University of Southampton

Faculty Member, Archaeology

About

Dr Joanna Sofaer is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. She gained her PhD from the University of Cambridge and was a Research Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge (1998-2000). She held the Phyllis and Eileen Gibbs Traveling Research Fellowship at Newnham College, University of Cambridge in 2000-2001. 

Joanna is a prehistorian whose research combines innovative theoretical work with material culture based approaches. She is the author of The Body as Material Culture: A Theoretical Osteoarchaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2006), Co-editor of Biographies and Space. Placing the Subject in Art and Architecture. London: Routledge (2008), editor of Material Identities. Oxford: Blackwell (2007) and Children and Material Culture. London: Routledge (2000).

She leads the HERA-funded project Creativity and Craft Production in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe (CinBA) in collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Southampton, Cambridge and Trondheim, the National Museum of Denmark, The Natural History Museum Vienna, Zagreb Archaeological Museum, The Crafts Council and Lejre Archaeological Park (www.cinba.net). This 3-year project explores developments in crafts that we take for granted: pottery, textiles and metalwork. It investigates objects as a means to understand local and transnational creative activities, examining the use of decorative motifs and the techniques and skill employed in their creation. Links between ancient and modern creativity are explored through contemporary engagements with Bronze Age objects by modern craftspeople and the public.

Other current international collaborations include the EU-funded project Forging Identities. The Mobility of Culture in Bronze Age Europe (2009-2012) in which she is a partner (www.forging-identities.com), as well as an international excavation at the important tell site at Százhalombatta, Hungary with colleagues from the Matrica Museum, University of Cambridge and University of Gothenburg. She is a partner in the AHRC-funded PARNASSUS Project, an interdisciplinary research project investigating adverse environmental effects and adaptation measures needed for the protection of cultural heritage from climate change impact(www.bath.ac.uk/parnassus).

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