Leadership Team
Professor Catherine Rider
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Head of Department
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Catherine Rider is a specialist on the religious and cultural history of Europe in the central and late Middle Ages, working on the history of magic, medicine, fertility and reproduction. She also works collaboratively on magic in the records of the Roman Inquisition in early modern Malta. She is currently writing a book on medieval views of infertility, funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship for 2024-5.
Karin Venema
Department Manager
I am here to help the department flourish, resolving issues and removing obstacles so academics can focus on their teaching and research. I say what I do and do what I say.
Dr Catriona McKenzie
Deputy Head of Department, Archaeology
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I am here to help with any issues that students and colleagues may have. My aim is to create a positive, supportive, and inclusive department where all can thrive.
Professor Levi Roach
Deputy Head of Department, History
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I’ve worked at Exeter since 2007, researching and teaching in medieval history and the history of magic. I’ve also held various administrative and management roles over the years and am keen to use these to support staff and students in the department.
Professor James Mark
Professor Oliver Creighton
Director of Research and Impact
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Oliver Creighton is Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology and History at the University of Exeter.
He is an expert on castles, landscapes and warfare in the Middle Ages and writes, researches and teaches about the archaeology of medieval and historic Britain and Europe.
Dr Hao Gao
Director of Global Engagement, History
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I, Hao (Bill) Gao 高昊, am a historian of British imperialism in Asia, China in global history, particularly the encounters between the British and the Chinese empires in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I am generally interested in exploring the mutual understandings and misunderstandings between China and the West in the early processes of globalisation. I currently serve as Director of Global Engagement (DoGE) for the Department of Archaeology and History.
Professor Marisa Lazzari
Director of Global Engagement
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I specialise in the archaeology of circulation and social interaction in the south-central Andes, with a particular focus in north-western Argentina. I look at ancient regional connections and how these shaped landscapes over the long-term, through the analysis of artefacts and materials traditionally studied separately, such as obsidian and pottery. My research combines technological analysis of stone tools, sourcing studies of raw materials (lithics and clays), and intra-site and regional distributions of artefacts in order to explore the cultural taxonomies that organised and assessed the value of things and materials in the past.
Dr Alex Pryor
Director of Education and Student Experience, Archaeology
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Alex Pryor is a specialist in isotope analysis of archaeological bones and teeth (Sr, O, C, N, S). His research focuses on the European Upper Palaeolithic but he also works in more recent contexts as an isotope specialist.
Dr Laura Rowe
Director of Education and Student Experience, History
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I’m responsible for the leadership and management of teaching across the History programmes.
Dr Susan Greaney
Director of Postgraduate Research
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Dr Susan Greaney is a Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Exeter.
Susan is an archaeologist who specialises in the study of British prehistory, particularly monuments of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Her PhD (funded by the AHRC, and completed at Cardiff and Southampton Universities) focused on the Neolithic monument complexes of Britain and Ireland.
Dr Helen Birkett
Director of Postgraduate Research
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I am a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History with expertise in twelfth-century Britain and Ireland, intellectual and religious culture, medieval monasticism, hagiography, and news. My main research interests concern the construction of texts and narratives in the central Middle Ages, and the ways in which recent information, particularly news, was transmitted and preserved.
Dr James Davey
Director of Postgraduate Reseach
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I am a historian of Britain, 1700-1850, focusing particularly on its maritime world. My research and teaching look beyond the traditional remit of naval and maritime history to explore the political, social and cultural contexts that shaped - and were shaped by - British maritime endeavour.
Dr Carly Ameen
Director of Business, Engagement and Innovation
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Carly Ameen (she/her) is an archaeological scientist specialising in bioarchaeology and digital imaging. She is an expert on the application of geometric morphometrics (GMM) to the study of archaeological materials and a founding memeber of the Centre for HumAnE Bioarchaeology.
Dr Ryan Hanley
Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
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I am an historian of race and slavery in modern Britain, with particular interests in British antislavery, the contributions and perspectives of people of African descent, and the intersection of race and class from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. I have published on black intellectuals, cultures of slavery and abolition, and racial populism in Britain.