Dr Francesco Ripanti

• PhD, University of Pisa, 2019

• Postgraduate School of Archaeology, (Scuola di Specializzazione in Archeologia), University of Trieste, Udine and Venezia Cà Foscari, 2015

• MA in Archaeology, University of Siena, 2011

• BA in Archaeological Science, University of Siena, 2008

I joined the University of Birmingham in December 2024. Previously, I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow (MSCA) at Trinity College Dublin, researching archaeology, heritage and wellbeing (2022-2024), and a postdoctoral researcher in digital heritage at the Cyprus University of Technology (2020-2021).

My background is in archaeology, but I have embraced interdisciplinary approaches since my undergraduate days and have always used fieldwork activities to experiment with new approaches and practices of communication, engagement and evaluation. The added value of my initiatives is that they bring together students and academics with people from outside academia (e.g. local residents, children, vulnerable groups) and encourage shared decision-making in a friendly environment.

This approach has broadened the scope of my work as an archaeologist and has led me to collaborate with a range of partners from the private and public sectors. As part of my MSCA research project 'Linking Community Archaeology and Wellbeing in the Mediterranean' (LOGGIA), I worked with the Mental Health Unit of Piombino (Italy), the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (Cyprus) and the European Huntington's Association to design and implement interpretation activities based on historical landscapes and digital environments (Minecraft Education), and to evaluate the impact of these activities on wellbeing. Previously, I have been involved in the EU-funded projects Nearching with heritage activities in everyday spaces (2017), such as the train station in Leiden (The Netherlands), and Emotive (2016), with the development and evaluation of an app prototype based on digital storytelling techniques in the ancient Agora of Athens (Greece). In 2015, together with four colleagues, I launched a blog in Italian called Archeokids. Since then, Archeokids has collaborated with major Italian heritage sites such as the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum, and in 2022 published the book "Scava con Archeokids: il manuale del giovane archeologo" (Dig with Archeokids: The Young Archaeologist's Handbook), which has been translated into Chinese, Turkish, Spanish and Polish.

I regularly contribute to international conferences, such as the Annual Meeting of the European Archaeological Association (EAA) and respond to invitations to speak from colleagues in other universities. I am involved in front line committees such as the EAA Public Benefit Advisory Committee, the Historic England Wellbeing and Heritage Working Group and the Northern Ireland Archaeology 2030 Strategy: Engagement and Heritage Outreach.

• LM Heritage Interpretation (38898) – Module leader
• LM Heritage Interpretation - DL (23295) – Module leader
• LM Research Skills Sources and Methods in Heritage Studies (38902)

I provide PhD supervision across various fields of heritage, public, and community archaeology, with a particular focus on public participation, wellbeing, and communication. Don’t hesitate to contact me to discuss research ideas or potential projects.

My research explores how society creates meaning from the past by covering several themes related to public and digital archaeology, heritage and museum studies, public participation and wellbeing. My research began with my participation in the Uomini e Cose a Vignale (People and Things in Vignale, Italy) community archaeology excavation project and an internship at the National Archaeological Museum of the Marche, where I designed and wrote audio guides based on a storytelling approach.

My doctoral research in public archaeology (University of Pisa) proposes an operational workflow for evaluating public participation in excavation-based projects and applies it to three Italian case studies. Based on qualitative and ethnographic methods, the workflow combines well-known tools (i.e. expert interviews, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and questionnaires) and analytical approaches (value-based stakeholder analysis, social network analysis). Papers published in Public Archaeology Journal, Advances in Archaeological Practice, Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage report parts of my research. The book 'Unforgettable Encounters: Understanding Participation in Italian Community Archaeology' (Oxford, Archaeopress, 2022) gives a full overview of the research project.

In my MSCA research project 'Linking Community Archaeology and Wellbeing in the Mediterranean' (LOGGIA), I have begun to explore the deeper implications of participatory practices in the heritage sector for wellbeing. LOGGIA is the first project in the Mediterranean to use data-driven evaluation of wellbeing interventions to understand how community archaeology practices can contribute to community wellbeing. During the fellowship I have been invited to present the project in over 15 venues, co-organised two sessions on archaeology and wellbeing at the European Archaeological Association (EAA) annual meeting in 2022 and 2023, and the international workshop 'Connecting Threads: Collaborative Approaches to Archaeology, Heritage and Community Wellbeing' at Trinity College Dublin.