Anglia Square: A Love Story

New Routes, Old RootsResearcher Leads Citizen Research Project

Dr Jeannette Baxter, Director of New Routes, Old Rootsis leading the research phases of Anglia Square: A Love Story, a collaborative, participatory research, music and theatre project, which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and which will respond to and record contemporary and historical changes to this iconic area of Norwich’s urban landscape.

Anglia Square has a long and rich history of migration and heritage. In collaboration with The Common LotTheatre Company, led by Simon Floyd, Jeannette is working with more than 100 citizen researchers to explore Anglia Square’s diverse history and heritage, and to produce research that will inspire creative practice and performance. The citizen researcher team is made up of year 6 students at Wensum Junior School and over 50 community researchers from all walks of life.

Jeannette’s research into the German writer and academic, W. G. Sebald, who was a migrant to Norfolk and whose work challenges official representations of history, has allowed her to develop a Sebaldian methodology of creative historical research for non-academic audiences. In the manner of Sebald’s own research and writing practices, Jeannette’s creative research methodology foregrounds randomness and assemblage, rather than systematic mining, and places creativity, story-telling and the imagination on an equal footing with documentary research practices in order to make room for marginalised and ‘lost’ historical voices to emerge. The citizen researchers will use this ‘Sebaldian’ method of creative historical research throughout the life of the project.

What Now…?

Research Phase 1 is happening apace. Researchers are meeting every week to develop action plans and achieve their research aims. To follow project news and developments, please click on the links in this paragraph or click our Anglia Square project tab above.

Here you can also read the Director’s blog and follow how our young researchers at Wensum Junior School are getting on…

Director’s blog 1: Anglia Square: A Love Story

Director’s blog 2: Coffee, Connection and Challenge

Wensum Junior School: Anglia Square Citizen Research