© N. Anderson
Meet the academic committee
Professor Wynne-Jones’ research focuses on East African urbanism, material culture and social practice. She has worked at sites across East Africa and particularly on the Swahili coast. She has published widely o these topics, including the edited volume 'The Swahili World' (with A. LaViolette) and the monograph 'A Material Culture'. Professor Wynne-Jones is the founder and co-ordinator of the University of York Africa Research Network and a member of the core group of the Centre for Urban Networks Evolutions at Aarhus University.
Professor Lambourn is a historian of South Asia and the Indian Ocean world at DeMontfort University, specializing in cultural exchanges with the Middle East before 1500 with research interests including exploring material culture through writing and mercantile material culture. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute and has was a member of the AHRC Peer Review College from 2012 to 2019. Since 2019 she has been a member of the Editorial Board for the Medieval Globe.
Contact: elambourn@dmu.ac.uk
Contact: dkennet@uchicago.edu
Derek Kennet is professor of Arabian archaeology in the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago. He researches the archaeology of Arabia, the Gulf and the Indian Ocean from prehistoric times to the modern period, focussing particularly on the Sasanian and early Islamic periods. He has conducted fieldwork in many countries in the region, including the UAE, Oman, Kuwait and India. His current research looks at Indian Ocean trade between China and the Islamic Middle East from the Tang to the early Ming period. He is currently excavating at Sohar in Oman and collaborating with the Palace Museum, Beijing on the study of Chinese trade ceramics.
Professor Timothy Insoll FBA is an archaeologist and Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic archaeology at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS). His research interests are in later African archaeology (Iron Age) and Global Islamic archaeology. He is the Director of the Centre for Islamic Archaeology (CfIA) in the IAIS which he founded in 2017. Under the auspices of the CfIA, he was founding host of the inaugural Indian Ocean World Archaeology Conference in January 2020. Additionally Professor Insoll is a Fellow of the British Academy, Society of Antiquaries and Royal Asiatic Society, and the Honorary Archaeological Advisor to the Court of the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain (since 2001), and Honorary Lecturer, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Management, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
Contact: t.insoll@exeter.ac.uk
Hannah Parsons-Morgan is finalising her doctorate in African and Islamic archaeology at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS), University of Exeter, where she holds a variety of administrative roles and is a Teaching Associate. Her doctoral research focuses on the consumption of Chinese ceramics in East Africa, from the medieval to the early modern, particularly practices of use, reuse, recycling, and modification. She has a multidisciplinary background in the archaeology, art history and anthropology of Africa and Asia. Research interests include the material culture of the Indian Ocean world, especially the consumption, trade, exchange and acculturation of materials and objects. She has worked in Bahrain, Ethiopia, and the Zanzibar Archipelago.
Contact: hp382@exeter.ac.uk
Dr. Annabel Teh Gallop is Lead Curator for Southeast Asia at the British Library, with a particular interest in Malay manuscripts and the maritime aspect of Southeast Asia. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and co-directed the research project ‘Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean’. Her Ph.D. study was on Malay seals, and current research focusses on the art of the Qur’an in the Indian Ocean world.
Contact: annabel.gallop@bl.uk
Contact: ran.zhang@durham.ac.uk
An assistant professor at the University of Durham, Dr. Zhang's research focuses on archaeological ceramics to uncover the social, economic, and cultural dynamics of medieval Eurasian globalization through trade between ancient China, the Islamic World, and Europe. He has participated in and conducted fieldwork and research in many countries, including China, the UAE, Qatar, India, and Sri Lanka.
Professor Horton is a Professor of Archaeology and Director of Research at the Royal Agricultural Collage and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Bristol. His research interests span across the globe but are mainly focussed on historical archaeology and looks at subjects such as spread of religion, colonialism and slavery. He is additionally notable for his media work, especially in television and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquities.
Contact: mark.horton@rau.ac.uk