Research

Our research is motivated by the desire to apply knowledge to contemporary concerns by using anthropology and archaeology as tools of the 'long view'.  

Research areas

Our four-field approach means we are uniquely placed to address key issues in contemporary society, reflected in three key cross-cutting research themes:

  • adversity - we address the resilience of humanity in the face of major challenges past and present, such as disease, conflict and technological change

  • adaptation - we explore the biological and cultural evolutionary processes that generate human diversity

  • globalisation - we discover how the movements of people, ideas, and objects articulate with continuity and change from the Neolithic to the present day

Field research creates our primary material, and staff share a strong commitment to empirical and ethnographic research that reveals the material evidence of the past, and the scope of behaviours and beliefs in contemporary communities across the globe.

Current archaeological and anthropological fieldwork takes place in the UK, Brazil, China, Jordan, Ethiopia, Japan, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Tanzania, Singapore, Tibet, Turkey, Venezuela, and Vietnam. We consider Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and East Africa as our geographic strengths

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Research events

We run a regular research seminar series and are frequently involved with one-off research events.