Professor Dan Hicks
Research Interests
Dan Hicks FSA, MCIfA is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology in the School of Archaeology, Curator of World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College. Full details of his research, publications and teaching can be found at www.danhicks.uk
Dr Dan Hicks MA (Oxon), PhD, FSA, MCIfA is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology in the School of Archaeology, Curator of World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College. Dan has held this post since 2007, and previously was a Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol.
Working between Art, Archaeology, Heritage, Anthropology, Material Culture and Architecture, Dan's research, curation and writing has focused especially on the enduring nature of colonialism in the recent and contemporary world, and the use of an archaeological lens to understand early modern, modern and contemporary history. He studies human duration not just to contemplate, but to intervene with the ongoing presence of the past in our shared contemporary world.
He has held number of visiting appointments, including as a Research Fellow at Boston University, Visiting Professor at the Musée du quai Branly, Paris (2017-18), and Senior Fellow in Politics at Freie University, Berlin. In Fall 2024 Dan will be a Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford University. Dan has received over £6m in external research grants over the years, including most recently grants from AHRC, the DFG (Germany), Open Society Foundations, Art Fund, Arts Council England, and Volkswagen Stiftung.
Dan has edited and authored nine books since 2006, until recently mainly for academic audiences – including for Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Bristol University Press, and Left Coast Press. In 2017 he received the Rivers Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Dan is a Fellow and former Trustee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and a full Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists.
Dan's last book The Brutish Museums: the Benin Bronzes, colonial violence and cultural restitution was published in November 2020 with the small London-based radical publisher Pluto Press, was named one of the New York Times Best Art Books of 2020. Reviewing it in the New York Review of Books, Coco Fusco wrote that ‘Hicks’s urgent, lucid, and brilliantly enraged book feels like a long-awaited treatise on justice.’ The Economist described the book as ‘a real gamechanger’, The Sunday Times said it was ‘destined to become an essential text’, and the Los Angeles Times called it ‘a bombshell book’. The book won the 2021 prize for the Best Book in Public History from the National Council on Public History, was joint winner of the Elliott P Skinner Book Award of the Association for Africanist Anthropology, and was shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Book Prize.
Dan has given many named lectures, including most recently the 2020 Schöne Lecture, Technische University, Berlin, the 2021 Strathern Lecture at the University of Cambridge, the 2021 Spence Lecture at Western University, Ontario, the 2022 Bernie Grant Lecture, the 2022 Goethe Lecture in London, the 2022 Robert K. Webb Lecture at the University of Maryland Baltimore, and the 2023 Driedger Lecture at the University of Lethbridge.
Dan has also often written for wider public readerships, especially writing about museums, monuments, universities, and art and culture more widely - for Hyperallergic, Apollo Magazine, The Art Newspaper, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Art Review, and Architectural Review. In 2023 Dan was the Chair of Judges for the English PEN Hessell-Tiltman Book Prize.
Dan's next book Every Monument Will Fall will be published by Penguin/Cornerstone in 2025.
Full details of his research, publications and teaching can be found at www.danhicks.uk
Dan welcomes enquiries from potential doctoral students in the fields of colonialism, art, museums and heritage (broadly conceived).
Links
Dan Hicks at St Cross College https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/people/dan-hicks
Dan Hicks at the Pitt Rivers Museum https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-dan-hicks
Research Awards
Dan was awarded the Royal Anthropological Institute's Rivers Memorial Medal for 2017.
Links
Undergraduate teaching
Lecturer for core papers:
- Honour Moderations - The Nature of Archaeological and Anthropological Enquiry
Convenor for FHS option course:
- Understanding Museums and Collections
Postgraduate teaching
Postgraduate taught course options in:
Dan welcomes interest from doctoral students in the fields of historical archaeology, material culture and museum studies, and the archaeology of the contemporary world.
Books
2025. Every Monument Will Fall. London: Cornerstone
2020. The Brutish Museums: the Benin Bronzes, colonial violence and cultural restitution. London: Pluto Press.
2019. Isle of Rust. (with Alex Boyd and Jonathan Meades). Edinburgh: Luath Press
2019. Lande: the Calais “Jungle” and Beyond. (with Sarah Mallet). Bristol: Bristol University Press.
2019. Archaeology and Photography: time, objectivity and archive. (edited with Lesley McFadyen). London: Bloomsbury.
2013. World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization (edited with Alice Stevenson). Oxford: Archaeopress.
