Katherine Watson

About

Biography

I am undertaking a PhD in History at Swansea University, though I identify most with the fields of contemporary archaeology, critical heritage studies and anthropology. My project 'Small-Scale Fisheries, Local Seafood and the Future of Fishing Heritage in South Wales' is co-funded by Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time (DePOT) and Swansea University’s Centre for Heritage Research and Training (CHART).

I hold a first-class BA in Anthropology and Archaeology (2021) and an MA in Archaeology with distinction (2022). My master’s thesis explored how heritage-led regeneration has mediated the reconfiguration of North Shields Fish Quay, a fishing port in North-East England. This propelled my ongoing efforts to understand the experiences of coastal communities amid the decline of the fishing industry, deindustrialization, and the transition to service-based economies.

Project

At its core, my research is the culmination and driver of my day-to-day attempts to live more responsibly and intentionally on a 'damaged planet'.¹ From the food I eat, to where I buy clothes, or how I expend leisure time, this experimental and creative journey is ongoing with plenty of mistakes.

This project deploys fishing and seafood as a springboard to apprehend the value systems that shape our consumption of food and culture. It gathers a diverse range of sources through oral history interviewing, ethnography, archival investigation, and mapping to capture changes in the consumption of seafood in South West Wales from 1850 to 2022 and associated economic and labour transformations.

Fundamentally, this project gives voice to those negotiating challenges in the fishing industry, the decline of local seafood businesses and the ‘high street’, and the gentrification of Welsh coastal towns. However, perhaps most importantly, I hope that it inspires at least one person to introduce more intentionality into their weekly food shop or educate themselves on the implications of, and precedents for, their daily choices, across time and space.

Research Interests

• Contemporary archaeology
• Food systems
• Heritage of extractive industries
• Capitalocene
• Politics of heritage
• Archaeological ethnography
• Deindustrialization
• Multi-species ethnography

¹ Tsing, A. L., Bubandt, N., Gan, E., & Swanson, H. A. (Eds.) (2017) Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.