Sandy Heslop is the project’s Principal Investigator and leads our research programme. Sandy is a world-renowned art historian and has  published on topics as diverse as the Bayeux Tapestry, and Swaffham  parish church. His overarching interest is in making and its place in  human culture. Most of Sandy’s research and teaching has focused on  analyzing the relationship between people and things, and the role of imagination in the creation and reception of artefacts. To contact Sandy by email: t.heslop@uea.ac.uk

Brian Ayers is a Research Fellow and Honorary Senior Lecturer at UEA. He was Assistant Head of Museums & County Archaeologist for Norfolk until 2008. Thereafter he became the Chief Executive of the Butrint Foundation until the end of 2011 (for which organisation he continues as a consultant) and which works to secure preservation of the World Heritage Site of Butrint in Albania. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the Royal Society of Arts and is also a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists. His research interests are the origins and development of medieval towns and their constituent elements (including churches) within the broad North Sea region. He has published numerous papers, principally concerning urban archaeology in general and Norwich in particular, and is the author of Norwich: Archaeology of a Fine City (2009). His most recent book The German Ocean: Medieval Europe around the North Sea was published in summer 2016 (details on our ‘Press and Publications’ page). To contact Brian by email: b.ayers@uea.ac.uk

Clare Haynes is an art historian who specializes in eighteenth-century British religious culture. She has taught at UEA, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Tulsa, USA. Her publications include Pictures and Popery: art and religion in England 1660-1760 (Ashgate, 2006), ‘In the shadow of the idol: religion in British art theory 1600-1800’, Art History, 2012, 25:1, 62-85 and ‘Graphic Satire’ for the forthcoming Cambridge World Shakespeare Encyclopaedia. She has recently completed a book-length manuscript about art in the Church of England 1660-1839. Her work for the project involves surveying visual materials from the post-Reformation period to contribute data to the surveys of the churches, to develop understanding of the ways in which antiquarians and artists have approached church buildings and their fittings and to identify suitable materials for a planned exhibition at the end of the project. In March 2018 Clare was appointed as Senior Research Associate on the HERA funded ‘Herligion’ project, researching the history of St Peter Hungate as a museum. To contact Clare by email: c.haynes@uea.ac.uk

Helen Lunnon trained as a historian and art historian and holds academic qualifications from the University of Reading (BA Hons, History, 1998), University College London (MA, Museum Studies, 1999) and UEA (MA, Medieval History, 2008, and PhD, Art History, 2012). Her research is concerned with the making and reception of art and architecture in medieval England, focusing on East Anglia. She is particularly interested in the late medieval understanding of decorum and appropriateness and how such notions influenced the art and architecture made in the period. In 2015 she co-edited the volume Norwich: Medieval and Early Modern Art, Architecture and Archaeology (Maney Publishing). Helen is a Senior Research Associate on the project, investigating the relationship between people, the churches and their furnishing through the primary written record and surviving artefacts. Helen is also a lecturer in the Department of Art History and World Art Studies at UEA. To contact Helen by email: h.lunnon@uea.ac.uk

Kristi Bain is the Partnership Co-ordinator and Cultural Engagement Fellow for the project, and is responsible for creating opportunities for community engagement, brokering partnerships within the heritage and cultural tourism sectors, and developing and sustaining relationships with stakeholders in the city and Diocese of Norwich. She holds a PhD in Religious Studies (Medieval History and Christianity) from Northwestern University (Evanston, USA). Her research and publications focus specifically on identity, memory and heritage in medieval and contemporary English parish communities.  Her research has been funded by the Medieval Academy of America, the Mellon Foundation in conjunction with the Northwestern University Medieval Studies Cluster, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She is also a Senior Research Associate at UEA and the Parish Outreach Officer at Norwich Cathedral.