Kostas Arvanitis

Biography

Kostas is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Museology, Institute for Cultural Practices, University of Manchester. He has a MA and PhD in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester and a first degree in History and Archaeology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

His research interests cross the fields of museology, archaeology, cultural heritage, and digital media. His expertise lies in the area of Digital Heritage that includes the theory and practice of digital technology in museums, galleries and heritage sites. He’s particularly interested in the museology of technology, that is the critical analysis of the use of digital, social and mobile media in museums for purposes of curation, interpretation, evaluation and audience engagement. Recently, he has been investigating the parameters and potential of the emergence of a "data culture" and "data-driven decision making" in cultural organisations (Culture Metrics Project, funded by the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts: Big Data strand). He’s also interested in the intersection of heritage activism and digital/social media and, in particular, the role and impact of social media in: the co-production and crowd-sourcing of interpretations of the past; how these interact with notions of authority in cultural professionalism; and the formation and maintenance of (online) communities and networks of interest in cultural heritage. His other research interests include: how museums have collected, interpreted and exhibited everyday life; professionalism in museums and galleries; and the interpretation and communication of archaeological collections and built heritage.

Areas of expertise

• AM Museums (General). Collectors and collecting (General) - Digital Heritage, Digital Humanities, Museums and digital media, museums and everyday life, data culture
• CC Archaeology - public archaeology, museum archaeology, archaeological curatorship

Research Networks and Beacons

• Manchester Informatics