building a prototype ontology of occupation types, and on an Open Societal Challenge project at the Open University, investigating the use of Pelagios tools for representing object itineraries.
I completed my PhD at the Open University in 2022, funded through the AHRC via the CHASE DTP, where I investigated Linked Data usability for Ancient World research. I used a survey and interviews to explore researchers’ experiences of using and producing digital tools and resources, including those involving Linked Data, with my findings forming the basis of a series of recommendations to optimise usability for future developments in this area.