Dr Oliver Harris
Associate Professor of Archaeology
BA, MA, PhD (Cardiff), FHEA
Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2729
Email: ojth1@le.ac.uk
Personal details
BA, MA, PhD, FHEA
I began studying archaeology at Sheffield, and graduated with a BA in 2002. I then took an MA at Cardiff University, and stayed on to do a PhD under the supervision of Alasdair Whittle. My PhD focussed on developing new theoretical approaches to identity, emotion and memory and applying them to the British Neolithic. After finishing my PhD I worked in contract archaeology, and held two post-docs before joining Leicester in 2011. The first, at Cambridge, was part of the interdisciplinary changing beliefs of the human body project, which turned into the book The Body in History, co-written with John Robb. The second, at Newcastle, was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship looking at the different kinds of community that occupied Southern Britain in the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age, and what happens when we think about communities not just as collections of people, but as assemblages of people, things, animals, places and monuments. I spend my summers digging in Ardnamurchan, Western Scotland, where all sorts of archaeological wonders can be found.
In June 2017 I published my new book with Craig Cipolla: Archaeological Theory in the New Millennium: introducing current perspectives.
In 2016 I was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for Archaeology, which means from January 2018-2020 I will mostly be on research leave.
If you want to know more about me, or about my much more interesting friend Craig Cipolla have a listen to this: https://soundcloud.com/user-252048082/episode-1-craig-cipolla-oliver-harris
Teaching
Normally I co-ordinate and contribute to a range of modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, from January 2018 until January 2020 my teaching will be heavily reduced..
Research
Projects
New project funded by the Leverhulme Trust! Beyond the Three Age System: mapping a history of materials from 3000 – 600 BC
Oliver is also co-director of the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project. This is a long running research project into changing lifeways on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, western Scotland. The project aims to understand how human occupation of one specific landscape changed at key moments of social transition, such as the start of farming, the beginning of metal work, the arrival of the Vikings, or the Highland Clearances. Through this project Oliver has directed excavations of a Neolithic chambered cairn, a Bronze Age kerbed cairn and a Viking boat burial. The latter has hit the headlines in the UK and beyond - have a look at one newspaper's coverage. This project has also developed numerous innovative teaching strategies, leading to it recently being awarded the Archaeological Training Forum award at the 2014 IfA conference.
Research interests
Neolithic Britain; archaeological theory (in particular relational approaches to the past); new materialism; assemblage theory; ontology; the archaeology of the body; prehistoric communities; emotion and affect in archaeology.
Supervision
Yvonne O'Dell
Nathan Gubbins
Matteo Cantisani
Brendon Wilkins (Museum Studies)
Topics available for PhD supervision
I would welcome PhD applications from anyone interested in looking at:
-
Mesolithic, Neolithic or Bronze Age Britain
- New materialist / relational / ontological approaches to the past
