UCL Senior Promotions success for Institute of Archaeology staff

New Professors

Beverley Butler, who has been promoted to Professor of Cultural Heritage and Memory Studies, undertakes thematic research on heritage and wellbeing as well as cultural loss and revivalism with a focus on Alexandrian / Egyptian and Palestinian cultural heritage and cultural politics. She previously led AHRC-funded research focusing on how traditional ethnic-heritage crafts across China can be developed and remade in collaboration with the 'cultural creative' industries. Beverley is a member of the Specialist Advisory AHRC Committee on Community Archives and Identities as well as having UNESCO Observer Status on the Memory of the World Programme. She is series editor of the Critical Cultural Heritage series, published by Routledge, and is also one of the co-ordinators of the Archaeology-Heritage-Art collaborative research network involving Institute of Archaeology and Slade School colleagues.

Beverley co-ordinates our very popular MA in Cultural Heritage Studies degree programme and teaches modules on Cultural Memory and Critical Perspectives on Cultural Heritage. Beverley has been nominated for UCLU Student Choice Awards for Inspiring Teaching Delivery and shortlisted for an Award for Diverse & Inclusive Education (2019-20) and for Excellent Personal Tutoring (2018-19). Congratulations Beverley!

Corisande Fenwick, who has been promoted to Professor of Late Antique and Islamic Archaeology, undertakes research which presents new models for Islamic imperialism, urbanism, social change and the emergence of successor-Muslim states in North Africa, crosscutting traditional disciplinary boundaries between archaeology and history and chronological boundaries between late antiquity and the Islamic period. Her leading role in North African studies is reflected in her appointment as Director of the British Institute for Libyan and North African Studies. Corisande is currently leading AHRC and ERC-funded research projects as well as being awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for Archaeology in 2022. 

Corisande co-ordinates the Islamic Archaeology Network at the Institute of Archaeology, organising an annual Islamic Archaeology Day, with SOAS, which has become the main event for Islamic archaeologists in the UK and beyond. She is the author of Early Islamic North Africa (2020), and key co-edited volumes Aghlabids and their Neighbours: Art and Material Culture in Ninth-Century North Africa (2017) and the Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology (2021). She also edits the Brepols book series Studies in the Archaeology of the Islamic World. Corisande received a UCL Provost Education Award and a Faculty Education Award for Assessment & Feedback (2022) and has been nominated for UCLU Student Choice Awards for Outstanding Research Supervision (2021-22), Inspiring Teaching Delivery (2020-21) and Diverse & Inclusive Education and Inspiring Teaching Delivery (2018-19). Congratulations Corisande!

Alice Stevenson, who has been promoted to Professor of Museum Archaeology, undertakes research on the history of museums and collections of archaeology, anthropology and Egyptology as well as museums and source communities and the antiquities trade. Her current research projects include a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship examining contemporary artistic interventions in galleries exhibiting ancient Egyptian material culture and the AHRC-funded project Mobilising collections histories for institutional change, a collaboration with the Horniman Museum and Gardens, London. Alice has previously led two AHRC-funded funded projects, Egypt's Dispersed Heritage, a programme of dissemination, cultural events, and artistic responses in Egypt and the UK- co-developed with Egyptian researchers and community partners - to increase understanding about the conditions of export of antiquities from Egypt and their legacies today, which won an international award in 2020. The Artefacts of Excavation project explored the history of finds from British-led excavations in Egypt and has been published as a web-resource and open access book Scattered Finds: Archaeology, Egyptology and Museums (UCL Press 2019).

Alice has jointly co-ordinated our very popular MA in Museum Studies degree programme and teaches modules on Museum Archaeology, The Museum: Critical Perspectives, Collections Management and Care, and Heritage Ethics and Practice in the Middle East and Mediterranean. Alice has been nominated for UCLU Student Choice Awards for Inspiring Teaching Delivery & Outstanding Research Supervision (2021-22) and Inspiring Teaching Delivery (2020-21 & 2019-20). Congratulations Alice!

New Associate Professor

Katie Hemer, who has been promoted to Associate Professor, joined the Institute of Archaeology in 2022 after a number of years at the University of Sheffield.

Katie specialises in the study of human skeletal remains excavated from early medieval (5th-11th century AD) cemetery sites in Britain. She combines osteological analysis with skeletal histology and biomolecular techniques to explore past population health, dietary reconstruction, migration, and childhood in the past, co-authoring a volume on Medieval Childhood: Archaeological Approaches. Katie is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and President of the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past (SSCIP). She is co-director of the St Patrick's Chapel Excavation Project (with Ken Murphy, Dyfed Archaeological Trust) and also on the Council of the Society for Medieval Archaeology.

Katie is currently co-ordinator of our very popular MSc in Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology degree programme and contributes to teaching on skeletal anatomy, palaeopathology and biomolecular archaeology. She is our Third Year Tutor and has been nominated for UCLU Student Choice Awards for Active Student Partnership & Amazing Support (2022-23). Congratulations Katie!

This was the 6th round of promotions to be based on the new UCL Academic Careers Framework and saw 20 members of UCL academic staff from the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences gaining promotions for their outstanding contributions to research, education and enabling and leadership at UCL.

The UCL Academic Careers Framework is designed to support every type of academic career path, making sure that personal impact is measured consistently across UCL.

Promotions are effective from 1 October 2023.

Read more

• UCL Senior Promotions 2022-23