Josh Bland

Josh Bland is a funded ESRC PhD researcher at the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre, University of Cambridge. His research specialisms are football culture, industrial heritage and “home”. His current PhD project explores how involvement in cultures of football support empowers working-class communities to exercise cultural resilience against deindustrialisation in the Northeast of England.

He previously led a Curating London project on football and home at the Museum of London and worked as Director of Policy for sports policy think tank Fair Game.

I have extensive experience as a researcher of sport culture, in academia and policy. This encompasses my PhD research career, where I have been embedded as a funded researcher at the University of Cambridge's Heritage Research Centre for 3 years. Not only have I been carrying out my funded PhD, but also teaching on the MPhil Heritage Studies course.

I have also previously worked as Director of Policy at Fair Game, where I was responsible for developing policy solutions and managing a team of over 40 academics and experts.

I am close to completing my ESRC-funded PhD at the University of Cambridge.