Dr Dan Hicks MIfA, FSA

Research Interests

Dan Hicks is University Lecturer and Curator in the Archaeology of the Modern Period, based in the School of Archaeology and the Pitt Rivers Museum. He is also a Fellow of St Cross College and Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, Boston University.

He is an anthropological archaeologist, specialising in the study of the recent past, and with regional expertise in the eastern Caribbean and the United Kingdom. His work focuses on historical archaeology, the archaeology of European colonialism, the history of archaeology, archaeological approaches to cultural heritage, and theoretical and applied approaches to the study of material things in the social sciences. He is a Member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists (MIfA), is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and sits on the Grants Committee of the World Archaeological Congress.

His publications include "The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology" (CUP 2006, edited with Mary C. Beaudry), "The Garden of the World: An Historical Archaeology of Sugar Landscapes in the Eastern Caribbean" (British Archaeological Reports 2007), and "Envisioning Landscape: Situations and Standpoints in Archaeology and Heritage" (One World Archaeology 52, 2007, edited with Laura McAtackney and Graham Fairclough).

Dan welcomes enquiries from prospective doctoral students in the fields of historical archaeology, the history of archaeology, and the anthropology of modern heritage.

Current Activities

Dan is completing a book for Cambridge University Press on the idea of the Atlantic Ocean in historical archaeology. He is leading a programme of research, characterising the world archaeological collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum (April 2009- Oct 2010).

In Summer 2009 he began new fieldwork with Laurie Wilkie (University of California, Berkeley) on the historical anthropology of modern heritage.

He  convened the CHAT 2009 conference on 'Modern Materials' at Keble College.

Grants Awarded (selected)

2010: £4,000

The History and Curation of the Sub-Saharan Stone Age Collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum. The Boise Fund

2010: £1,500

Astor Visiting Lectureship for Professor Rosemary Joyce (University of California, Berkeley)

2009: $7,800

Stahl Endowment Grant (University of California, Berkeley).
Pump-priming funds for fieldwork in New York City, Summer 2009. (Co-I with Laurie A. Wilkie)

2009: £116,325

Characterizing the World Archaeological Collections  of the Pitt Rivers Museum. John Fell OUP Research Fund.

2008: £23,988

Ecologies of Modern Heritage. AHRC/EPSRC Heritage  Science Research Clusters. (Principal Investigator, with Caitlin DeSilvey, Exeter University)

2008: £450

Astor Travel Fund – (for visit of Prof. Mark Leone,  University of Maryland, to Oxford)

2007: £15,300

Heritage Lottery Fund/Institute of Field  Archaeologists Workplace Training Bursary in Archive Archaeology

2007: £32,475

EPSRC, with additional funding from ESRC, NERC, AHRC  and English Heritage. Collision or Consensus? A site-specific approach to integrating  methodologies for the historic environment. Workshop series (Co-Investigator with Dr Heather Viles)

2006: £25,000

HEFCE FDTL 5 Transferability Fund: Archive  Archaeology from Undergraduate to Postgraduate Contexts in Archaeology. (Co-Investigator with Professor Clive   Orton (UCL), Dr Gustav Milne (UCL) & Robin Skeates (University of Durham))

2006-2007: £34,575

Arts Council Grants for the Arts. Contemporary  Art and Contemporary Archaeology. Workshop series and artistic commissions (Co-Investigator  with  Claire Doherty, University of the West of England).

2006-2009: £55.200

Public Art and Public Archaeology in the Context   of Urban Renewal. (Great Western Research Studentship, 50% funded by Hammersons, PLC & Land Securities) (Co-Investigator with Claire Doherty, University of the West of England)

2006-2007: £21,949

– Historical Archaeology and the British Atlantic World, AD 1600-1800. AHRC Research Leave.

2006: £700

British Academy Overseas Conference Grant to attend Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico

2004-2007: £249,354

HEFCE Fund for the Developing of Teaching and   Learning Phase 5 (FDTL 5). Archive Archaeology: piloting approaches to the use of Museum   Collections and Historic Environment  Records in the teaching and learning of archaeology. (Co-Invetigator with Professor Clive Orton (UCL), Dr Gustav Milne (UCL) & Dr Robin Skeates (University of Durham))

Publications

Dan publishes and links to some of his writing on a blog at We Were Modern.

