Karina Croucher
I am a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Bradford and I have previously taught archaeology at the Universities of Manchester and Liverpool.
My ongoing research also explores the relationship between past and contemporary attitudes towards death, dying and end of life care, focusing on the contribution archaeological research brings to contemporary attitudes and practices. This is the topic of an interdisciplinary project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Project, ‘Continuing Bonds: exploring the meaning and legacy of death through past and contemporary practice’, otherwise known as 'Archaeology meets End of Life Care' www.bradford.ac.uk/continuingbonds. Building on this, the Dying to Talk project coproduced a resource encouraging young people to discuss death and dying www.bradford.ac.uk/Dying-to-talk.
These projects build on a background of research in to funerary archaeology of the Prehistoric of Southwest Asia (the Near East/Middle East), with my British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship resulting in the publication of ‘Death and Dying in the Neolithic Near East’ (2012, Oxford University Press), focusing on themes such as identity, gender and personhood. As well as investigating concepts of life and death in prehistory, I hope the book challenges some of our own biases, and examines the role the past plays in our understandings of each other, and life today. I have also explored attitudes to identity in other prehistoric contexts, including Polynesian prehistory, with the investigation of relationships between rock art, the body, and a re-evaluation of the anthropomorphic moai on Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
My emerging research in Jordan unites the above research strands, focusing on the role that cultural heritage plays in identity, social cohesion, and in providing a sense of place, particularly for displaced and host communities (watch this space!).
I am passionate about teaching, and about research into teaching, where I work with Hannah Cobb to re-analyse the way we teach, research and practice archaeology. We are currently co-authoring a volume for Oxford University Press on Assembling Archaeology: A relational approach to teaching, practice and research.
I have worked for the University of Manchester's Widening Participation Team, and for the Higher Education Academy's Subject Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology (based at Liverpool University), where I researched and worked on topics including diversity and inclusivity, fieldwork, employability and enterprise, and sustainability. These prior positions and my current research reflect my interest in methodological issues of interpretation, representation and the portrayal of the past in the present.
Undercutting these research areas is a motivation to promote equality, diversity and inclusivity in research and teaching.
My PhD, at the University of Manchester, was on 'Treatment of the Body in the Ancient Near East', completed in 2005 under the supervision of Dr Stuart Campbell.
Phone: +441274235335
Address: Archaeological Sciences
University of Bradford
Bradford
BD7 1DP
My ongoing research also explores the relationship between past and contemporary attitudes towards death, dying and end of life care, focusing on the contribution archaeological research brings to contemporary attitudes and practices. This is the topic of an interdisciplinary project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Project, ‘Continuing Bonds: exploring the meaning and legacy of death through past and contemporary practice’, otherwise known as 'Archaeology meets End of Life Care' www.bradford.ac.uk/continuingbonds. Building on this, the Dying to Talk project coproduced a resource encouraging young people to discuss death and dying www.bradford.ac.uk/Dying-to-talk.
These projects build on a background of research in to funerary archaeology of the Prehistoric of Southwest Asia (the Near East/Middle East), with my British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship resulting in the publication of ‘Death and Dying in the Neolithic Near East’ (2012, Oxford University Press), focusing on themes such as identity, gender and personhood. As well as investigating concepts of life and death in prehistory, I hope the book challenges some of our own biases, and examines the role the past plays in our understandings of each other, and life today. I have also explored attitudes to identity in other prehistoric contexts, including Polynesian prehistory, with the investigation of relationships between rock art, the body, and a re-evaluation of the anthropomorphic moai on Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
My emerging research in Jordan unites the above research strands, focusing on the role that cultural heritage plays in identity, social cohesion, and in providing a sense of place, particularly for displaced and host communities (watch this space!).
I am passionate about teaching, and about research into teaching, where I work with Hannah Cobb to re-analyse the way we teach, research and practice archaeology. We are currently co-authoring a volume for Oxford University Press on Assembling Archaeology: A relational approach to teaching, practice and research.
I have worked for the University of Manchester's Widening Participation Team, and for the Higher Education Academy's Subject Centre for History, Classics and Archaeology (based at Liverpool University), where I researched and worked on topics including diversity and inclusivity, fieldwork, employability and enterprise, and sustainability. These prior positions and my current research reflect my interest in methodological issues of interpretation, representation and the portrayal of the past in the present.
Undercutting these research areas is a motivation to promote equality, diversity and inclusivity in research and teaching.
My PhD, at the University of Manchester, was on 'Treatment of the Body in the Ancient Near East', completed in 2005 under the supervision of Dr Stuart Campbell.
Phone: +441274235335
Address: Archaeological Sciences
University of Bradford
Bradford
BD7 1DP
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Books by Karina Croucher
The remarkable evidence relating to mortuary practices and ritual behaviour from the Near Eastern Neolithic provides some of the most breath-taking archaeological evidence excavated from Neolithic contexts. The most enigmatic mortuary practices of the period produced the striking 'plastered skulls', faces modelled onto the crania of the deceased. Archaeological sites also contain evidence for many intriguing mortuary treatments, including decapitated burials and the fragmentation, circulation, curation, and reburial of human and animal remains and material culture.
Drawing on recent excavations and earlier archive and published fieldwork, Croucher provides an overview and introduction to the period, presenting new interpretations of the archaeological evidence and in-depth analyses of case studies. The book explores themes such as ancestors, human-animal relationships, food, consumption and cannibalism, personhood, and gender.
Offering a unique insight into changing attitudes towards the human body - both in life and during death - this book reveals the identities and experiences of the people of the Neolithic Near East through their interactions with their dead, with animals, and their new material worlds
Papers by Karina Croucher
The remarkable evidence relating to mortuary practices and ritual behaviour from the Near Eastern Neolithic provides some of the most breath-taking archaeological evidence excavated from Neolithic contexts. The most enigmatic mortuary practices of the period produced the striking 'plastered skulls', faces modelled onto the crania of the deceased. Archaeological sites also contain evidence for many intriguing mortuary treatments, including decapitated burials and the fragmentation, circulation, curation, and reburial of human and animal remains and material culture.
Drawing on recent excavations and earlier archive and published fieldwork, Croucher provides an overview and introduction to the period, presenting new interpretations of the archaeological evidence and in-depth analyses of case studies. The book explores themes such as ancestors, human-animal relationships, food, consumption and cannibalism, personhood, and gender.
Offering a unique insight into changing attitudes towards the human body - both in life and during death - this book reveals the identities and experiences of the people of the Neolithic Near East through their interactions with their dead, with animals, and their new material worlds
That exposure to archaeological case studies and artefacts stimulates multifaceted discourse, some of it difficult, is a theme that also emerges in our data from pre, post and follow-up questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. The material prompted participants to reflect on their biases, expectations and norms around both treatment of the dead, and of bereavement, impacting on their values, attitudes and beliefs. Moreover, 87% of participants believed the workshop would have a personal effect through thinking differently about death and bereavement, and 57% thought it would impact on how they approached death and bereavement in their professional practice. This has huge implications today, where talk of death remains troublesome, and for some, has a near-taboo status–‘taboo’ being a theme evident in some participants’ own words. The findings have an important role to play in facilitating and normalising discussions around dying and bereavement and in equipping professionals in their work with people with advanced illness.