Imogen Coulson joined the University of Amsterdam in October 2024 as a PhD candidate in the Media Studies Department and the Amsterdam School of Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM). Her PhD is part of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) funded HAICu project which investigates the application of Artificial Intelligence methods to multimodal cultural heritage data. Within this broader project, Imogen’s research focusses on polyvocality – the trend towards the inclusion of multiple perspectives in and around cultural heritage collections. The project seeks to understand what perspectives are present as well as those that are absent or silenced, and the relationships between these different perspectives and data sources. Furthermore, her research engages with practices of care and ethical questions regarding the uses of AI technologies and tools in relation to CH collections. Since 2021, Imogen has worked for the Digital Benin project, and she continues to collaborate with colleagues in this project alongside her PhD as Project Researcher.

Between 2019 and 2021, Imogen worked as Project Curator for the Lower Niger Bronzes Research Project. Based in the Africa Section at the British Museum, this role focussed on provenance and collection histories research. She completed an MA in the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia in 2018 after graduating with a BA (Hons) in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 2017.

Imogen’s research interests include digital heritage, AI, restitution and repatriation, provenance, as well as questions of ethics, care and collaborative methodologies within these spheres.