Department of Archaeology

Building a global community of practitioners

Teaching body recovery to the world International practitioners and humanitarian organisations are benefitting from our forensic anthropology and archaeology training. The training, which includes the latest scientific techniques for body location, recovery and analysis, has been used by UK police forces, US and Australian search and rescue teams, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It’s now available as an online course, with 28,000+ participants from over 147 countries enrolled.

Professor Rebecca Gowland was invited by the ICRC to develop the course after collaborating with them to help build local capacity in regions of conflict and genocide. The success of the course has led to Professor Gowland assisting in formulating strategies in high-profile forensic contexts – such as co-authoring a report on optimising the location, recovery and identification of individuals killed during the Chechen war.

The methodologies will be included as part of our new MSc in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology, unique to the UK in terms of its strong international humanitarian focus. The MSc will be directed by Professor Gowland and our recently arrived Dr Daniel Gaudio. Dr Gaudio’s research interests include skeletal trauma analysis, forensic anthropology, palaeopathology and taphonomy.

Collaborating to preserve Asian heritage International heritage sites are at serious risk from development, environmental hazards, and conflict. Our field programmes in South Asia, led by UNESCO Chair Robin Coningham, combine archaeological investigations and community mapping to record local heritage and traditions. For example, our innovative ‘risk maps’ have helped reverse damaging proposals and enabled interventions supporting sustainable pilgrimage protection, benefitting local communities.

We’ve helped strengthen post-disaster guidelines in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake. While researching the contributing causes of the collapse of historic monuments, we identified indigenous seismic adaptations which have informed the renovation and reconstruction of damaged monuments in Kathmandu.

Prioritising in-field training, we’ve encouraged the mobility of heritage practitioners in Asia to gain new insights and share expertise. This has led to the adoption of risk maps in Nepal, Myanmar, and India, as well as the postdisaster methodologies co-designed in Kathmandu applied to conflict-damaged heritage in northern Sri Lanka.

Many of our methodologies have been incorporated into our new module ‘Protecting World Heritage’. An option within the MA International Cultural Heritage Management programme, it provides students with practical applications of research-led learning across Durham’s UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We’ve also welcomed Dr Qian Gao to our MA team. Specialising in Chinese heritage, Dr Gao’s research focuses on addressing cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary issues in heritage studies that go beyond the established boundaries between tangible and intangible, Eastern and Western, scientific and humanistic approaches.

> Online courseForensic Archaeology and Anthropology

> Durham World Heritage Site

Department of Geography

Where human and physical geography meet on an international scale

Climate change, pandemics and the city – global impacts

Durham research in Geography has helped shape the UN-Habitat’s urban climate governance, chiefly through Professor Harriet Bulkeley’s role in developing their Guiding Principles for City Climate Action Planning. The team analysed 627 climate experiments in 100 cities, as well as case study work in Bangalore, Monterrey, Hong Kong, Philadelphia, and Berlin. Endorsed by key transnational organisations supporting urban action on climate change, these principles are used both by UN-Habitat to develop and evaluate strategies for cities around the world and by partner organisations such as WWF for their One Planet City Challenge.

Professor Bulkeley also coordinated the Naturvation project, which examined urban nature-based solutions to climate change and environmental issues. 80 researchers from 14 institutions in six European countries observed what naturebased solutions can achieve in cities, for example, green roofs and city parks that limit heat stress. One development from the project was the Urban Nature Explorer, an open-access tool that can visualise these solutions in any city.

The DenCity project, led by Professor Colin McFarlane, examines relationships between high density living, politics and social practices in cities including Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, Manila and Tokyo. The project studied the nature, role and potential of density in cities and how density is understood, governed and politicised. The COVID-19 pandemic had a powerful, if accidental impact on the direction of the project, including research on how citizens have experienced and perceived density and crowds as the pandemic unfolded.

Our research in human geography also extends to economic geography. Dr Karen Lai’s work focuses on financial networks and practices in Asia, examining the organisation and strategies of investment banks and implications for financial centre development, as well as changing consumer practice with the growth of FinTech apps and platform companies. Her new project, starting in Singapore, looks at data centres development in southeast Asia.

Preparing for disaster

Earthquakes and associated hazards such as landslides are a major recurring threat across many countries. Our work in Nepal informed the humanitarian response to the devastating 2015 Gorkha earthquake, as well as preparedness efforts for future events. Led by Professor Nick Rosser and Professor Alex Densmore, new research has highlighted two themes in improving resilience to large earthquakes: the quantification of hazards of earthquaketriggered and post-earthquake landslides, and the development of innovative earthquake scenarios for humanitarian contingency planning.

Our ensemble of earthquake scenarios has been used by the UN, Government of Nepal, and international NGOs to underpin the national earthquake Emergency Response Preparedness Plan, which guides the response of the UN Humanitarian Country Team in Nepal to the next major earthquake. Research is being continued with the SajagNepal project, which uses multi-national partnerships to improve preparedness for the mountain hazard chain in Nepal.

Our taught masters programmes – MA/MSc Risk

Explore global challenges such as climate change, disasters, and geo-politics with our taught masters programmes, including the MA and MSc programmes in Risk. Popular with international students, the programmes often see applicants with experience working within governments and NGOs looking to develop their careers and skillsets. We now offer five programmes, each tailored to address urgent environmental, political, and social challenges. Scan the the QR code on the right to learn more.