Heritage Facilities
At the University of Exeter, our heritage resources are second to none. We have top-quality facilities, including our library, collections and archives. Below are the facilities available on our campuses that can be used as part of collaborative research projects.
Digital Humanities Lab
Our £1.2million Digital Humanities Lab and research space provides state-of-the-art facilities for our academics and students, and is also available to external organisations who wish to commission the Digital Lab and its team for specific pieces of work and services. It provides research space for the examination and preservation of important historical, literary and visual artefacts. Through the integration of advanced digital methods, including digital exhibitions, professional quality video, audio and 3D digitisation, our research, teaching and collaborative projects with partners are being enriched.
Bill Douglas Cinema Museum
Home to one of the largest collections of material relating to the moving image in Britain, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum is located on the University’s Streatham Campus. Being an accredited public museum and academic research facility, it offers a fascinating insight into the heritage of Britain’s entertainment industry, and the encircling dynamics of society. Museum items are used in external consultations and exhibitions, as well as within the seminar works and module programmes of the College of Humanities, particularly in the departments of English and Film Studies, Modern Languages, History, Drama, and Classics.
Exeter is also home to The Centre for Interdisciplinary Film Research (CIFR), which fosters a cross-departmental research environment that has proven remarkably productive for prospective employers, graduates and academics alike.
FX Plus Archive and Special Collections
The archive on our Penryn campus is also home to a wide range of Special Collections, with staff on hand to offer skills advice for use. The archive brings together original records with book collections, including Charles Wood’s slide collection; the Camborne School of Mines archive; and the Cornish Performance Archive, featuring Kneehigh and WildWorks theatres, unpublished Cornish art history and papers from the Institute of Cornish Studies. Penryn’s archives are unique, eclectic and inspiring, making them valued heritage sources for use in research and creative practice by both internal and external users.
BioCultural Hive
A new facility, the Biocultural Heritage Information in a Virtual Environment (HIVE), is set to be established at the University of Exeter to provide secure storage for physical remains of ancient humans, animals, and plants, alleviating space constraints in museum archives. This facility will create a comprehensive database of digital 3D files and analytical data, preserving materials subjected to scientific destructive analyses and enabling global access to archaeological records. Funded by a grant from the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Biocultural HIVE is part of a broader initiative that includes 31 projects aimed at enhancing the UK heritage economy.
SHArD 3D Lab
The Science, Heritage and Archaeology Digital 3D (SHArD 3D) Laboratory is the Department of Archaeology & History’s AHRC-funded digital imaging lab, focusing on the acquisition and analysis of 3D data in heritage science. SHArD 3D provides critical new capacity to heritage and forensic professionals to meet the demand in emerging and increasingly mainstream digital technologies, and at its core provides a state-of-the-art facility for training Exeter students and staff as experts in sophisticated digital skills for preserving our shared cultural heritage.
Digital Archive of the Middle East
DAME
The Digital Archive of the Middle East is a three-year research project, a collaboration between the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS) at the University of Exeter and the Institute for International and Area Studies (IIAS) at Tsinghua University, building upon the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding established between the two institutions. By using new technologies to digitise selected parts of the University’s collections of material from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the project aims to open up a series of research questions about the potential for digitisation in advancing research.
Arts & Culture
Arts & Culture champions creativity by providing the time, space and opportunities needed for creative and interdisciplinary collaborations to flourish. Whether you’re a student, staff member, researcher, lecturer, artist, work within a cultural organisation, or are just plain curious, discover more about how best we could support you.
Institute of Cornish Studies
Established in 1971, the Institute of Cornish Studies (ICS) represents a unique collaborative venture between the then Cornwall County Council and the University of Exeter. ICS aims to deepen our understanding of Cornwall's history, present, and future through collaborative academic research. Organised around four key themes—Culture, Heritage and Society; Politics and Government; Economy and Business; and Environment and Health—the ICS brings together research conducted at the University of Exeter's Truro and Penryn campuses, fostering dialogue among the public, government officials, business leaders, and the charity sector.
Arab World documentation Unit
AWDU provides unique collections on Arab Gulf states: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, United Arab Emirates as well as the wider Arab world including Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan. The collections are mainly documentary reference material such as statistical data, country reports, official publications, political opposition newsletters and Pan-Arab literature. The Unit holds archival, historical and sociological material from the mid-18th century onwards, such as the Bombay Diaries (now held in Special Collections), as well as microfilms from British, American, Indian, French and Portuguese government archives (these can be found in the Old Library) and volumes of reproduced documents from the British Public Records Office published by Archive Editions.
Exeter Archaeology Archive
This project follows on from the completion of the archiving of the pre-1990 Exeter sites at the Archaeology Data Service by Cotswold Archaeology, with funding from Historic England and in partnership with the city council, which has been launched online and includes selected summary “green” reports written by Exeter Archaeology and archive materials. Also available is an interactive map of sites relating to the Legionary Fortress and the City defences, and new introductions provided by Paul Bidwell and Stuart Blaylock. The archive reports can be found on the Archaeology Data Service's website.
CSM Virtual Museum
The CSM (Camborne School of Mines) museum is a small museum on the Penryn University Campus in Cornwall, Southwest England. The museum supports the educational and research activities within Camborne School of Mines. Exhibitions relate to the mining heritage of Cornwall, the history of the School of Mines, and includes an extensive collection of mineralogical and geological specimens.
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