Dr Catherine Eagleton

Katie joined the University as Director of Museums in July 2019 and was appointed Director of Libraries and Museums on 1 August 2020.

Throughout her career, Katie’s work has combined library, archival and museum collections. Moving into the cultural heritage sector after completion of her PhD at the University of Cambridge, she became a curator in the British Museum developing new projects on global history and the history of Africa, and then Head of Asian and African Collections for the British Library, initiating a number of large digitisation projects, international collaborations, and service improvement projects. In 2017 Katie took up the post of Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs (Chief Curator) at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where she had senior responsibility for museum, archival and photographic collections, as well as digital collections and scholarship.

In 2018, Katie was a Fellow on the Getty Leadership Institute programme for cultural leadership in the US, and she has also participated in the Clore Leadership Programme in the UK. She is a member of the steering group for the AHRC Towards a National Collection programme which aims to open up digital access to cultural heritage collections of all kinds.