I am currently Director of Research and Engagement at MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology), and previously Senior Lecturer in Cultural Heritage Management at the University of York (see more about these posts here), but I’ve long been interested in the relationship between media and knowledge-making in archaeology, particularly the capacity for different types of media (digital, visual, audio, filmic, exhibitionary, etc.) to create, elaborate and disrupt the archaeological discipline.
Prior to taking up my Lectureship, my PhD research focused on the entanglements of images in the formalisation of the earliest academic departments of archaeology in the UK during the first half of the 20th century.
My postdoc research focused on the archaeological illustrator and artist Alan Sorrell, including his relationship to disciplinary professionalisation and popularisation in the mid-20th century.
Related studies of mine focus on (1) means for rethinking traditional media (especially photographs, illustrations, tables, diagrams, pen-and-paper productions) as productive modes of engagement, (2) methods for critically analysing — and teaching others to analyse — archaeological media, (3) the ethics of visual display, and (4) audience reception of archaeological media.
SARA PERRY 