My Research
My research spans a range of topics that tend to centre around new insights into the frequency and development of diseases in the past, as well as methodological improvements in my field.
My early research focussed on identifying evidence for respiratory disease in ancient Sudanese populations in order to understand how changes in climate, environment, subsistence activities, craftwork, habitation, and cultural behaviours over time might have affected susceptibility to respiratory disease.
This research raised new insights into the impact of desertification and aridity on the development of diseases in the past (see here and here), a topic which has been widely underexplored in my field. I later expanded this research out to look at pre-Colonial Peruvian individuals who were also living in a desert environment.
More recently I have been focussing on how an intersectional approach (considering the way the social aspects of a person's identity, e.g., gender, class, race, combine to provide advantages or disadvantages in life) can provide greater insight into who was and was not more likely to develop a disease in the past (see here).
I am also very invested in improving the methods we use in the field of palaeopathology to ensure our future results are as comparable and reliable as they can be. I have published on improvements for recording pulmonary inflammation and on the use of inter-observer error testing in palaeopathology.
I have also developed a new way of assessing oral health in past peoples. This new method allows us to holistically assess how different environments and conditions might have impacted people's oral health in the past, without relying on the analysis of a single dental disease. I was awarded the Paleopathology Association's Early Career Conference Award and the International Journal of Paleopathology's Volume Highlight for this research. You can find more on this research method here.
About me
I am an osteoarchaeologist and palaeopathologist (the study of archaeological human remains and past diseases), with specialisms in respiratory, infectious, inflammatory, and oro-dental diseases.
I undertook my PhD in palaeopathology between the British Museum and Durham University (2015-2018), focussing on evidence for respiratory disease in the Middle Nile Valley from the Neolithic to Medieval periods.
Following this I worked as a bioarchaeologist at the British Museum (2018-2019) and as a lecturer in osteoarchaeology and British prehistory at Cardiff University (2019-2020).
I have now been a research associate within the School of Culture and Heritage at the University of Leicester for over six years (2020-present).
I am the founder of the Bioarchaeology Respiratory Network and am a member of the Advisory Board for the International Journal of Paleopathology.
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Research Projects
From 2020-2025, I worked on the Tobacco, Health & History Project, run by Dr Sarah Inskip at the University of Leicester. This award winning project was interested in investigating the impacts of tobacco on health in Europe after it was first introduced to the continent in the sixteenth century.
As part of this project, we investigated new ways to detect individuals in the past who smoked using evidence retained in their skeletons. This allowed us to investigate whether the rates of certain conditions, including respiratory, oro-dental, inflammatory, and metabolic diseases, increased in people who smoked once tobacco was introduced to Europe.
Recent news articles on this research can be read here and here.
I am now a research associate on Dr Sarah Inskip's follow-on project: 'TB-omics', which will investigate new approaches for identifying tuberculosis through time in Britain. The project has only just started, so watch this space!
School of Heritage and Culture
University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, United Kingdom