Books

• The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press,  2010
• Envisioning Landscape Situations and Standpoints in Archaeology and Heritage Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press (One World Archaeology 52) (edited with G. Fairclough and L. McAtackney, 2007)
• "The Garden of the World": a historical archaeology of eastern Caribbean sugar plantations, AD 1600-2001. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports (Studies in Historical and Contemporary Archaeology) (2007)
• The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (edited with Mary C. Beaudry, 2006)

Journal Articles

• From Material Culture to Material Life. Journal of Iberian Archaeology 9/10: 245-255 (2007)
• 'Places for Thinking' from Annapolis to Bristol: Situations and Symmetries in "World Historical Archaeologies"'. World Archaeology 37(3): 373-391 (2005)
• 'Historical Archaeology and the British'. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 14 (1): 101-6 (2004)
• 'Archaeology Unfolding: Diversity and the Loss of Isolation'. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 22 (3): 315-329 (2003)
• Ethnicity, Race and the archaeology of the Atlantic slave trade. Assemblage 5 (2000)

Book Chapters

• 2009. Rematerialising metropolitan histories? People, places and things in modern London. In Audrey Horning and Marilyn Palmer (eds) Crossing Paths or Sharing Tracks? Future directions in the archaeological study of post-1550 Britain and Ireland. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pp. 323-350 (with Nigel  Jeffries, Alastair Owens, Rupert Featherby and Karen Wehner, 2009)
• Further Reading. In Penrose. S., (ed.) Images of Change: an archaeology of England's contemporary landscape. Swindon: English Heritage (2007)
• Historical Archaeology in Britain. In D.M. Pearsall (ed.) Encyclopedia of Archaeology. San Diego: Academic Press (2007)
• Landscapes as Standpoints. In D. Hicks et al (eds) Envisioning Landscape Archaeology. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press (One World Archaeology) (with Laura McAtackney, 2007)
• Colonialism and Landscape: Power, Materiality and Scales of Analysis in Caribbean Historical Archaeology. In D. Hicks et al (eds) Envisioning Landscape Archaeology. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press (One World Archaeology) (with Mark Hauser, 2007)
• The material geographies of sugar. In J. Symonds (ed.) Table Settings: The Material Culture and Social Context of Dining in the Old and New Worlds, AD1700-1900. Oxford: Oxbow Books (2007)
• Introduction:The Place of Historical Archaeology. In D. Hicks and M.C. Beaudry (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-9. (with Mary C. Beaudry, 2006)
• Historical Archaeology and Buildings. In D. Hicks and M.C. Beaudry (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 273-292 (with Audrey Horning, 2006)

Book Reviews and Review Articles

• Review of Owen Hatherley ‘Militant Modernism’. Planning Perspectives 25(2). (2010)  
• 2009. The Smallest Rooms. Times Literary Supplement 5568/5569: 35. (2009) 
• 2009. Review of B. Bender et al. ‘Stone Worlds: narrative and reflexivity in landscape archaeology’. American Antiquity 74(3): 590-591. (2009)   
• Review of Trevor Rowley ‘The English Landscape in the Twentieth Century’ Landscapes 8 (2008) 
• Review of S. Kane (ed.) 2003. ‘The Politics of Archaeology and Identity’. Journal of Historical Geography 32 (3): 665-667 (2006)
• 'From 'Questions that Count' to Stories that 'Matter' in Historical Archaeology'. Antiquity 78: 934–939 (2004)

Selected Other Publications

• Change and Creation: historic landscape character, 1950-2000. London: English Heritage (with Andrea Bradley, Victor Buchli, Graham Fairclough, Janet Miller and John Schofield, 2004).
• Biographies of London Life: the archaeology of Londoners and their things, AD 1600-2000. London: Museum of London 'Research Matters' Occasional Publication 3. (with Nigel Jeffries, 2004)

Selected Recent Authored Archaeological Reports

• Archaeological Assessment of The Holmes and Goldney Gardens. Bristol: University of Bristol.(2003)
• An Archaeological Rapid Assessment, Landscape Survey, Building Survey and Evaluative Excavation at Goldney Gardens, Clifton, Bristol. Bristol: University of Bristol (2001)
• An Archaeological Landscape Survey, Building Survey and Evaluative Excavation at Balenbouche Estate, Saint Lucia, West Indies. Bristol: University of Bristol (with Mark C. Horton, 2001)
• An Archaeological Landscape Survey, Building Survey and Evaluative Excavation at Wingfield Estate, Saint Kitts, eastern Caribbean. Bristol: University of Bristol. (with Mark C. Horton, 2001).