I am a heritage scientist. I investigate humans and their cultures as environmental change agents within temperate fluvial environments. My multi-disciplinary research draws from geoscience, archaeology, remote sensing, humanities and social science approaches.
As Director of the Rievaulx Landscapes Project I take a fresh interdisciplinary look at the behaviour and impact of a major medieval institution. This considers the first Cistercian abbey in northern Britain, Rievaulx Abbey, as an agent of change in the medieval landscape.
My doctoral research used a catchment-based approach to investigate landscape ‘transformation’ by the abbey. This was nested within a theoretical model of change, a complex system, in which people, belief, and the environment were treated as diverse, interconnected, interdependent and adaptive. Study areas were nested in physical terms within subareas of river catchment defined using geoscience and documentary evidence.
I also explore how the choices made by historic institutions such as Rievaulx Abbey may have implications for modern-day choices in modern-day places. During more than 400 years Rievaulx Abbey cycled between resilience and collapse in the face of risks with such modern resonance as climate fluctuation, recurrent flooding, foreign trade debts and animal diseases which threatened the livelihood of a generation.
The trace which these choices have made on the landscape can be invisible to the unaided human eye, so I use a suite of investigative approaches, from geoarchaeological science, remote sensing, large digital datasets and historic archives.
I am also passionate about public engagement in research. I draw on my experience in developing policy, strategy and evidence-based advice to government within rapidly-evolving multi-stakeholder contexts, to help evolve new approaches to research co-production and the transformative potential of digital skills.