Before joining the University of Luxembourg in September 2023, Rhianne worked as a heritage project coordinator for a peace and reconciliation charity in Belfast. During this time she took a participatory led approach in facilitating and supporting community groups to connect with their difficult pasts and worked on projects relating to intersectionality and identity. Rhianne also worked with heritage practitioners from across Northern Ireland to help create a community of best practice. Rhianne is passionate about using participatory practices in her research and work as a vehicle to ensure that marginalized groups and communities feel heard, represented and empowered.
Rhianne completed her PhD titled ‘Leisure, memory and class in post-war Belfast: A case study of the Templemore Avenue Baths’ in 2022. Her research uses the Templemore Avenue Baths in east Belfast as a case study to demonstrate how different factors such as gender, generation, class and ethno-national identity impact upon people’s experiences and memories of leisure in post-war Belfast. Her research also looks at how these components impacted upon local communities’ views of heritage within the area and the regeneration of the Templemore Baths. To be able to explore this understudied area, Rhianne used oral history interviews as her primary methodology. She has done an array of public history initiatives including but not limited to her pop-up exhibition titled ‘Making a splash at the Templemore Baths’, led oral history workshops with local community groups, given public lectures, been a guest on an episode of History Now and is a member of the Centre for Public History at Queen’s University. Rhianne obtained her BA (Hons) History degree from Plymouth University in 2015 and MA degree, also in History, at Queens University in 2017.