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 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.
I am supervising PhD students researching information practices in secular and religious pilgrimage routes, assessing ethics risks in information systems, 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
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
- God’s intermediaries : a study into chaplains' information behaviour
- Robson Kieran, Ruthven Ian, Innocenti Perla
- Information Seeking in Context 2024 (ISIC2024) (2024)
- Library based walking groups in Scotland : exploring benefits, challenges, and opportunities
- Allan Inga, Innocenti Perla
- Journal of Librarianship and Information Science Vol 56, pp. 514-533 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006221149204
- Pilgrim's progress? A field ethnography of multimodal recording, curating, and sharing of the Camino de Santiago experience
- Innocenti Perla
- Journal of Documentation Vol 80, pp. 218-238 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-10-2022-0213
- Can you feel it? The information behaviour of creative DJs
- Munro Keith, Ruthven Ian, Innocenti Perla
- Journal of Documentation Vol 79, pp. 830-846 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2022-0106
- A grounded theory of information exclusion and information inclusion: framing the information experience of people seeking asylum
- Le Louvier Kahina, Innocenti Perla
- Journal of Documentation Vol 79, pp. 468-486 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-04-2022-0077
- Hiker on trail : information practices in the wild. A mixed methods approach to investigate real-time mobile technology use by long-distance backpackers
- Innocenti Perla, Hyatt Ed, Harvey Morgan
- Library and Information Science Research Vol 44 (2022)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2022.101200
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
- 12th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science (Event)
- Chair
- 1/6/2024
- Engage with Strathclyde: Digital Cultural Heritage: people, data, technology
- Speaker
- 9/5/2024
- iPres 2022 - International Conference on Digital Preservation
- Member of programme committee
- 12/9/2022
- Pilgrim’s Progress? A Field Ethnography of Recording, Curating, and Sharing of the Camino de Santiago Experience
- Speaker
- 7/7/2022
- Walking groups in Scottish public libraries: benefits, challenges, and opportunities
- Speaker
- 7/6/2022
Projects
- 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-Sep-2019 - 31-Aug-2022
- 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-Jun-2017 - 31-Dec-2017
- European Museums in an Age of Migration (MeLa)
- Innocenti, Perla (Principal Investigator)
- European Commission, FP7-SSH, 266757, 01/03/11-28/02/15. Dr Perla Innocenti Principal Investigator.
The aim of MeLa was to define innovative museum practices that reflect the challenges of globalization, mobility and migration. Project Partners:Dip. Progettazione dell'Architettura and Dip. Industrial Design, Arte, Comunicazione e Moda - Politecnico di Milano; CIID - Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design; Department of Curating Contemporary Art - The Royal College of Art; Dip. Studi Americani, Culturali e Linguistici - L'Orientale University of Naples; History of Art - University of Glasgow; Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Department "Homme, nature, société" - Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle/Musée de l'Homme; The International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies - Newcastle University. - 01-Mar-2011 - 28-Feb-2015
- European Collected Library of Artistic Performances (ECLAP)
- Innocenti, Perla (Co-investigator)
- European Commission, CIP-ICT-PSP, 250481, 01/07/2010-30/06/2013, Dr Perla Innocenti co-Investigator (Co-Principal Investigator (PI Dr John Richards). The aim of ECLAP was to contribute to the production and online dissemination of multilingual European heritage in performing arts, using advanced indexing database and delivery tools. Partners: Dipartimento di Sistemi e Informatica, Universitá degli Studi di Firenze (Lead); AXMEDIATECH S.r.l; Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid (The Netherlands); Dario Fo and Franca Rame Archive; ESMAE-IPP - Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo do Porto; Fondazione rinascimento digitale; The Institute of Polish Culture University of Warsaw; Museu de les Arts Escèniques Institut del Teatre de Barcelona; La Maison du Spectacle; Festival International de Films de Femmes de Créteil;MUZEUM - Ljubljana; National Technical University of Athens; Országos Színháztörténeti Múzeum és Intézet; Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology at the University of Cambridge; Universidad de Castilla La Mancha; History of Art Department, University of Glasgow; Centro Teatro Ateneo, Department of Performing Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Rome La Sapienza; Department of Theatre Studies, University of Amsterdam
- 01-Jul-2010 - 30-Jun-2013
- DL.ORG: Coordination Action on Digital Library Interoperability, Best Practices and Modelling Foundations
- Innocenti, Perla (Principal Investigator)
- European Commission, FP7-ICT, 231551, 01/11/08-28/02/11, Dr Perla Innocenti Co-Principal Investigator and Workpackage Leader (PI Prof Seamus Ross).The aim of DL.org was to progress digital library research and tools on interoperability, working against the joint conceptual framework of the DL.org Digital Library Reference Model. Project partners: Institute of Information Science & Technologies at National Research Council of Italy (Lead), Department of Informatics & Telecommunications at University of Athens, University of Glasgow HATII, Trust-IT Services Ltd.
- 01-Nov-2008 - 28-Feb-2011
- Applicability of DRAMBORA in libraries, archives and repositories in Japan
- Innocenti, Perla (Principal Investigator)
- Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, 3349, 2008-2009. Dr Perla Innocenti Principal Investigator. The aim of this project was to investigate the applicability of DRAMBORA toolkit in libraries archives and data centres/repositories in Japan (National Diet Library, National Archives, University libraries) and provide feedbacks for a possible transformation into a localized version.
- 01-Jan-2008 - 31-Dec-2009
Contact
Dr
Perla
Innocenti
Senior Lecturer
Computer and Information Sciences
Email: perla.innocenti@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3595