Isabel Lauterjung
Nomination:
Isabel’s career as a professional archivist began in 2021, when she worked as archives cataloguer at The Royal Society. Prior to this she gained her professional qualification and held an internship at The Hague. Since January 2023, Isabel has worked as the Assistant Archivist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Isabel is an extremely engaged member of the profession, as well as an exceptional archivist! Alongside her many day to day duties in her role at Kew, mostly focussed around providing our reader enquiry and access service, Isabel has developed and led a project around our Persian collections – “Persia Reimagined”- over the last year. This project has created impactful change both for our archives, but also for the individuals personally who have been involved. As part of this project, Isabel carted an extremely popular exhibition, with our volunteer and co-curator Shabnam (herself a member of the Persian community), creating a new co-production methodology for working with our colonial collections.
Alongside the exhibition, we applied for and received funding from The National Archives’ Engagement Fund, enabling us to organise the Persia Reimagined community workshops for communities with Persian heritage. Isabel assisted with the grant application and worked with the project team (including Shabnam) to develop and deliver the workshops, as well as managing all the administration associated with the workshops. This is the first time we have carried out this kind of workshop with the archives, engaging communities with our collections through inclusive, creative methods. Through this work, we were able to contribute to corporate aims around extending our reach, diversifying audiences and the recommendations in our History, Equity and Inclusion Report. The workshops were very impactful for the participants, enabling individuals, some of whom may have been displaced, to be brought together in a community and to connect with and talk about their heritage in a supportive and respectful atmosphere. Thanks to Isabel's hard work, the workshops were extremely successful and we received very positive feedback about them (see below).
Working with Sabnam, Isabel also identified a funding stream from the British Institute of Persian Studies, which we successfully applied for, enabling us to run two workshops for the general public. Through these workshops, our Persian collections were brought to wider audiences, who were able to engage with the collections through artistic methodologies.
Feedback from the Community Workshops:
How did the workshop make you feel?
“Better, refreshed”
“Relaxed” (a common theme!)
“Younger”
“It made me part of a community” –(several people wrote this)
What did you enjoy the most about the workshop
“Finding connection with archive material… I never imagined connecting myself with archive in this way”
“It was about my country”
Shabnam Balouch, who has worked as a volunteer in our team, and also co-curator and co-facilitator of our workshops, wrote:
"Working with Isabel on Persia Reimagined was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. She combines outstanding professional expertise with genuine kindness, generosity, and mentorship. Isabel's support had a profound impact on both my professional development and my personal confidence, creating an environment where I felt valued, encouraged, and able to grow. Her commitment to collaboration and supporting others makes her truly exceptional."
Due to Isabel's conscientiousness, excellence and very successful collaboration with our co-curator, she has created new, inclusive ways for Kew to work with collections. She organised for the project team to speak at a The National Archives Impact webinar, furthering the dissemination of our project learnings, and will also be speaking at the ARA Conference too.
Alongside her excellent work in her role, Isabel is very involved with the wider archive sector contributing to this through her two ARA roles - EYA Blog Coordinator (since November 2023) and ARA International Secretary (since February 2024). She is a committed and engaged member of the profession, bringing much to all she does, and is an absolute pleasure to work with!
