Boryana Ivanova

Thesis title

Heritage in Transition: Christchurch Mansion and the Making of Ipswich’s Civic Identity

Supervisory team

The research is jointly supervised by Dr. Carla Molinari and Prof. Maria Vogiatzaki at ARU, and Alison Hall and Dr. Aurogeeta Das at Colchester and Ipswich Museums

Summary of research

Boryana Ivanova is a Postgraduate Researcher funded through the AHRC CC-EE CDP with Colchester and Ipswich Museums. Her research explores the history of Christchurch Mansion and examines its architecture and collections. Drawing on archival research, the project investigates how the Mansion's changing spaces and functions reflect wider social and cultural histories, while seeking to uncover underrepresented histories that have received limited attention within existing narratives of the site. Alongside this historical research, the project employs participatory methods that bring community perspectives into dialogue with museum practice. Working collaboratively with local communities, the research explores how knowledge can be co-produced and how this process can contribute to more inclusive interpretation.

Recent presentations and conferences

Ivanova, Boryana. (2026) ‘War-Damaged Churches, Ruin-Gardens and Remembrance in the City of London, 1940-1989’, Architectural History, 69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/arh.48.

Ivanova, Boryana. (2026) ‘Ruins of Remembrance: War Damaged Churches and Memorial Gardens’. Paper presented at Society of Architectural Historians 79th Annual International Conference, Mexico City, Mexico, 15–19 April.

Ivanova, Boryana. (2025) ‘Ruins of Remembrance: War Damaged Churches and the Making of Memorial Gardens in the City of London’. Paper presented at Gardens Trust New Research Symposium, 15 November.

Ivanova, Boryana. (2025) ‘The Politics of Contained Memory: Socialist Monument Relegation in Central and Eastern Europe’. Paper presented at Association of Critical Heritage Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland, 26–29 August.

Ivanova, Boryana. (2025) ‘Emotional Communities and Post-Socialist Legacies’. Poster session presented at Annual Cambridge Heritage Symposium, McDonald Institute for Archaeology, University of Cambridge, 8–9 May.

Ivanova, Boryana. (2024) ‘Architectural Allegories: Four Continents Imagery in the Jacobean Country House’. Paper presented at PGECR Country House Group Annual Conference, Birkbeck University of London, 1 March.

Ivanova, Boryana. (2022) ‘Enslaved Motherhood and Emotional Survival in Seventeenth – Century Barbados’. Paper presented at The University of Maryland Global Campus, History Student Society International Undergraduate Conference, 4 November.

Conferences attended

Society of Architectural Historians 79th Annual International Conference, 2026, Mexico

Gardens Trust New Research Symposium, 2025, online

Association of Critical Heritage Studies, 2025, Poland

PGECR Country House Group Annual Conference, 2024, London

ICCROM-FAR ‘Heritage Based Climate Action’ International Virtual Conference, 2024, online

The University of Maryland Global Campus, 2022, online