In this episode of the BAJ Podcast, BAJ talks to Dr Roberta Bernabei, the editor of the Journal of Jewellery Research, on the importance of research in the field.

Roberta Bernabei is a researcher, visiting reader at Birmingham City University and, since 2004, lecturer in Critical Historical Studies and Jewellery at Loughborough University, UK. She is a PhD supervisor of five candidates; she regularly acts as internal assessor and external PhD examiner. She instigated the open access Journal of Jewellery Research in 2015. She is JJR co-founder together with prof. Jayne Wallace from Northumbria University, UK.

She studied in Italy (Universita’ per Stranieri and Accademia di Belle Arti Pietro Vannucci in Perugia), in Germany (Fachhochschule für Gestaltung in Schwäbisch-Gmünd) and England (Sheffield Hallam University). She holds a Ph.D. from Loughborough University with the thesis ‘Jewellery Theory and Practice: An investigation into emotionally invested and mnemonic jewellery through sensitising materials’.

Bernabei contributes reviews and articles to AJF, Klimt02, Journal of Material Thinking, The Journal of Modern Craft and the Journal for Artistic Research. Her research outputs include a monographic book Contemporary Jewellers: Interviews with European Artists published by Bloomsbury, journal articles, chapters and exhibitions.

Bernabei’s current research concerns emotionally embedded artefacts and their impact on our ‘self’ and as an aid to wellbeing. Other research interests include the application of Rapid Prototyping to reinvigorate traditional goldsmith techniques. Her most recent essay was The Poetry of Sensitising Materials, in Annamaria Zanella was published by Arnoldsche.