NEW FACES ON THE TEAM

RACHAEL STURGEON
Project Manager
rs549ATyork.ac.uk

Rachael Sturgeon, a native Californian, has been living in York for the last 2 ½ years while her husband is working on his PhD at the University of York. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Art History from the University of California, Santa Barbara. After graduating, Rachael spent three years working as an intern for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History where she worked on exhibits of natural history prints by artists such as Bodamer, Catlin, Audubon, Besler, Lear and Redouté. Her editing background and strong project management experience stems from her work within the higher education publishing sector at Thomson Learning. On a personal level, Rachael has always held a strong interest in gardens and parks, and specifically with regards to the fields of plant identification, botanical illustrations, and archaeology.

SUSAN GORDON
Writer
sg552ATyork.ac.uk

Dr. Susan E. Gordon is the newly appointed Writer for Parks & Gardens UK. For the last five years she has been an Assistant Professor of Art History and co-founder of the Centre for British Studies at Harlaxton Manor, Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her research interests are in the use of sculpture, classical iconographies and mythology in designed landscape and the English country house. Susan took her PhD at the University of Bristol, where she was Servandoni Scholar in Architectural History. Subsequently she held a research fellowship at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds and a Leverhulme fellowship at the Warwick Eighteenth-Century Centre. Prior to joining Harlaxton in 2002, Susan worked for Bristol City Museums, both as an Assistant Curator and volunteer, and served as a visiting lecturer on the Garden History MA at Bristol. When not based at Harlaxton, Susan lives in South Wales and often visits the US from whence she originates. She is very much looking forward to working on the Parks and Gardens UK project.

SARAH JACKSON
Editor
sj534ATyork.ac.uk

Sarah Jackson is the newly appointed Editor for the Parks & Gardens UK. She has worked for many years in PR and marketing for the higher education and voluntary sectors, following a degree in English at Leicester University. More recently, she has completed courses in horticulture, landscaping and garden design at Capel Manor College, and the Diploma of Garden History from Birkbeck College, University of London. In addition to her new responsibilities at with the project, Sarah is also completing work on a two-year HLF-funded project for the London Parks & Gardens Trust to develop their annual flagship event, Open Garden Squares Weekend. This has involved recruiting a large number of new sites to the event, producing a range of publications to promote London’s many and varied historic green spaces, and improving the operational management to increase the sustainability of the event.