Dr Alex Buchanan BA (hons), MSc, PhD, Dip. Arch & RM, FSA

Reader in Archive Studies History

    About

    Personal Statement

    I've been at the University of Liverpool since 2007, having previously worked as an archivist at The Clothworkers Company and Lambeth Palace Library in London.

    I am Co-Director of the Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies (LUCAS) and was President of the Archives and Records Association (UK and Ireland) between 2016 and 2019.

    My research sits at the intersection between Archives and Architectural History. I trained as an archivist and records manager after post-doctoral research at the RIBA Library and the Cambridge University Library, where I catalogued the papers of architectural historians John Bilson and Robert Willis. This fired my interest both in archival practice and in record-keeping as an area of research in its own right. I have particular interests in the materiality of archives and in archives as inspiration for future action; I am also interested in antiquarianism and how the past's traces have been understood and used in the past.

    I have also maintained my interest in architecture, through Tracing the Past, an interdisciplinary research project exploring how digital methods can assist in understanding the design and construction of medieval vaults.

    Funded Fellowships

    • Research Fellowship (Henry Moore Institute, 2009)