School of Education

Dr Nicole Smith

  • Lecturer in Museum Education (School of Education)

telephone: 2854
email: Nicole.Smith@glasgow.ac.uk

Room 617, Level 6, School of Education, St Andrews Building, 11 Eldon Street, Glasgow, G3 6NH

Import to contacts

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347

Biography

Pronouns: she/hers

Lecturer in Museum Education

I am an archaeologist and curator, specialising in the connections between people and place via the process of heritage, and interrogating the potential of creative practice and digital technologies to this end. I have a particular focus on place-based learning and outdoor learning and the role of archaeology and heritage in this. 

I have a background working in the cultural heritage sector, as a curator and as a specialist in digital technology implementation for museums, libraries, archives and art galleries.

I work with locally focused arts and culture organisations, often adopting a participatory action research approach, and am interested in supporting the implementation of outdoor learning and co-designed interventions for engaging with archaeology and heritage and in challenging recognition of impact in the arts and humanities.

I have several years’ experience in field archaeology focusing particularly on the relationship between archaeological research, creative practice, and public consumption of the past within the context of the Anthropocene. I have been involved in exhibition design, staging, and evaluation for cultural heritage since 2004.

Researcher unique identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347

Zoom Office: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/my/drnicolesmith

Current projects: 

See Research Interests below for more information.

Co-lead for Clippings (CCE RTG events programme): https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/education/research/clip/clippings/

Depute Lead for CLIP RTG for 2023/24: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/education/research/clip/

 

Research interests

I have a background working in the cultural heritage sector, as an archaeology curator and as a specialist in digital technology implementation for heritage and museums, and in how we tell stories about the past.

I am an archaeologist with several years’ experience in field archaeology with a research interest in Early Modern archaeology, particularly the relationship between archaeological research and public consumption of the past. I work with locally focused arts and culture organisations, and am interested in supporting the implementation of co-designed interventions for engaging with archaeology and heritage. I have been involved in exhibition design, staging, and evaluation since 2004.

My most recent work has focused on the outdoor learning and the development of participatory methodologies for Archaeology. I work closely with schools to develop approaches to embedding Archaeology into learning. I am part of the core team leading the Glencoe Landscape Archaeology and Storytelling (GLAS) Project. I am a founding member of the Sea Green Ribbons Collective.

I am currently working on the Children in Media Project, which includes the Kid Reporters Programme. Opening up telling stories about Higher Education research to younger audiences. We make media content with children, for children.

Past Projects:

I was part of the core team for the Digital Narratives in Archaeology Research (DiNAR) project at the UKRI EPSRC Digital Creativity Labs, University of York, developing approaches to university-museum partnership working, we designed the in-exhibition immersive VikingVR experience at Yorkshire Museum which toured as part of the British Museum and York Museums Trust exhibition, Viking: Rediscover the Legend. I worked with partners from several cultural heritage organisations and higher education institutions to design and implement impact activities from this research.

I led the Discovering British Memorial Project with the Archaeology Data Service and Historic England. As part of this, I developed tools for use by community groups to record, analyse, and interpret archaeological material culture.

I worked with the National Trust and Durham University to roll-out guidelines for embedding archaeological practice into interpretation and programming at outdoor heritage sites across England and Wales.

I set up and led the Basing House multi-year research project into the Early Modern archaeology of Basing House, Hampshire. We worked with community groups and students to train over 100 archaeologists over four years.

 

I am currently part of an AHRC network (led by Central St. Martin's) investigating the potential of creative practice for co-designed digitisation of museum held objects with Indigenous communities. I led with the Archaeology Date Service an English Heritage (Historic England) funded project investigating community heritage recording of death landscapes, with a focus on place-making and storytelling. As part of this work, I co-designed tools for use by community groups to record, analyse, and interpret archaeological material culture. In 2016-8, I worked on a high impact project with the National Trust and Durham University to roll-out guidelines for embedding archaeological practice into interpretation and programming at outdoor heritage sites across England and Wales.

I was Evaluation Lead for the College of Arts Dear Green Bothy programme - https://deargreenbothy.gla.ac.uk/about/

 

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2018 | 2017 | 2015 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011
Number of items: 19.