2010. The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies (edited with Mary Beaudry). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2007. Envisioning Landscape: Situations and Standpoints in Archaeology and Heritage (edited with Laura McAtackney and Graham Fairclough). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press (One World Archaeology).
2007. "The Garden of the World": an historical archaeology of eastern Caribbean sugar landscapes. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
2006. The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology (edited with Mary Beaudry). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Articles, Papers and Book Chapters (Selected)
2023. Declining Whiteness. In O. Wambu (ed.) Empire Windrush: Reflections on 75 Years & More of the Black British Experience. London: Hachette.
2023. The British Museum is an anachronism – here’s how to fix it. The Daily Telegraph
2023. The last remaining argument against restitution has now been lost. The Art Newspaper
2023. Are Museums Obsolete? Architectural Review
2022. The Risks That Lurk in Europe’s “Scramble for Decolonization”. Hyperallergic.
2022. UK Welcomes Restitution, Just not Anti-Colonialism. Hyperallergic.
2022. Hew Locke Challenges Empire in Birmingham. Hyperallergic.
2022. Unmasking a History of Colonial Violence in a German Museum. Hyperallergic.
2022. What are the next challenges for cultural restitution? The Art Newspaper.
2022. Can we imagine public art beyond ‘toxic monumentality’? Art Review.
2021. Glorious Memory. In H. Carr and S. Lipscombe (eds) What is History Now? London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson., pp. 114-128.
2021. Necrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial Museum. Journal of British Art Studies 19.
2021. The UK has held onto the Parthenon Marbles for two centuries, but the tide is turning. Artnet.
2021. Looted art must be returned - but on a case-by-case basis. The Daily Telegraph.
2021. Does George Osborne at the British Museum signal a dangerous blow to the arts? Elephant Magazine.
2021. Let’s Keep Colston Falling. Art Review.
2020. Fallism and Restitution. (with Nicholas Mirzoeff). New African Magazine
2020. An einem trüben Dezembermorgen. In M. Lagatz, B. Savoy and P. Sissis (eds) Beute. Berlin: Verlag Matthes & Seitz, pp. 403-405.
2020. The UK Government is trying to draw museums into a fake culture war. The Guardian.
2020. Why Colston had to Fall. Art Review.
2020. Memory and the photological landscape. In S. De Nardi, H. Orange, S. High and E. Koskinen-Koivisto (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Memory and Place. New York: Routledge, pp. 254-260.
2019. The Sarr-Savoy report - one year on. Apollo Magazine.
2019. Reframing Archaeology and Anthropology in Museums. Museum Ideas 2019.
2019. Introduction: from archaeography to photology (with Lesley McFadyen). In L. McFadyen and D. Hicks (eds) Archaeology and Photography: time, objectivity and archive. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 1-20.
2019. The transformation of Visual Archaeology (Part One). In L. McFadyen and D. Hicks (eds) Archaeology and Photography: time, objectivity and archive. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 21-54
2019. The transformation of Visual Archaeology (Part Two). In L. McFadyen and D. Hicks (eds) Archaeology and Photography: time, objectivity and archive. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 209-242.
2017. Table ronde: la matérialité des collections: formes d’archives et de pratiques (with É. Kissel, P. Peltier, C. Barthe, C. Moulherat and W. Modest). Journal Les actes de colloques du musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Issue 8.
2016. The Temporality of the Landscape Revisited. Norwegian Archaeological Review 49(1).
2016. Meshwork Fatigue (reply to comments from Tim Ingold, Matt Edgeworth and Laurent Olivier). Norwegian Archaeological Review 49(1).
