Dr David Farrell-Banks

Lecturer in Heritage

Biography

Background

Dr David Farrell-Banks is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work focuses on the impact of the past on everyday lives in the present. 

His research background is in museums, heritage and cultural memory. David completed his PhD at Newcastle University in 2021, with work interrogating uses of the past in museums, heritage sites and political discourse now published as the monograph Affect and Belonging in Political Uses of the Past (2022, Routledge). He has since worked on the Museums, Crisis and Covid-19 project at Ulster University, and as a Practitioner Research Associate, specialising in collections and participation, at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge. He has published on a variety of topics including activist pedagogies in museums, galleries and heritage studies; co-creation of museum exhibitions; and the relationship between far right action, heritage and memory.

David joined the University of Edinburgh in 2025 as Lecturer in Heritage and Co-Director of the MSc Cultural Heritage Futures programme at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Alongside his research and teaching work, David is a heritage and museum practitioner. His recent work at the Fitzwilliam Museum explored the potential for increased agency of community voices in the work of the museum, and potentials for organisational change through participation. 

He is a member of the steering committee for the UK Participatory Research Network.

 

Postgraduate teaching

Programme Co-Director: 

  • Cultural Heritage Futures

Course organiser:

  • Critical Heritage: Politics of the Past
  • Heritage Data Activism

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

No

Research summary

Dr Farrell-Banks' core research interests are focused on uses of the past in our everyday lives in the present. Subject areas include:

  • Cultural memory
  • Heritage and participation
  • The political role of museums
  • Heritage in sports (with a focus on football fandom) 
  • Uses of the past in far right politics

 

 

Current research interests

My current research work is focused on two themes. Museums, Heritage and Participatory Practice: Drawing from my work as a practitioner researcher at the Fitzwilliam Museum, this research explores the role of increasing participatory practice in the life of museums as a catalyst for organisational change. Memory, heritage and nostalgia in football support: exploring the role that heritage and memory plays in modern football support, particular in response to global shifts in ownership of football clubs.

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