Dr Perla Innocenti
Senior Lecturer
Computer and Information Sciences
Personal statement
From October 2019 I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Prof) in Information Science in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS), where I am also member of the Strathclyde iSchool Research Group and Digital Health and Wellness Research Group. In 2024 I became the Chair of the CIS Athena Swan team, leading a successful application which resulted in a departmental Athena Swan bronze award in recognition of our gender equality and inclusion efforts. From 2024 I am leading the CIS GEDI (Gender Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) team.
My overarching interest is in the field of cultural heritage informatics, which is an interdisciplinary lens for investigating questions relating to preservation, access, and wellbeing in the domain of tangible and intangible heritage.
As Principal and Co-Investigator I have researched these questions in several EU-funded and national grants, and secured more than 1.5 million Euros as institutional budget. I am currently the Principal Investigator for the project STRIDE: Supporting communities, TRusted information, Inclusive spaces, heritage Discovery, and wEllbeing in Scottish libraries (2025-2027), funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
I published in peer-reviewed monographs, books, and conference proceedings in the realms of digital preservation for LAMs, digital libraries and repositories, information practices of marginalised groups, digital imaging, museum and art history. My work is currently focussing on information practices, traditions, and wellness in heritage routes, from walking pilgrimages to hiking routes and urban walks.
I am currently supervising PhD students researching information practices in secular and religious pilgrimage routes, and digital preservation practices in national libraries. Doctoral proposals related to my areas of interest are welcome.
Prior to joining the University of Strathclyde, I was Senior Lecturer in Information Science, member of the Northumbria Social Computing Group (NorSC), and Athena SWAN Chair at the University of Northumbria. Before that, I was Research Fellow in the School of Cultural and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow, where I was also awarded my doctorate and led research in several EU-funded projects as PI, Co-I and researcher. In Italy I held a research scholarship on information systems for industrial design at Politecnico di Milano, and coordinated digital libraries’ activities and projects. I also conducted research on museum history and museography with Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Goppion Laboratorio Museotecnico, National Institute of Art and Archaeology in Rome, and the National Gallery in Bologna.
Area of Expertise
- Cultural Heritage Informatics
- Information management
- Risk assessment and audit for information systems
- Serious Leisure
- Digital preservation methods and technologies
- Digital imaging for cultural heritage
- Museum and art history
- Qualitative research methods
- Mixed-Methods
- Field Ethnographies
- User Studies
- User Centred Design
Prize And Awards
- George Greenia Research Fellowships in Pilgrimage Studies
- Recipient
- 6/11/2024
Qualifications
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), 2015 – present
- PhD (2013) School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, UK
- Master in Management and Communication of Cultural Heritage (2000) Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Italy
- Four-years degree in Humanities - History of Modern Art (1999) University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy, 110/110 cum laude
- Certified PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments, version 2) Practitioner, APMG. Registration number P2R/573108
Publications
- Assessing digital preservation training needs in cultural heritage institutions in Saudi Arabia
- Albushra Ghaliah, Innocenti Perla
- Information Research Vol 31, pp. 465-478 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.47989/ir31iConf64256
- Breaking down barriers and building bridges : social outreach and engagement in audio-visual heritage at the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive
- Robertson Vhari, Innocenti Perla
- Journal of Librarianship and Information Science Vol 58, pp. 197-209 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006241296525
- Digital preservation training needs in cultural heritage institutions : a systematic review and conceptual framework
- Albushra Ghaliah Mohammed A, Innocenti Perla, Halvey Martin
- 2025 IEEE International Conference on Cyber Humanities (IEEE-CH) IEEE International Conference on Cyber Humanities, pp. 1-7 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1109/IEEE-CH65308.2025.11279342
- Proceedings of CoLIS: 12th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science – University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, 2nd-5th June 2025 : Full and Short Papers
- Innocenti Perla, Nicol Emma, Pharo Nils, Ruthven Ian
- Information Research Vol 30 (2025)