2016. The Return of Ethnographic Theory: HAU and When. Anthropology Today 32(3): 22.
2013. Four Field Anthropology: charter myths and time warps from St Louis to Oxford. Current Anthropology 54(6).
2013. Characterizing the World Archaeology Collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum. In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. Later Prehistoric and Roman Europe (with Joshua Pollard). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. Post-Roman Europe. (with Eleanor Standley and Alice Forward). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. Oxfordshire. (with Matthew Nicholas). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. The Aegean and Cyprus (with Yannis Galanakis). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. South America (with Bill Sillar). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. Central America (with Elizabeth Graham and Alice Stevenson). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. The Caribbean (with Jago Cooper). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. North America (with Michael Petraglia). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. Asia and the Middle East. In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. India and Sri Lanka (with Michael Petraglia and Nicole Boivin). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. Australia and Oceania. In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2013. Easter Island and Pitcairn Island (with Sue Hamilton, Mike Seager Thomas and Ruth Whitehouse). In D. Hicks and A. Stevenson (eds) World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: a characterization. Oxford: Archaeopress.
2010. Material culture studies: a reactionary view (with Mary C. Beaudry). In D. Hicks and M.C. Beaudry (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-21.
2010. The material-cultural turn: event and effect. In D. Hicks and M.C. Beaudry (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 25-98.
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)
2007. From Material Culture to Material Life. Journal of Iberian Archaeology 9/10: 245-255 (2007)
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)
2006. 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)
2005. 'Places for Thinking' from Annapolis to Bristol: Situations and Symmetries in "World Historical Archaeologies"'. World Archaeology 37(3): 373-391.
2004. Historical Archaeology and the British. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 14 (1): 101-106.
2003. Archaeology Unfolding: Diversity and the Loss of Isolation. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 22 (3): 315-329.
2000. Ethnicity, Race and the archaeology of the Atlantic slave trade. Assemblage 5.
Book Reviews and Review Articles
- 2016. Review of Shannon Dawdy Patina: a profane archaeology. Sculpture Journal 25(3): 448-449.
- 2010. Review of Owen Hatherley ‘Militant Modernism’. Planning Perspectives 25(2).
- 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 Geography32 (3): 665-667 (2006)
- 'From 'Questions that Count' to Stories that 'Matter' in Historical Archaeology'.Antiquity 78: 934–939 (2004)
Selected Other Publications
- 2018. The Universal Museum is a 21st-Century Myth. Art Newspaper
- 2017. The A303 is Part of the Stonehenge setting: don't bury it. The Independent.
- 2017. Why are England's heritage bodies supporting the Stonehenge Bypass? Apollo Magazine.
- 2016. Here’s why you should care about the scrapping of A-level anthropology. The Conversation
- 2016. Pitt Rivers 2065. Museums ID 19: 31-37.
- 2009. Excavating the Archives: archive archaeology and the higher education sector. London: HEFCE (Guidelines for Teaching and Learning 7).
- 2004. 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)
I am happy to supervise on all aspects of the archaeology and material and visual culture of the post-medieval, 19th-century, modern and contemporary past, including heritage studies, museum studies, histories of landscape and the built environment, and the intersections between histories of art and histories of science. Particular current thematic areas of interest include colonialism/decolonisation, conflict/war, memory cultures/memorialisation, and histories of the climate emergency.
Current students
| Why have there been no great women patrons? – Examining the cultural phenomenon of Renaissance female art patronage Carolin Koenig | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Dan Hicks |
| Excavating the Image: Records of Violence and Displacement in Contemporary Levantine Visual Culture Sari Patnaik | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Dan Hicks |
| A comparative analysis of how armed conflict and the destruction of cultural heritage impacts communities Beth Timmins | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Timothy Clack and Dan Hicks |
| Colonialism, Visuality and Monumentalism: National Trust Country Houses, c. 1895-1937 Becky Hodgkinson | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Dan Hicks |
| An Anthropological Theory of Dispossession Sydney Rose | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Dan Hicks |
| Screw Piles, Syringes and Selfies: Birch’s Seaside Piers in Crisis. Lindsay Fricker | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Dan Hicks and Damian Robinson |
Past students
| Collecting Worlds: Biocultural Comparison and the HMS Beagle Voyage, 1831-1836 Danielle Gilbert (2022) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Dan Hicks |
| Trade, development and resilience: An archaeology of contemporary livelihoods in Turkana, Northern Kenya Samuel Derbyshire (2017) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Peter Mitchell and Dan Hicks |
Key words: decolonisation, biocultural heritage, curation, endangered heritage, materiality, museums, policy, contemporary, post-medieval, Europe, Africa, Americas
