European accolade for Archaeology professor

Posted on 31 August 2014

Geoff Bailey elected to the Academia Europaea

Geoff Bailey

The department's first Anniversary Professor of Archaeology, Geoff Bailey, has been elected to the Academia Europaea (AE) in recognition of his international scholarship and outstanding research achievements. AE is the European Academy of Humanities, Letters and Sciences, with its membership drawn from across Europe and from all disciplines.

Professor Bailey is a world authority on the archaeology of prehistoric coastlines and submerged landscapes, and has an international reputation for interdisciplinary collaboration across the boundary between archaeology and the marine and terrestrial geosciences.

He joined York in 2004 after a career in the Universities of Cambridge and Newcastle, and is currently Principal Investigator of the European Research Council-funded DISPERSE project – Dynamic Landscapes, Coastal Environments and Human Dispersals – with Geoffrey King of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris and an international team of specialists. They are investigating the impact of physical landscape change on human evolution and dispersal over the past 1 million years in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Near East and Australia, developing new methods of landscape reconstruction and archaeological survey using satellite imagery, tectonic geomorphology and underwater mapping.

Professor Bailey is also Chairman of SPLASHCOS – Submerged Prehistoric Archaeology and Landscapes of the Continental Shelf – with Dimitris Sakellariou of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research. This is a 150-strong research network, funded by the EU as a Trans-Domain COST Action, with members in 25 European States drawn from archaeology, marine geosciences, heritage organisations and industry. It promotes research, training, better management and greater public awareness of the drowned landscapes of the continental shelf, their value as a hidden part of the human cultural heritage, and their significance as a source of new knowledge about sea-level change and its past and future social impact.

Professor Bailey said “I am delighted with this honour, which more than anything recognises the virtues of crossing traditional boundaries in the pursuit of new knowledge, the central role of archaeology in addressing both fundamental and policy-relevant research into the human condition, and the growing importance of multi-national funding and collaboration in supporting such endeavours."

For more information on Geoff's research, see:

http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/staff/Bailey.htm