Andrew Farrell
Senior Research Fellow
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Andrew Farrell is a geographer, historian and Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Creative Technologies. Drawing on extensive UK and US museum experience, he blends digital and traditional methods to make protected landscapes more accessible.
I currently work for the Broads Authority, looking after the Broads National Park, as well as my role as a Senior Research Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts. I am originally from Alabama and have spent the past eleven years leading community-driven landscape heritage projects across East Anglia, building on my extensive museum experience in the UK and the USA.
My research, fieldwork and exhibitions include archaeological investigations, physical conservation, and historical studies, including recent work with projected augmented reality mapping, restoring historic Broads drainage mills and exploring the cultural impact of 1940s USAAF bases on rural communities across East Anglia.
Today, my core focus is integrating digital technologies with traditional methods to make protected landscapes more accessible physically, intellectually, culturally, and systemically. Some of my current work involves using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), underwater cameras, and sonar to map and document the hidden underwater realms of the rivers and lakes of the Broads. I am also developing work in bioaccoustics both above and under the water.
By revealing these unseen an unheard environments, I hope to encourage a deeper public connection to these internationally significant landscapes, developing practical climate resilience strategies supporting the future of Broads’ heritage.
Research and practice
2026 – “Protecting Place: Why we need creative approaches to face our climate futures” – Norwich University of the Arts Vice Chancellor’s Talks
2025 – “Climate Change and Coastal Futures” panel discussion part of the Shared Seas: Coastal Encounters symposium – Norwich University of the Arts
2024 – “Navigating the Tides of Change: Climate impacts on the Archaeology and Built Heritage of the Broads National Park” – conference paper and talk at Norfolk and Norwich Archaeology Society Coast Climate and Community Conference
2023 – Living in Changing Landscapes
2020 – “Connecting People with the Broads” – Symposium talk as part of New Perspectives on the Rural: Landscape, Community and Creativity – Norwich University of Arts
Other academic activities
Fellow – Royal Geographic Society
2025-2028 Honorary Teaching Fellow – University of East Anglia