Research Themes

Sarah has recently completed a Leverhulme-funded project related to the central theme 'Changing beliefs about the human body.' Her part of the project explores what the teatment of the dead body in Britain between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries can tell us about changing ideas of self and person as they relate to the body. The project involved assembling all archaeological evidence from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland relating to the disposal of the body over this period and comparing that to ideas of the self and person as known from textual sources. Her 2011 book Ritual, belief and the dead in early modern Britain and Ireland (CUP) was one result of this project; A fine and private place: the archaeology of death and burial in post-medieval Britain adn Ireland, co-authored with Annia Cherryson and Zoe Crossland is out soon as a Leicester Archaeological Monograph. For details see: Changing beliefs about the human body project

Current projects include 'Harnessing the power of the criminal corpse' (now a major Wellcome Trust funded project - click here for details), the meaning of coffin plates, and burial and commemoration in Leicestershire. Her recent review essay on the archaeology of emotion will appear in the Annual Review of Anthropology in 2012.

Sarah's book 'The archaeology of Improvement' (2007) examines the meaning of 'improvement' in the eighteenth and nineteenth century through a study of landscapes, documentary sources, material culture and literature of the period. Stemming from this central project are a number of more specific research interests including the theory and practice of utopian settlements in the eighteenth to nineteenth century and the meanings of apparently mundane material culture and unremarkable archaeological features such as window glass and rubbish pits.

Her work in archaeological theory has concentrated on the archaeology of emotion and issues of archaeological ethics, especially regarding the relationship between modern archaeologists and the past people they study.

Sarah is on the editorial board of the CUP journal Archaeological Dialogues which gives her an excuse for regular trips to Amsterdam, Paris and elsewhere. The photo below shows Sarah with fellow editors Fokke Gerritsen (left) and Alexander Gramsch (right) and  visiting the Krka gorge in Croatia.

Topics available for supervision

• Archaeology of the period 1500-1900
• Historical archaeology of Britain and northern Europe
• Archaeological ethics
• Archaeology of death and burial