Sophie Hatchwell

Dr Sophie Hatchwell is an Art Historian, who researches visual culture in Britain in the 20th century, with a particular focus on the relationships between art writing and display cultures. She is Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, and as part of her role, work closely with museums and galleries across the Midlands, through the Midlands Art Papers project. Sophie also co-convened the British Art Network Research Group Post War Painting in Regional Collections since 2018. She is currently researching inter- and post-war display cultures in local and regional contexts, and analysing how art writing frames reception and audiences’ experiences of art. Sophie works within and around two overarching areas of investigation: exploring and re-thinking interpretation and experience in an arts and heritage education context; and digital humanities, where she has worked with colleagues across institutions to investigate how digital technology can provide new ways to conduct and disseminate research, and how this can lead to new thinking about the aims and practices of historical study in the field of visual culture.