Dr James Pardoe

Working title: How tangible heritages have been developed from the intangible significance of literary figures (with special reference to the Romantic poets)

My thesis considers issues surrounding the collections, sites and houses associated with five Romantic poets (Byron, Keats, Shelley, Scott and Wordsworth). The focus of my research, which examines the histories and meaning of British literary shrines, considers a number of questions: How do literary houses acquire meaning from the links with the biographies of the poets and the settings of their works? How do these houses utilise material culture to form tangible links to the poets and attract visitors? Who are these visitors and what attracts them to these houses? My research sets out to address the above questions by making comparisons between those houses associated with the poets which are considered to have the most significant relationship with their lives and works.

Biography

I am a Senior Lecturer & Programme Leader in Heritage Management in the Department of History & Archaeology at the University of Chester, where I have worked since 1991. During this time I have also been a visiting lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Warwick, the Ironbridge Institute and Eotvos Lorand University of Budapest. My experience in museums dates back to 1986 and has included working for the National Trust, English Heritage,  Shropshire Regimental Museums, Chester City Museums and Nottingham Museums (Newstead Abbey). I addition I have worked in market research, spent a year teaching English in Italy, and had a short-term contract at the University of Bournemouth assisting in creating degrees in Heritage Conservation. My first degree is in International History from the London School of Economics (1982), and after spending some time working in museums I read for a MSc in Cultural Resource Management at the University of Edinburgh (1989).

Publications

• Mandy, JK & Pardoe, J - 'Fundraising for the Arts & Heritage Management' (Budapest: Magyar Muvelodesi, 2000)
• Pardoe, J - 'Telling the Whitby Story - report on the English Heritage/AHI seminar May 2002' (Journal for Heritage Interpretation, Autumn 2002)
• Pardoe, J - 'The Ethics of the Restoration of Stone Monuments' (Transactions of the 2nd International Conference on Science and Technology in Archaeology & Conservation, Jordan December 2003)
• Pardoe, J - 'Challenges and Opportunities in Literary Houses' (Transactions of the 3rd Annual Conference of the LitHouses Association, Newstead Abbey Nov. 2006 - forthcoming)

Contact details

Email: j.pardoe@chester.ac.uk(work) | gingerpumpkin@aol.com (home)