Dr Rachael Kiddey

My work centres on developing collaborative and non-hierarchical methodologies for doing heritage work with marginalised social groups, particularly people affected by homelessness and displacement. Drawing on theory drawn from archaeology, anthropology, Heritage Studies, and political science, I locate the historical context of social inequalities in the present. I am interested in how the past lingers and co-constitutes the present in material, ideological, and structural ways. I believe that past-facing disciplines and institutions have important roles to play in educating diverse audiences about the plurality of ways to be human, to promote and co-create more egalitarian and sustainable futures. 

I received my PhD from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York in 2014. My doctoral research involved developing collaborative methodologies for working archaeologically with homeless people, documenting how cultural heritage can function in socially useful and transformative ways. My monograph, ‘Homeless Heritage’ was published by Oxford University Press in 2017 and it won the Society of Historical Archaeology’s James Deetz Book Award 2019. 

Between 2018-2022, I held a British Academy postdoctoral research fellowship at the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, where my project was called ‘Migrant Materialities’ and focused on the role of material and visual culture in situations of human displacement in Europe. Fieldwork involved working in squats and refugee camps across Europe, using participatory research methods to co-document the heritage of contemporary displacement. Together with displaced people, I co-curated a digital heritage exhibition called ‘Made in Migration’, which launched during Refugee Week in 2021. View the exhibition online.

I am also Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, where I continue to teach on the MPhil Heritage Studies, focusing on Museums & Theory. I am an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London and co-editor of the Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory (CHAT) book series, published by BAR Publications. 

I am happy to be approached for supervision by prospective PhD candidates with aligned research interests. 

I am Lecturer in Heritage & Museum Studies and currently teach on the MA Heritage Theory & Practice, specialising in Critical Heritage. Some of this teaching is conducted at The Box (Plymouth's newly refurbished museum). 

I also teach Public History and Heritage and History at undergraduate level. 

I am also Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, where I teach on the MPhil Heritage Studies, specialising in Museums & Theory. 

I previously taught at the University of Oxford on the undergraduate Anthropology course, specialising in 'Culture At War'.