2025

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Robertson, Elizabeth and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2025) What next for archaeological representation?: Towards a creative practice of digital archaeology. Epoiesen: A Journal for Creative Engagement in History and Archaeology, (doi: 10.22215/epoiesen/2025.1)

2024

Richardson, Lorna-Jane, Reinhard, Andrew and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (Eds.) (2024) The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and the Media in the 21st Century. Routledge. ISBN 9781032105970

Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2024) Enchanting images: co-creative practice for image-making in community archaeology. In: Richardson, Lorna-Jane, Reinhard, Andrew and Smith, Nicole (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and the Media in the 21st Century. Routledge. ISBN 9781032105970

2023

Pillatt, Toby, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Green, Katie, Richards, Julian D. and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2023) Discovering England’s burial spaces: digital archives and their potential for burial space research. In: Mytum, Harold and Veit, Richard (eds.) Innovation and Implementation: Critical Reflections on New Approaches to Historic Mortuary Data Collection, Analysis and Dissemination. Berghahn Books: London, pp. 193-211. ISBN 9781805390459

2022

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Wilkins, Theodore, Schofield, Guy, Hook, Jonathan and Masinton, Anthony (2022) Digital creativity and the regional museum: experimental collaboration at the convergence of immersive media and exhibition design. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 15(4), 78. (doi: 10.1145/3527620)

2021

Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207 and Opitz, Rachel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5232-1434 (2021) The inhabited frame: Examining the archaeological image in the era of interactive media. In: Dawson, Ian, Jones, Andrew Meirion, Minkin, Louisa and Reilly, Paul (eds.) Diffracting Digital Images: Archaeology, Art Practice and Cultural Heritage. Routledge, pp. 120-142. ISBN 9780367486556 (doi: 10.4324/9781003042129-8)

2018

Schofield, Guy, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Fell, Martin, Hook, Jonathan, Hadley, Dawn, Murphy, Damian, Richards, Julian and Thresh, Lewis (2018) Viking VR: Designing a Virtual Reality Experience for a Museum. In: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2018 (DIS '18), Hong Kong, China, 09-13 Jun 2018, pp. 805-815. ISBN 9781450351980 (doi: 10.1145/3196709.3196714)

Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Richards, Julian and Scholma-Mason, Nela (2018) Maeshowe: the application of RTI to Norse runes (data paper). Internet Archaeology, 47, (doi: 10.11141/ia.47.8)

2017

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207 and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2017) New approaches to the community recording and preservation of burial space. In: Roued-Cunliffe, Henriette and Copeland, Andrea (eds.) Participatory Heritage. Facet Publishing: London, pp. 173-184. ISBN 9781783301249

Jones, Judith and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2017) The strange case of Dame Mary May's tomb: the performative value of reflectance transformation imaging and its use in deciphering the visual and biographical evidence of a late 17th-century portrait effigy. Internet Archaeology, 44, (doi: 10.11141/ia.44.9)

2015

Perry, Sara and Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2015) The social web and archaeology's restructuring: impact, exploitation, disciplinary change. Open Archaeology, 1(1), pp. 153-165. (doi: 10.1515/opar-2015-0009)

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207 and Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2015) Community-driven approaches to open source archaeological imaging. In: Wilson, Andrew T. and Edwards, Ben (eds.) Open Source Archaeology: Ethics and Practice. De Gruyter Open: Warsaw ; Boston, pp. 44-63. ISBN 9783110440171 (doi: 10.1515/9783110440171-005)

2013

Strutt, Kris, Barker, Dominic, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Copeland, Penny, Elmer, Chris, Richley, Elizabeth and Sly, Timothy (2013) Archaeological and geophysical survey at Basing House, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK. ISAPNews, 36, pp. 2-4.

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Minkin, Louisa and Dawson, Ian (2013) Making digital: visual approaches to the digital humanities. In: Ng, Kia, Bowen, J.P. and McDaid, Sarah (eds.) EVA London, 2013: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts 29-31 July 2013, London, UK. Series: Electronic workshops in computing. British Computer Society (BCS): Swindon, pp. 240-247. ISBN 9781780172156

2012

Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 and Ogden, Jessica (2012) Social media at the CAA2012: a reflective report. Internet Archaeology, 32, (doi: 10.11141/ia.32.6)

Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2012) How community archaeology can make use of open data to achieve further its objectives. World Archaeology, 44(4), pp. 612-633. (doi: 10.1080/00438243.2012.743252)

Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 and Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207 (2012) The Potential of Open Models for Public Archaeology. In: Digital Futures 2012: Third Annual Digital Economy All Hands Conference (DE2012), Aberdeen, UK, 23-25 Oct 2012,

Harris, Lisa, Earl, Graeme, Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Phethean, Chris and Brughmans, Tom (2012) Building Personal Learning Networks Through Event-based Social Media: a Case Study of the SMiLE Project. In: The PLE Conference 2012, Aveiro, Portugal, 11-13 Jul 2012, pp. 182-193.

