Anna is a Senior Lecturer in Museum and Heritage Studies in the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries (CMCI). Anna holds a PhD from the University of Leicester exploring social inclusion and the geography of school visits to museums. Her PhD was co-funded by the ESRC and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Anna comes from a policy and museum practice background, and has worked in policy and museum sector roles, including posts at the Fitzwilliam Museum (University of Cambridge) and the British Dental Association Museum, among others.

Anna has been involved as PI or Co-I on the following AHRC funded projects: ‘Integrating forms of Care: Building Communities of Practice around Reserve Collections’ and ‘Enduring Connections, Heritage, Sustainable Development and Climate Change in Kiribati’ as well as the Who Cares? project from which the volume 'Exploring Emotion, Care and Enthusiasm in “unloved” Collections' was published.

She is co-PI on the 'New futures of care: investigating emotionally laden work in museums' project funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

Anna is an interdisciplinary researcher focusing on the management of museum and archival collections and wider issues of change in the museum and heritage sector. She is interested in supervising PhD projects on the following topics:

• Emotional labour and affective practices in the museum and heritage sector.
• The management of collections in the context of rapid sectoral and societal change.
• Contemporary collecting practices.
• Topics relating to stored museum collections.
• Heritage and climate change.
• Museum and heritage policy in the UK and Internationally especially relating to collections.

Anna is not currently accepting new PhD applications.

Teaching

Anna teaches subjects that are closely aligned to her research interests in museums and heritage organisations including museum and heritage audiences, the challenges of managing collections and the shifting meanings and values associated with collections. Anna is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

Selected Publications

• No man is an island entire of itself: Legal Frameworks and the Relocation of a Nation's Archive due to Rising Sea Levels, Woodham, A., & Gordon-Clark, M. (2021) Comma, (Journal of the International Council on Archives) Vol. 2, pp.345-362. 
• Exploring Emotion, Care and Enthusiasm in "unloved" Museum Collections Woodham, A., Woodham, A. (ed.), Smith, R. (ed.) & Hess, A. (ed.), 31 Jul 2020, Leeds: Arc Humanities Press. (Collection Development, Cultural Heritage and Digital Humanities).
• Mobilising the Energy in Store: stored collections, enthusiast experts and the ecology of heritageElizabeth, H. & Woodham, A., 30 Oct 2019, In: The Science Museum Group Journal. Autumn 2019, 12.
• We Are What We Keep: The “family archive”, identity and public/private heritage Woodham, A., King, L., Gloyn, E., Crewe, V. & Blair, F., 4 Mar 2019, In: Heritage and Society. 10, 3, p. 203-220.
• Museum Studies and Heritage: independent museums and the 'heritage debate' in the UK Woodham, A. L., 1 Nov 2018, A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Watson, S., Barnes, A. J. & Bunning, K. (eds.). abingdon: Routledge, p. 29 (Leicester Readers in Museum Studies).