- Adjunct Proceedings of CoLIS : 12th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science
- Noone Rebecca, Ibekwe Fidelia, Innocenti Perla, Nicol Emma, Ruthven Ian
- (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00092915
- Preface, Organisation, and Table of Content : Proceedings of CoLIS: 12th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science
- Innocenti Perla, Nicol Emma, Ruthven Ian
- Information Research Vol 30 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.47989/ir30CoLIS54709
Research Interests
- Cultural Heritage Informatics
- Digital Preservation and Curation
- Migration and social inclusion
- Information practices in heritage routes, from walking pilgrimages to hiking routes
- Ethics challenges in information systems
Professional Activities
- 12th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science (Event)
- Editor
- 2/6/2025
- IEEE International Conference on Cyber Humanities
- Chair
- 10/2024
- "Not all those who wander are lost": researching information practices in pilgrimage and hiking routes
- Speaker
- 17/9/2024
- Engage with Strathclyde: Digital Cultural Heritage: people, data, technology
- Speaker
- 9/5/2024
- 12th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science (Event)
- Chair
- 1/3/2024
- 12th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science
- Organiser
- 2/2024
Projects
- the value of a library school
- Ruthven, Ian (Principal Investigator) Chowdhury, Gobinda (Co-investigator) Dobreva, Milena (Co-investigator) Innocenti, Perla (Co-investigator) Nicol, Emma (Co-investigator)
- 15-Jan-2025 - 14-Jan-2026
- Supporting Communities, TRusted Information, Inclusive spaces, heritage Discovery, and wEllbeing in Scottish Libraries
- Innocenti, Perla (Principal Investigator) Muirhead, Fiona (Co-investigator)
- 03-Jan-2025 - 02-Jan-2027
- Understand the Impact of Novel Technologies, Social Media, and Perceptions in Countries Abroad on Migration Flows and the Security of the EU & Provide Validated Counter Approaches, Tools and Practices
- Innocenti, Perla (Co-investigator)
- European Commission, H2020-SU-SEC-2018, 833870, 01/09/19-31/08/22. Dr Perla Innocenti Co-Investigator and Workpackage 4 co-Leader (PI Prof Shaun Lawson). Project coordinator: SYNYO GmbH; 25 partners.
The aim of the PERCEPTIONS project is to identify and understand the narratives and (mis-)perceptions of the EU abroad, assess potential issues related with the border and external security in order to allow better planning and outline reactions and countermeasures. - 01-Jan-2019 - 31-Jan-2022
- Information dynamics in extreme environments: ultra-adventure racing
- Innocenti, Perla (Co-investigator)
- Internally funded by CIS dept, University of Northumbria. Lead: Ed Hyatt; collaborators: Dr Morgan Harvey, Dr Matt Pointon, and Dr Perla Innocenti. Fieldwork experiment designed to consider human computer interaction, information behaviour, and information retrieval. This is facilitated by studying participants of The Great Outdoors Challenge (TGO) 2019 on their journeys through the Scottish Highlands; a trip which entails cross-country travel in conditions requiring overnight camps and complex navigation.
The project will develop understanding of recreationalist’s human-computer interactions and their impacts via the collection of data sets generated during this event. Data was gathered via satellite trackers and communicators, screen capture of mobile devices, and various associated metrics. This original project brings together research on information behaviour and mobile interface design, search, and interaction.
Publications under way. - 01-Jan-2019
- Pilgrimage as information context: recording, sharing, and curating experiences in a networked world
- Innocenti, Perla (Principal Investigator)
- Internally funded by CIS Dept, University of Northumbria. PI Dr Perla Innocenti; co-I in second phase Ed Hyatt and Dr Christina Vasiliou. This ethnographic study on the Camino de Santiago routes is designed to consider the human computer interaction, information behaviour, digital curation practices of pilgrims and implications for co-curated heritage collections. The project originally extends and complements a nascent body of work on pilgrimage in Information Science, Heritage and HCI communities.
Two fieldworks took places between 2018 and 2019 in Spain and France; publications under way. - 01-Jan-2018
- A Taste of Home. Understanding and sharing food heritage of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Newcastle
- Innocenti, Perla (Principal Investigator)
- Arts Council England, 01/06/17-31/12/17. Dr Perla Innocenti Principal Investigator.This pilot project aims to gain a preliminary understanding and share food heritage knowledge and practices migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Project partners: Discovery Museum (TWAM) and Seven Stories | The National Centre for Children's Books. Charities involved: The Comfrey Project and Investing in People and Culture. - 01-Jan-2017 - 31-Jan-2017
Contact
Dr
Perla
Innocenti
Senior Lecturer
Computer and Information Sciences
Email: perla.innocenti@strath.ac.uk
Tel: Unlisted