Laura Parsons PHD Student

Laura Parsons is a first year Midlands 4 Cities PhD student in the department of Politics and Public Policy at De Montfort University, Leicester. Laura is researching the valorisation of ‘hidden culture’ in a project with Leicester City Council, focusing on food cultures and using digital participatory methods to understand the manifestations of hidden culture and their value within communities of practice. Through a city-wide project, citizens can document food practices central to their communities, exposing sites of cohesion and conflict, and revealing deeper issues of authenticity, identity and ownership.Her research interrogates the relationship between hidden culture and value, and attempts to make sense of the spatial and relational aspects of hidden cultural forms.

Laura holds an MA in Cities, Culture and Creativity from Liverpool John Moores University, a BMus in Music from Lancaster University, and worked as a classical musician, orchestral programmer and arts fundraiser prior to starting her PhD.