Roots and Futures in Sheffield: Growing Heritage Around Communities

For this bonus episode of S2 Recovering Community, Sheffield resident and dedicated community volunteer Aisha Jones talks to Les Back about the invisible role that migrant communities have played in building the heritage of their city.

Les spent the day in Sheiffled to learn about Roots and Futures, an extraordinary project which explores how the stories of underepresented communities can be better reflected in the histories we write.

Episode Description

For this special bonus edition of Recovering Community, Les Back travels south of the border to Sheffield to look at how rethinking the relationship between heritage and local communities can make them more inclusive, particularly for the most marginalised.  

Here, the Roots and Futures project is listening to the perspectives of under-served communities, particularly Sheffield's Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in seven locations across the city. The project is informing city-level heritage strategies in partnership with Joined Up Heritage Sheffield, Sheffield City Council, University of Sheffield, and community partners including Zest, SOAR, Sheffield and District African Caribbean Community Association, Care for Young People’s Future, ChilyPep, Manor and Castle Development Trust, and Heeley City Farm.

This all might seem like a long way from Glasgow but Roots and Futures is part of the AHRC’s Place-Based Research Programme which is based at the University of Glasgow. People rooted in local communities are absolutely essential to this kind of co-production and Les spends time with just a few of the people involved in this ambitious project:

  • Aisha Jones has lived in Sheffield for over 20 years and is a dedicated community volunteer
  • Lizzy Craig-Atkins is Professor of Human Osteology at the University of Sheffield and the principal investigator of Roots and Futures
  • Rhonda Allen is a Research Associate in the Roots and Futures Project in the DSchool of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Sheffield
  • Izzy Carter is a historian and the co-investigator of Roots and Futures - much of her work is connected to place and working with communities
  • Robin Hughes, who is a trustee of Joined Up Heritage Sheffield

Many thanks to them all for sharing their time and expertise.

Find out more about Roots and Futures here: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/roots-and-futures  

We’re already working on plans for our next episodes, but your feedback, comments and questions are always so welcome. You can get in touch with Les via X: https://x.com/AcademicDiary or by email.

If you’re interested in podcasting as part of your academic research, please do share your work or what you’re listening to, we are interested to hear what other people are working on. Thanks to the staff in the School of Social and Political Sciences and the College of Social Sciences who helped with this project.

Recovering Community is produced by Freya Hellier.