I am a Professor of Archaeology and Pedagogy (NTF, PFHEA, MCIfA, FSA., FSA Scot.) at the University of Manchester and I am the University’s Lead for Scholarship and Academic Development. Through my teaching, research and leadership I passionately advocate for inclusion, equity and diversity in both the present (contemporary archaeological practice and higher education), and the past (British Prehistory).

I undertake award winning teaching and fieldwork (AdvanceHE National Teaching Fellow 2022, University of Manchester Teaching Excellence Award 2018, Archaeology Training Forum award 2014), and am a director of the multi period Ardnamurchan Transitions Project (2006 - present). I also co-directed the Western Pennines Mesolithic Project (2017) and the Whitworth Park Community Archaeology and History Project (2010-2014). I am one of the creators of the Archaeological Skills Passport, was a founding Trustee of the Enabled Archaeology Foundation (2018-2023) and, between 2015 and 2022 I founded and chaired the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists Equality and Diversity Group.

I have played a leadership role in teaching and learning at the University of Manchester since 2016. I am the University's lead for Academic Development (2021 - present), leading on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and running the University's annual Teaching and Learning conference. In 2022 I was interim Associate Dean for Teaching Learning and Students (Online and Blended) in the Faculty of Humanities. Before this I was the Associate Director for Employability and Academic Advising (2015-2016) and Associate Director for eLearning and Teaching Innovation (2018-2022) in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.

I also play a leading role in global conversations about Teaching and Learning in my discipline and across HE. In 2023 I co-founded the UK's National Learning and Teaching Focused Network, am an author of the Scholarship Spotlight resource, and am a member of ISSoTL's education focused careers SIG.

In archaeology and heritage, with Prof Karina Croucher (University of Bradford) I host monthly international, open-access teaching and learning in Archaeology and Heritage online roundtable workshops and in 2021, we organised the first ever global conference on teaching and learning in Archaeology and Heritage. In 2025 we were keynote speakers at the 10th World Archaeology Congress in Darwin, Australia, and at the University of Toronto's 2025 sixth annual Debates in Archaeology Symposium. We are currently establishing the global learned society, The Society for Teaching and Learning in Archaeology and Heritage (STeLAH).

I am an author of the 6th edition of the textbook Archaeology: An Introduction (Routledge 2024), and I have published extensively on teaching and learning and EDI in archaeology, including Documenting Activism, Creating Change: Archaeology and the Legacy of #MeToo (Archaeopress, 2025), Assembling Archaeology: Teaching, Practice and Research (OUP, 2020), and Reconsidering Archaeological Fieldwork (Springer, 2012).

I undertook my undergraduate degree in archaeology at the University of Edinburgh (1998-2002) and then worked in commercial archaeology for CFA Archaeology Ltd and Headland Archaeology before completing an MPhil (2004) and PhD (2008) at the University of Manchester, supervised by Profs Julian Thomas and Chantal Conneller. Between 2004 and 2008 I also worked as a Research Assistant for the Higher Education Academy’s History, Classics and Archaeology subject centre, and an Associate Lecturer for the Open University (2007-2011). Since 2008 I have been a Teaching Fellow and then Technician (2009-2016), Lecturer (2013-2016), Senior Lecturer (2016-2021) and now Professor (2021 – present) in Archaeology at The University of Manchester.

I have also undertaken a number of teaching and learning leadership roles at the University of Manchester including: Assistant Director for Academic Advising and Employability, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (2015/2016); Associate Director for eLearning and Teaching Innovation, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (2018 – 2022); Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning and Student Experience, Faculty of Humanities (2022); University of Manchester Academic Lead for Academic Development (2021 – Present). In 2020 I was part of the team who designed the Faculty of Humanities Principles and Guidance for Blended Learning.

In 2022 I was one of only 54 people across the UK to be awarded an AdvanceHE National Teaching Fellowship, recognising my contributions to teaching and learning in Higher Education. I am also a Principal Fellow of AdvanceHE, a MCIfA of the Chartered Institutite of Archaeologists, and an elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

I teach on a range of archaeology undergraduate courses and convene the following courses:

• CAHE10501/2 Doing Archaeology 1
• CAHE20501 Doing Archaeology 2
• CAHE24602/34602 From Sites to Statues: Understanding heritage in a time of culture wars
• CAHE20362/30362 Artefacts and Interpretation

I am happy to supervise dissertations on a range of topics including; archaeological pedagogy, contemporary archaeological practice, EDI in archaeology and heritage, archaeological theory (particularly feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, crip theory, posthumanist feminism, assemblage theory and new materialism, phenomenology) and the British and Irish Mesolithic. 

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