Imagining Microplaces: From Medieval into the Present

Placing our histories is always key to understanding the past. But what happens if we focus in at the smallest scale: on a specific street or square, a doorway, tree or vantage-point – a microplace? The recent AHRC-funded project ‘Towns and the Cultural Economies of Recovery’ (on which Catherine was Co-Investigator) highlighted the importance of ‘microplace’ and the ‘hyper-local’ to understanding our towns and cities – and to sustaining their futures. This lecture will draw on a range of Catherine’s place-based projects to explore how thinking through microplace might open up new possibilities for historians, bringing together research, imagination, and varied tools for immersive, experiential analysis and interpretation. This lecture will be of interest to anyone working on place, heritage and regeneration, resonating with the work of York’s own brilliant new project on Coney Street and its stories.

This lecture will run as a hybrid Zoom/in-person event from the King's Manor.

Public registration to attend via Zoom is available on Eventbrite.

Staff and students from the White Rose University Consortium (York, Sheffield, Leeds) are welcome to join us in person at the King's Manor, University of York (room K/133).

Please email cms-office@york.ac.uk to reserve a place.