Prof. Dawn Hadley
Professor of Medieval Archaeology

Profile

Biography

Prof. Dawn Hadley is a medieval archaeologist and historian who has published widely on the society and cultures of early medieval England and the Viking Age. She has focussed, in particular, on issues of ethnicity, migration, gender, and childhood, and on funerary practices and settlements. Her expertise lies in interdisciplinary research, and she has a long track-record of integrating historical and archaeological evidence, and humanities-based approaches to the past with those drawn from archaeological science. When taking the occasional break from being a medievalist, she also has research interests in nineteenth-century childhood and working-class society.

Dawn also has expertise in digital heritage and has collaborated with digital creativity practitioners and computer scientists to develop digital methods of analysing and disseminating information about the past. She has co-created digital installations for a range of external partners including York Museums Trust, Shefield Manor Lodge visitor centre, Sheffield City Council, the Residents’ Association of Park Hill flats in Sheffield, and Rothwell (Northants) parish church, for which she has received funding from AHRC, EPSRC, UKRI, HEIF and DCMS. She has extensive experience of public engagement activities, working with theatre companies and digital design organisations to present her research to audiences beyond academia.

Career

Dawn trained as a historian, completing her PhD and post-doctoral research fellowship in the School of History at the University of Birmingham. She has also taught medieval history at the University of Leeds. Most recently, she was Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, where she was also Deputy Faculty Director of Research & Innovation (PG matters) (2009-2013), Head of Department (2014-18), and Acting Vice President for Arts & Humanities (2017-18). She joined the Department of Archaeology and Centre for Medieval Studies at York in September 2018.

Departmental roles

• Chair of Departmental Research Committee
• Member of Departmental Management Team
  
  

University roles

• Member of Faculty of Arts and Humanities Research Group
• Member of University Research Forum
• Member of the Centre for Medieval Studies
• Member of Centre for Digital Heritage

Research

Overview

Dawn has recently published two books with her colleague Prof. Julian Richards on the Viking Great Army: The Viking Great Army and the Making of a Nation (Thames & Hudson; 2021), and Life in the Viking Great Army: raiders, traders and settlers (OUP; 2025). She is currently working on a new book on Viking burials in England. She has co-created digital installations on the Viking Great Army at the Yorkshire Museum with colleagues including Julian Richards and Dr Guy Schofield, which have featured in the exhibitions Viking: Rediscover the Legend (2017) and Viking North (2025-ongoing). She is Co-I on an AHRC/DCMS project ‘Valuing Digital Cultural and Heritage Assets’ collaborating with economists at the University of
Portsmouth.
Other recent projects included a study of the enduring impact of the medieval castle on the modern city of Sheffield (Yorks), and its implication or modern regeneration. This culminated in the book Sheffield Castle: Archaeology, Archives, Regeneration, 1927-2018 co-authored with Prof. John Moreland (University of Sheffield). She led an AHRC/EPSRC-funded project to develop a VR model of the castle and make available the archaeological archives via the Archaeology Data Service: Sheffield Castle, 1927-2018.

Available PhD research projects

Dawn has extensive experience of PhD supervision, having supervised over 40 PhD students to successful completion; they now hold research and lecturing posts in universities, run their own businesses as archaeological specialists, work in cultural heritage management, or manage business development and teaching quality enhancement departments in leading universities. She can supervise research on any aspect of early medieval England, and on the impact of the Vikings on Britain and Ireland. She particularly welcomes applications with an interdisciplinary focus. She also welcomes applications on the use of digital heritage methods in the context of public engagement.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• The Age of the Victorians

Postgraduate

• Viking Worlds
• Medieval Settlement and Communities
• Vikings in Northumbria (Centre for Medieval Studies)

External activities

Memberships

• Society for Medieval Archaeology (Council member 2003-2007; Honorary Secretary, 2007-2018)
• Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past (committee member, 2007-ongoing; Vice President 2018-ongoing)
• Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of London (2006-)
• Medieval Settlement Research Group (committee member 2000-2003, 2009-2012)
• Viking Congress (English national representative)

Editorial duties

• Member of editorial board for Northern Medieval World series at the Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University (since 2015 – ongoing)
• Member of the Editorial Board for Medieval Archaeology (2007-2018)
• Co-editor of Early Medieval Europe (2012-2015)