2011

Earl, Graeme, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Pagi, Hembo and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2011) Reflectance transformation: an approach for imaging archaeological finds. Archaeologist, 81, pp. 36-37.

This list was generated on Fri Oct 9 21:19:12 2026 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Book Sections | Edited Books | Conference Proceedings
Number of items: 19.

Articles

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Robertson, Elizabeth and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2025) What next for archaeological representation?: Towards a creative practice of digital archaeology. Epoiesen: A Journal for Creative Engagement in History and Archaeology, (doi: 10.22215/epoiesen/2025.1)

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Wilkins, Theodore, Schofield, Guy, Hook, Jonathan and Masinton, Anthony (2022) Digital creativity and the regional museum: experimental collaboration at the convergence of immersive media and exhibition design. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 15(4), 78. (doi: 10.1145/3527620)

Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Richards, Julian and Scholma-Mason, Nela (2018) Maeshowe: the application of RTI to Norse runes (data paper). Internet Archaeology, 47, (doi: 10.11141/ia.47.8)

Jones, Judith and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2017) The strange case of Dame Mary May's tomb: the performative value of reflectance transformation imaging and its use in deciphering the visual and biographical evidence of a late 17th-century portrait effigy. Internet Archaeology, 44, (doi: 10.11141/ia.44.9)

Perry, Sara and Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2015) The social web and archaeology's restructuring: impact, exploitation, disciplinary change. Open Archaeology, 1(1), pp. 153-165. (doi: 10.1515/opar-2015-0009)

Strutt, Kris, Barker, Dominic, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Copeland, Penny, Elmer, Chris, Richley, Elizabeth and Sly, Timothy (2013) Archaeological and geophysical survey at Basing House, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK. ISAPNews, 36, pp. 2-4.

Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 and Ogden, Jessica (2012) Social media at the CAA2012: a reflective report. Internet Archaeology, 32, (doi: 10.11141/ia.32.6)

Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2012) How community archaeology can make use of open data to achieve further its objectives. World Archaeology, 44(4), pp. 612-633. (doi: 10.1080/00438243.2012.743252)

Earl, Graeme, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Pagi, Hembo and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2011) Reflectance transformation: an approach for imaging archaeological finds. Archaeologist, 81, pp. 36-37.

Book Sections

Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2024) Enchanting images: co-creative practice for image-making in community archaeology. In: Richardson, Lorna-Jane, Reinhard, Andrew and Smith, Nicole (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and the Media in the 21st Century. Routledge. ISBN 9781032105970

Pillatt, Toby, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Green, Katie, Richards, Julian D. and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2023) Discovering England’s burial spaces: digital archives and their potential for burial space research. In: Mytum, Harold and Veit, Richard (eds.) Innovation and Implementation: Critical Reflections on New Approaches to Historic Mortuary Data Collection, Analysis and Dissemination. Berghahn Books: London, pp. 193-211. ISBN 9781805390459

Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207 and Opitz, Rachel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5232-1434 (2021) The inhabited frame: Examining the archaeological image in the era of interactive media. In: Dawson, Ian, Jones, Andrew Meirion, Minkin, Louisa and Reilly, Paul (eds.) Diffracting Digital Images: Archaeology, Art Practice and Cultural Heritage. Routledge, pp. 120-142. ISBN 9780367486556 (doi: 10.4324/9781003042129-8)

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207 and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2017) New approaches to the community recording and preservation of burial space. In: Roued-Cunliffe, Henriette and Copeland, Andrea (eds.) Participatory Heritage. Facet Publishing: London, pp. 173-184. ISBN 9781783301249

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207 and Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (2015) Community-driven approaches to open source archaeological imaging. In: Wilson, Andrew T. and Edwards, Ben (eds.) Open Source Archaeology: Ethics and Practice. De Gruyter Open: Warsaw ; Boston, pp. 44-63. ISBN 9783110440171 (doi: 10.1515/9783110440171-005)

Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Minkin, Louisa and Dawson, Ian (2013) Making digital: visual approaches to the digital humanities. In: Ng, Kia, Bowen, J.P. and McDaid, Sarah (eds.) EVA London, 2013: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts 29-31 July 2013, London, UK. Series: Electronic workshops in computing. British Computer Society (BCS): Swindon, pp. 240-247. ISBN 9781780172156

Edited Books

Richardson, Lorna-Jane, Reinhard, Andrew and Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 (Eds.) (2024) The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and the Media in the 21st Century. Routledge. ISBN 9781032105970

