ACADEMIC wizards from Oz are to head a new research centre at the University of York, which aims to become a world leader.

The move follows the university winning a £2million Leverhulme International Professorship award to bring a team to the university and establish the centre.

The university says the Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre will examine how the systems, structures and institutions of power currently shape heritage.

It will also explore how communities around the world have adapted and responded to a range of crises, such as environmental change, social inequalities, water insecurity, global migration and the legacies of colonialism.

From the Hindu Kush in the Himalayas to Australia’s urban centres, the Centre will investigate how disasters such as water scarcity, earthquakes and landslides have shaped cultures across centuries.

The Leverhulme International Professorships were set up by the Levehulme Trust to help universities attract globally leading scholars to take up professorial posts in the UK.

The trust donates around £100m a year, using a share of the legacy of Lord Leverhulme, who created soap and cleaning products company Lever Brothers in the 19th Century.

The £2million funding will allow heritage experts Prof Emma Waterton and Dr Hayley Saul join the university from Western Sydney University in Australia this August to co-direct the new centre.

Emma has previously studied at York, gaining a PhD and MA at the university earlier this century. She has also written about heritage tourism and the politics of British heritage.

The centre will bring together established academics and PhD students to work on the international and transdisciplinary research.

The research team will use case studies in India, the UK, Fiji, Bermuda, Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis, Nepal, Australia, Bhutan, Norway, and South Africa - with the scope to include additional locations as the Centre grows.

The Centre will be built around six research themes,Inclusions/Exclusions, Colonial Legacies, Mobilities and Materialities, Anthropocene Encounters, Cultures of Disaster and Society-Nature Relations.

Emma says she is thrilled to be creating the centre and its soon-to-be-appointed team.

“The centre’s work will span local, national, and global scales. At the local scale, we will conduct interviews and focus group discussions with individuals and communities about specific heritage places, items, and memories. We will also undertake a comprehensive survey of the British public’s interests and participation in heritage on a national scale.

“At the global scale, we will undertake research across heritage sites connected by their colonial legacies, as well as recording patterns in heritage data that might hold solutions to pressing social challenges, like climate change and food security."

Professor Nicky Milner, Head of Archaeology at the University of York said the new centre would help establish the department as a world-leader in this area.

She added: "We are delighted that Professor Waterton has been successful with this Leverhulme award, and our department cannot wait to welcome the team to York. We are really looking forward to establishing this important Centre and exploring these critical heritage-related challenges."