Dr Chris Dalglish is a director of Inherit (www.inherit-institute.org), the York Archaeological Trust’s Institute for Heritage & Sustainable Human Development.
The Trust (www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk) is a charity that helps people to build better lives through heritage. For 50 years, it has been enabling communities to realise the value of their heritage. It does this through its research, education, volunteering and public engagement programmes, and through its visitor attractions, festivals and exhibitions.
Chris joined the Trust in 2017 to help establish Inherit. This new institute is expanding the Trust’s international reach, delivering impactful research, advocating changes in policy and undertaking community development programmes. It is developing the Trust’s capacity to work with and for people who are marginalised or otherwise disempowered in their lives, to help them use their cultural heritage to achieve the development that their communities and places need.
Chris contributes to the institute’s UK and international programmes (currently in southern Europe, the Middle East and China). He has an MA (Hons) and a PhD in Archaeology and has worked in heritage for 20 years, for government, in the private sector and in academia. He interests lie in the history of rural communities and landscapes, in rural development, justice and land rights, and in heritage as a means of empowerment.
His current activities include research for the British Council to inform their future work in China using cultural heritage to tackle poverty and improve the lives of marginalised groups.
Closer to home, he has been working with Community Land Scotland, an association of community organisations. In 2018 and 2019, this collaboration produced a major research report on Community Empowerment & Landscape (https://www.inherit-institute.org/resources). The research was presented in the Scottish Parliament (https://www.scotlandfutureforum.org/scotland-2030-a-sustainable-future-for-rural-scotland/) and supported successful advocacy for changes to Scottish law and policy. Chris continues to collaborate with Community Land Scotland, and with Newcastle and Edinburgh Universities, through a two-year AHRC-funded network on ‘cultures of landscape decision-making’ in Scotland.
Chris’ IAS Fellowship is linked to Prof. Gerrard and Dr Jones’ project, Negotiating Landscapes of Rights (https://www.dur.ac.uk/ias/2021projects/gerrardjones/). This project examines the negotiation of rights around common resources in a series of case studies taken from around the world. Dr Dalglish will contribute a case study from Scotland.
Chris and Inherit are also collaborating with Prof. Gerrard on Inspiring Rural Heritage: Sustainable Practices to Protect and Conserve Upland Landscapes & Memories. This three-year project, starting in May 2020, will research and promote the ‘protection through use’ of upland environments, with partners and case studies in the UK, Italy, France, Spain and Montenegro.
Chris’ publications include:
2003 Rural Society in the Age of Reason: An Archaeology of the Emergence of Modern Life in the Southern Scottish Highlands. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/b100537
2012 ‘Archaeology and landscape ethics’, World Archaeology 44.3, 327-341.
2013 Archaeology, the Public and the Recent Past. https://boydellandbrewer.com/archaeology-the-public-and-the-recent-past.html
2018 Community Empowerment & Landscape. https://www.inherit-institute.org/resources
2019 Rural Planning Policy to 2050: Research to Inform Preparation of NPF4. https://www.gov.scot/publications/rural-planning-policy-2050-research-inform-preparation-npf4/