Fellow Detail

My research interests include archaeological sciences particularly archaeobotany and phytolith research, palaeoecology, prehistory with a focus on the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic societies, South Asian Archaeology, British Archaeology, FAIR data, data sharing, scientific communication, academic contributions and authorship.

I am passionate about applying open science approaches for greater research sustainability. I have a particular interest in developing reproducible research workflows and enabling a more equitable, diverse and inclusive research culture.

I have been returning to research over the last few years, after a break from academia working as a Science Educator. I am currently a Research Associate and Community Manager on the DECOVID project at The Alan Turing Institute as well as undertaking my own archaeological-related projects. Since my return to academia, I have embraced an open science approach in all of my work. This has involved conducting a project to assess open science practices in phytolith research and developing the issues that have arisen from this research as part of my Open Life Science project to raise awareness of open science in my field. I have given talks, written blogs, and formed a working group for open science in phytolith research. We have initiated a FAIRification project to assess existing phytolith data and create guidelines for new data. I am an active member of The Turing Way Community and have recently run workshops on Zero to Binder and Project design. I am also working on several chapters for The Turing Way book as part of the Guide for Communication.
My archaeological work also involves developing an open project (British Phytoliths) to establish an innovative method for identifying British plant communities using phytolith analysis that will then be used to address archaeological and palaeoecological questions. So far one fieldwork season has been completed with a completely open workflow - open fieldwork sampling sheets, data, notes and photos. This work will produce an open access herbarium collection of plants and an open phytolith reference collection that will include slides as well as a digital record of the collection. This project has been supported by two small research grants from the Association of Environmental Archaeology and the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, and laboratory space has been provided by Historic England. I am also a member of the committee for the Association of Environmental Archaeology and I am working with PalaeoSIG, which is the palaeoecology special interest group of the British Ecological Society, on a science communication project to bring palaeoecological research to a wider audience.