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Research Staff

Welcome to the research staff pages, where you can find out about life as a member of our research community in the Department of Archaeology. We have a really active group of research staff, on individual fellowships and working on some of our research projects. On these pages you can meet some of them, and find out more about life as a member of our research community. 

If you are thinking of applying to York for a fellowship, you can find out more on our fellowships page.

Aimée Little, Head of Research Staff

Research Staff Reps

The department has two research staff reps: Dr Akinbowale Akintayo and Dr Lizzie Wright.

Dr. Akinbowale is the research staff rep of the Department of Archaeology based in King's Manor. Akin is a landscape archaeologist specialising in Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing applications in archaeology. He obtained his undergraduate and Masters degrees at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria before completing his PhD at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona Spain and Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy.

He can be found in room K/207 at King's Manor, or you can send him an email: akinbowale.akintayo@york.ac.uk.

Dr. Lizzie Wright is the research staff rep based in BioArCh. Lizzie is a zooarchaeologist. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Durham University before moving to the University of Sheffield to complate her Masters and PhD. Since graduating she has worked in the UK and been awarded prestigious fellowships in Portugal and Switzerland. In 2022 she joined the University of York as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow.

You can find her in the post-doc office on the second floor of the Environment building on campus (ENV239), or you can send her an email: l.wright@york.ac.uk.

Researcher in focus - Alejandro Serna

Alejandro is an Argentinian Archaeologist specialized in Patagonian hunter-gatherers and is mainly interested in human interaction networks, paleodiet, and mobility.He obtained his degree (Licenciado) in Anthropology in 2012 at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), where he would pursue his postgraduate studies focused on Patagonian archaeology. His PhD (CONICET, Argentina, 2014-2018), focused on the potential ethnic identification of North Patagonian hunter-gatherers through morphological and isotopic evidence. During those years he received analytical isotope training at the universities of Cape Town, Ottawa and Utah.

Alejandro has dedicated almost his entire career to studying Late Holocene hunter-gatherer human remains from Patagonia to address different research questions.

Alejandro travelled from Argentina to take up his Marie Curie Fellowship working in our BioArCh facility. His fellowship is: POUR - Pottery use from the earliest records of Patagonia through biomolecular analysis (MSCA).This EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie project will undertake the first systematic research on the uses of early pottery among Patagonian foragers who adopted and spread this technology in a challenging environment without engaging in intensive production.

Current researchers

Akinbowale Akintayo (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
MAEASaM: Mapping Africa's Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments

Alejandro Serna (Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Fellow)
POUR: Pottery use from the earliest records of Patagonia through biomolecular analysis

Alexandre Lucquin (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
INDUCE: The Innovation, Dispersal and Use of Ceramics in NE Europe

Andrew Needham (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow)
High-resolution analysis of beads and pendants as an indicator of cultural connection in the northwest European Early Mesolithic

Claire-Elise Fischer (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
COMMIOS: Communities and Connectivities: Iron Age Britons and their Continental Neighbours

Fran Allfrey (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
The Avebury Papers: Digitisation, exploration and creative re-use of a uniquely important archaeological archive

Harry Robson (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
SEACHANGE: Quantifying the Impact of Major Cultural Transitions on Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Biodiversity

Hayley Saul (Senior Research Fellow)
Leverhulme International Professorship: Centre for Heritage Research

Holly Wright (Research Associate)
Archaeology Data Service

Jasmine Lundy (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
ENCOUNTER: Demography, Cultural change, and the Diffusion of Rice and Millet during the Jomon-Yayoi transition in prehistoric Japan

Jen Harland (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
SEACHANGE: Quantifying the Impact of Major Cultural Transitions on Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Biodiversity 

Jessica Bates (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
Flixton Island 2 project

Kweku Afrifa (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
SEACHANGE: Quantifying the Impact of Major Cultural Transitions on Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Biodiversity 

Laura Castells Navarro (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
COMMIOS: Communities and Con nectivities: Iron Age Britons and their Continental Neighbours

Lindsey Büster (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
COMMIOS: Communities and Con nectivities: Iron Age Britons and their Continental Neighbours

Lizzie Wright (Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Fellow)
CatCoW: Cattle husbandry and dairying at the introduction of the Corded Ware Culture: Agricultural and dietary change during the 3rd Millenium BC

Maddy Bleasdale (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
COMMIOS: Communities and Connectivities: Iron Age Britons and their Continental Neighbours

Marjolein Admiraal (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
TRADITION: Long-term Coastal Adaptation, Food Security and Poverty Alleviation in Latin America

Michael Legge (European Research Council, Postdoctoral Research Associate)
COMMIOS: Communities and Connectivities: Iron Age Britons and their Continental Neighbours

Michael Stratigos (Leverhulme Postdoctoral Research Associate)
Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity | History of Power, People and Nature

Tanja Hoffman (Leverhulme Research Fellow)
Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre

Tim Evans (Research Associate)
Archaeology Data Service

Toby Pillatt (NERC Researcher Co-Investigator)
Branching Out: New Routes to Valuing Urban Treescapes