Conference Proceedings

Schofield, Guy, Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207, Smith, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Fell, Martin, Hook, Jonathan, Hadley, Dawn, Murphy, Damian, Richards, Julian and Thresh, Lewis (2018) Viking VR: Designing a Virtual Reality Experience for a Museum. In: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2018 (DIS '18), Hong Kong, China, 09-13 Jun 2018, pp. 805-815. ISBN 9781450351980 (doi: 10.1145/3196709.3196714)

Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347 and Beale, Gareth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-8207 (2012) The Potential of Open Models for Public Archaeology. In: Digital Futures 2012: Third Annual Digital Economy All Hands Conference (DE2012), Aberdeen, UK, 23-25 Oct 2012,

Harris, Lisa, Earl, Graeme, Beale, Nicole ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347, Phethean, Chris and Brughmans, Tom (2012) Building Personal Learning Networks Through Event-based Social Media: a Case Study of the SMiLE Project. In: The PLE Conference 2012, Aveiro, Portugal, 11-13 Jul 2012, pp. 182-193.

This list was generated on Fri Oct 9 21:19:12 2026 BST.

Supervision

Current PhD supervision:

Bria Trosclair: A Participatory Action Research Approach to Imagining Healthy Futures with Migrant Youth in Glasgow

(Jessica) Xuan Han: Women’s experiences of family-programming in museums: A feminist perspective on museums’ role in inclusive education for parents and carers

(Jojo) Mengqiu Xi: Diaspora Living Heritage and Identity Formation: A Case Study of the Chinese Community in Glasgow

Ryan Waisanen: It Takes a Village: A Feminist Exploration of the Educational Impact of Women’s Labor and Community-Building in Small Museums in the Scottish Highlands

Olivia Sebastian: When Audiences Curate

Ziyue Xu: Airports and Education: an empirical investigation of positive and negative impacts

Shuhui Kong: Museums, Multisensory engagement, and professional practice

 

Supervision topics:

I am interested in supervising topics in the following:

  • Community archives
  • Outdoor learning
  • Design thinking for heritage
  • AI and museums
  • Lifelong learning and museums
  • Anthropocene - Material culture and memory practices
  • Place-making
  • Participatory action research and practice research
  • Working with communities – cultural heritage
  • Visitor studies and evaluation
  • Online collections management and public use / Digitisation of GLAM collections
  • Creative practice and heritage
  • Exhibitions design - co-design practices
  • Cultural heritage and crowdsourcing
  • Social media for cultural heritage
  • Human computer interaction – in particular, design methods
  • VR/AR for outdoor heritage sites
  • Computational photography (inc. RTI, multi spectral imaging, etc.)
  • Sensory experiences of heritage
  • Digital narratives (non-linear storytelling)
  • Heritage policy making and consultation/collaboration/co-design
  • Outdoor learning and heritage
  • AI and cultural education

Please do contact me via email if you would like to discuss undertaking a PhD in any of the above areas.

 

  • Han, Xuan
    Women’s experiences of family-programming in museums: A feminist perspective on museums’ role in inclusive education for parents and carers.
  • Sebastian, Olivia
    The Post-Digital Audience: Understanding Institutional Approaches to Aspects of Engagement in the Post-Pandemic
  • Trosclair, Bria Angelle
    Imagining Ontologically Secure Futures with Migrants in Glasgow: Activating Heritage Using PAR?
  • Waisanen, Ryan
    It Takes a Village: A Feminist Exploration of the Educational Impact of Women’s Labor and Community-Building in Small Museums in the Scottish Highlands
  • Xi, Mengqiu
    Diaspora Living Heritage and Identity Formation: A Case Study of the Chinese Community in Glasgow
  • Xu, Ziyue
    Airports and Education: an empirical investigation of positive and negative impacts

Past PhD supervision:

Cassy Kist: Communicating Through Digital Artifacts on Social Media (with Glasgow Life)

Amber Kai Watts: Processing Analog Archives Remotely

Teaching

I lead courses for MSc Museum Education, MSc Museum Education (Online), International Masters (IntM) in Education, Museums and Heritage, and AI and Cultural Education, MSc AI and Digital Education.

Professional activities & recognition

Grant committees & research advisory boards

  • : AHRC Peer Review College, 2022

Additional information

Co-lead for Clippings (CLIP RTG events programme): https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/education/research/clip/clippings/

Researcher unique identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7756-5347

Roles:

  • College of Social Sciences Ethics Committee Member
  • co-Lead for SGSAH Heritage Knowledge Exchange Hub
  • Peer Review College member for the UKRI AHRC.

A smiling woman with mid-length dark blonde hair and glasses.

Dr Nicole Smith on Twitter