Dr Corisande Fenwick

Dr Corisande Fenwick is Associate Professor in Mediterranean Archaeology. She is also Director of the British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies, a British International Research Institute sponsored by the British Academy. Her current research focuses on empire and everyday life in the late antique and Islamic world, particularly North Africa. She is primarily interested in the formation of early medieval states and empires and above all how people experienced the complex regime changes that characterised the Mediterranean 500-1000CE. In 2022, she was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for Archaeology. 

Corisande is currently PI of the ERC-funded project EVERYDAY ISLAM- Becoming Muslim: Cultural Change, Everyday Life and State Formation in early Islamic North Africa (600-1000), Co-PI of the AHRC-DFG funded project ISLAMAFR: Conquest, Ecology and Economy in Islamic North Africa (with Moheddine Chaouali and Philipp von Rummel), Co-PI of the Society for Libyan Studies flagship project ‘Bulla Regia: Mobility, Identity and Community in Christian North Africa (with Moheddine Chaouali), Co-Director of the INSAP-UCL Medieval Volubilis Project (with Elizabeth Fentress and Hassan Limane) and Co-I of the AHRC funded OASCIV: The Making of Oasis Civilisation in the Moroccan Sahara (with David Mattingly, Youssef Bokbot and Martin Sterry). Prior to this, she was Co-PI of the British Council funded capacity-building project 'Training in Action' for members of the Tunisian and Libyan antiquities services.

She co-ordinates the Islamic Archaeology Network and organises an annual Islamic Archaeology Day with SOAS which has become the main event for Islamic archaeologists in the UK and beyond. She also edits the Brepols book series Studies in the Archaeology of the Islamic World and welcomes proposals for books, archaeological monographs or edited volumes.