Senior Lecturer – History of Art and Design

Research

My research focuses on place, space and memory within the post-World War Two English Council Estate.

In June 2011, I convened a one -day symposium entitled 'The History and Heritage of the Post-war Council Estate: exploring changing landscapes and cultural life' at Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln, which attracted over fifty participants from academia, English Heritage, Historic Scotland, the Twentieth Century Society, the Pevsner Trust, local government and the social housing sector.

I am particularly developing a study that examines the history of the Middlefield Lane estate in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, which was completed in 1964. The study proposes to look at the physical and social spaces of the estate as originally planned and in relation to the experiences and memories of the estate’s residents, past and present.

For more details, and the work in progress, please see my blogspot, ‘An instance of a changed society’ at http://instancesofachangedsociety.blogspot.com/  

I would welcome contributions to this site and – especially – any reminiscences, old photos etc. from anyone who lived on the Middlefield Lane estate from 1964 onward.

Postgraduate Supervision

Recent successful MPhil/PhD supervisions on:

The representation of the Scottish highland habitat in the paintings of Edwin Landseer,

The life and work of German Enlightenment figure, Jacob Christian Schaffer (1718-1790).

The life and work of the artist, William Hilton RA (1786-1839)

Current PhD supervision:

The work and artistic circle of William Logsdail (1859-1944)

I would be interested in hearing from students who are considering study for either an MPhil and PhD in the areas of English landscape art and rural society c.1700-2000; British Art c.1700-2000, and British Popular Culture and Social History 1945-1980

Funded Research

Between 2007 and 2010 I was involved in an AHRC-funded collaborative project (with colleagues from the Universities of Hertfordshire and Sussex, and English Heritage) entitled 'Changing landscapes, changing environments: enclosure and culture in Northamptonshire, 1700-1900'.

The project was one of 10 successful bids out of 120 applications, for an AHRC large research grant programme centred on a theme of ‘Landscape and Environment’. The team was awarded a total of £400,000 for the three-year project.

My role in the project was to examine pictorial and literary representations of the Northamptonshire landscape before, during and after enclosure. In particular, I looked at the work of the little-known regional artist, George Clarke of Scaldwell, Northamptonshire.

The project website – http://northamptonshirelandscapes.co.uk/ contains an online gallery of Clarke’s work, as well as further information on the project and its findings.

Recent publications and papers:

Conference Papers:

‘The life and death of a council estate shopping area: ‘The Precinct’, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire 1965-2000’. The History and Heritage of the Post-war Council Estate: exploring changing landscapes and cultural life. Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln, 30 June 2011.

‘Places in which I forgot things: Culture, Memory and the English Council Estate in the paintings of George Shaw’. The Cultural Role of Architecture, University of Lincoln, 23-25 June 2010.

Book Chapter:

'The Common Field Landscape, Cultural Commemoration and the Impact of Enclosure, c.1770-1850' in Matthew Cragoe and Paul Readman (eds), The Land Question in Britain 1750-1950, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pp. 19-36.

Journal Articles:

‘Extensive fields of our forefathers’: Some Prospect Drawings of Common Fields in Northamptonshire by Peter Tillemans, c.1719-1721’, Midland History, Volume 36, Number 1, Spring 2011.

 ‘‘The prospect far and wide’: An eighteenth century drawing of Langley Bush and Helpston’s unenclosed countryside’ in John Clare Society Journal, 26, July 2009, pp. 5-22.

Forthcoming publications

Monograph in preparation: The Common Field Landscape in Art 1700-1850. To be published by Boydell and Brewer, Spring 2013.

In September 2011, I received a Marc Fitch Fund publication award (£700) to assist with the reproduction of illustrations for this book.

Other links:
http://ulincoln.academia.edu/ianwaites/About