Centre of Port Cities and Maritime Cultures Photos

Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures

Exploring urban and maritime experiences: past, present and future

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The Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures focuses on the past, present and future importance of urban-maritime cultures and communities within a global context.

The increasing concern about social and economic deprivation in coastal communities has underscored the importance of focusing scholarly work on the waterfront. We're dedicated to investigating the opportunities that exist for cultural and heritage enrichment initiatives and community engagement programmes in this area.

Working with academics, creative practitioners, funders and local community groups, we explore the relationships between urban and maritime spaces and seek to empower our disadvantaged communities.

The Centre produces a newsletter called every other month. The next newsletter is out in January. To subscribe email pcmc@port.ac.uk.   

Latest news

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Women in maritime exhibition poster

Landmark women in maritime exhibition comes to СÀ¶ÊÓƵ

16 July 2024

Landmark women in maritime exhibition comes to СÀ¶ÊÓƵ
Mary Rose MOU

СÀ¶ÊÓƵ and Mary Rose Trust forge strategic partnership for maritime heritage

22 May 2024

СÀ¶ÊÓƵ and Mary Rose Trust forge strategic partnership for maritime heritage
Hong Kong skyline at night

From steam to green: Lloyd's Register Foundation funds maritime energy transition research to understand impact on coastal communities

30 April 2024

From steam to green: Lloyd's Register Foundation funds maritime energy transition research to understand impact on coastal communities
phd

PhD scholarships will investigate ‘hidden treasures’ to help plan for the future of local institutions

22 April 2024

PhD scholarships will investigate ‘hidden treasures’ to help plan for the future of local institutions
MRT and UoP

СÀ¶ÊÓƵ and Mary Rose Trust forge strategic alliance for maritime excellence

26 October 2023

СÀ¶ÊÓƵ and Mary Rose Trust forge strategic alliance for maritime excellence

Latest blogs

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Large ship at industrial port, loading containers

Podcast focuses on shipping and energy transitions: from sail to steam and to the green technologies of the future

Guy Collender

Podcast focuses on shipping and energy transitions: from sail to steam and to the green technologies of the future
UoP USE ONLY

Call for Papers: Port Cities and Maritime Cultures International Conference, 10-11 June 2025

Guy Collender

Call for Papers: Port Cities and Maritime Cultures International Conference, 10-11 June 2025
Shipwreck on the shore by a beach

How history can teach us to prevent deaths at sea

Guy Collender

How history can teach us to prevent deaths at sea

Podcast explores the unique port city of СÀ¶ÊÓƵ: from banana imports to conserving HMS Victory

Guy Collender

Podcast explores the unique port city of СÀ¶ÊÓƵ: from banana imports to conserving HMS Victory
Blackpool beach

Labour has been virtually silent on Britain’s neglected seaside towns – they need a national strategy

Guy Collender

Labour has been virtually silent on Britain’s neglected seaside towns – they need a national strategy

Our work focuses on the following key themes:

EDUCATIONAL LICENSE
Centre of Port Cities and Maritime Cultures Photos

Construction and experience of urban-maritime cultures

  • We're researching the extent to which urban-maritime contexts were and are unique sites of cultural formation.
  • We're exploring key themes related to cultural construction, such as whether urban-maritime spaces are shaped by international migratory networks.
Centre of Port Cities and Maritime Cultures Photos
The Thomas Rowlandson image is in the public domain, with no exclusive IP rights

Representations of urban-maritime spaces and cultures

  • We're exploring how urban-maritime spaces are represented in historical and contemporary literary, film and media contexts.
  • We seek to understand how past narratives of urban-maritime spaces have affected our perception of port cities and maritime cultures.
EDUCATIONAL LICENSE
Centre of Port Cities and Maritime Cultures Photos

Recovering marginalised voices: Coastal communities and maritime heritage

  • We're researching how our dominant urban-maritime heritage is selected and promoted, and how that can be questioned.
  • We actively work with coastal communities in co-producing a shared heritage in nationally and international contexts.
EDUCATIONAL LICENSE
Centre of Port Cities and Maritime Cultures Photos

Conservation of tangible and intangible heritage

  • We're researching how we can develop innovative ways of conserving tangible and intangible heritage.
  • Our key aim is to develop inclusive methods of heritage conservation. 

Publication highlights

  • Various authors. (2021- ), "Global Studies in Social and Cultural Maritime History", Palgrave Macmillan

    This series seeks to reconnect the maritime sphere with broader social and cultural histories across the globe. It looks to an emergent area of historiography: how the maritime was a space of global social and cultural exchange.

  • Sage Journals.

    Coastal Studies & Society aims to coordinate and direct sustained attention to the relationship between the land and sea and society that comprises a nature-culture hybrid territory which has appeared at the periphery of so many academic inquiries, but at the centre of too few.


Research projects

Our members

Co-Directors

Bradley Beaven Portrait

Professor Brad Beaven

Professor of Social and Cultural History

Bradley.Beaven@port.ac.uk

School of Area Studies, Sociology, History, Politics, and Literature

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

PhD Supervisor

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Karl Bell Portrait

Media ready expert

Dr Karl Bell

Associate Professor in Cultural and Social History

Karl.Bell@port.ac.uk

School of Area Studies, Sociology, History, Politics, and Literature

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

PhD Supervisor

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PhD students

  • Charlotte Chan
  • Max Dixon
  • Jaina Hunt
  • Jack Hunter
  • Oscar Karlsson
  • Callum O’Connell
  • Stephanie Rickson
  • Daniel Rowley
  • Charlotte Steffen
  • Daisy Turnbull
  • Corey Watson

Associate members

  • , Professor of History and Material Culture Studies and Associate Dean of Research, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London
  • Dr John Griffiths, Independent Scholar
  • , Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Literature - University of Kobe, Japan
  • , Professor of Literature - University of Glasgow
  • , Professor of Japanese Historical Literature - University of Kobe, Japan
  • Professor Isaac Land, Professor of History - Indiana State University, USA
  • , Independent Scholar
  • , Curator Emeritus - National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
  • , Technical Lead - Heritage, Legacy and Sustainable Impact - Transport for Wales
  • , Archaeologist - Rio Göteborg Natur- & Kulturkooperativ, Sweden
  • , Senior Lecturer in History - Halmstad University, Sweden
  • , Queens College - City University of New York, USA
  • , Research Fellow - Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan
  • , Director of the Academy of Chinese, History, Religion, and Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences - Hong Kong Baptist University

Podcasts

Related research areas

Our work also spans these research areas:

History

We're understanding our society through the study of experiences, culture, values and activities of people throughout history. 

Young girls on a march in Eastern Europe
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Area studies

We're exploring international relations, history, politics, economies, cultures, languages and geography across specific regions.

river boat holidays
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English literature

We're researching how literature provides insight and understanding into the lives of other individuals, communities and cultures.

Close-up of paperback books on a table
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Physical and human geography

We're researching physical and human geography and the causes and effects of social and environmental crises, and finding solutions to these problems.

Road leading away from viewer in Monument Valley
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