VC Senior Appointment in Archaeology

A leading researcher in Medieval Archaeology is the latest appointment under the University's VC "Senior Appointments" scheme. Professor Dawn Hadley, currently at the University of Sheffield, will join York's Archaeology Department in September. Professor John Schofield, Head of Archaeology says: "This is a tremendous appointment for us. Dawn comes with an exceptional track record in early medieval archaeology, a subject where we have traditionally been strong. This appointment adds significant strength in that area, but also in others, including digital applications. Its a great match and we are delighted".

Dawn is a medieval archaeologist and historian, with a particular interest in ethnicity, gender and childhood, and she has a long track-record of research on the Vikings. Her books include The Northern Danelaw: its social structure, c.800-1100, and The Vikings in England; settlement, society and culture, and several edited volumes including: Masculinity in Medieval Europe; Cultures in Contact: Scandinavian Settlement in England in the ninth and tenth centuries; The Archaeology of the Eleventh Century: Continuities and Transformations; and the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Childhood. She is co-director, with Julian Richards, of the Torksey Viking winter camp project. They are writing a book on the Viking Great Army, and worked with colleagues in the DC Labs and TFTV on the award-winning Viking VR project that featured in the recent Vikings exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum. In recent years her external engagement activities have focussed on Sheffield’s medieval castle and hunting lodge and their legacy for the city, leading to her collaborations with local theatre companies to relate this history to the public. She is PI on a current AHRC-funded project on the use of digital methods to harness heritage to inform urban regeneration, working with her colleagues in Computer Science and Architecture. Dawn has been Head of Archaeology in Sheffield since 2014, although since the Autumn she has been one of the University’s Vice Presidents, and Head of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

Dawn says: "I am delighted to be joining the Department of Archaeology in York, and keen to maintain, and expand, my research collaborations across the White Rose Universities. I look forward to contributing to the ongoing success of medieval studies in York".