The Centre has 5 hubs which each run activities, support grant applications and host visiting scholars/consultants.

Theories & Methods

Hub lead, Tanja Romankiewicz

The Theories and Methods Hub sees itself as the hothouse of the Centre where we propagate our thinking about how and why we want to put the past into practice. This spans from a theoretical underpinning of concepts and terminology to methodological questions of performing and translating the past into the future. Our first step is the inauguration of a Reading Group.

Digital

Hub lead, James Cook

We also entering a period in which the technological means for reconstruction have opened a range of new possibilities.

• AI & machine learning can help fill in historical gaps or simulate missing data.
• 3D scanning and photogrammetry allow for extremely accurate reconstructions of sites and artifacts.
• Augmented & virtual reality (AR/VR) are opening new ways to present reconstructed histories to the public or for research.

This hub is designed to help scholars leverage these new technologies, continuing to push their cutting-edge use within reconstruction practices. In conjunction with Digital Library staff at UCreate, we will help to train scholars less familiar with the possibilities afforded by them. On the flip side, this technology can create historical conjecture which increasingly looks and feels real, and the digital hub will help to explore the ethical and scholarly ramifications of this.

Experiment & Embodiment

Hub lead, Jill Burke

The Experiment and Embodiment Hub focuses on hands-on reconstruction. We organise monthly events during semester where participants try out historic or lost activities. We host visiting scholars in the Historical Reconstruction Lab and support students and colleagues who wish to incorporate historical reconstruction into their research projects.

Education

Hub leads, Aaron Allen and Beatrijs de Groot

The Education Hub focuses on supporting experiential and experimental reconstruction education. We organise educational resources, workshops and activities to enhance and expand reconstruction learning and teaching.

Creative Worlds

Hub lead, Jess Bailey

This hub engages with creative practitioners and the media to think how the use of past techniques and technologies can help improve the world today. We organise workshops with artists, curators and museum professionals that are open to the public.