Fay Stevens

 

Departmental Lecturer in Lifelong Learning (Archaeological Theory, Methods and Approaches)

Director, Undergraduate Certificate in Archaeology

Director, Oxford/Berkeley Programme

Biography

Fay Stevens is Departmental Lecturer in Lifelong Learning (Archaeological Theory, Methods and Approaches); Director, Undergraduate Certificate in Archaeology and Director, Oxford/Berkeley Programme. During her archaeological training at University College London (UCL), Fay was part of a ground-breaking project (directed by Professors Barbara Bender, Sue Hamilton and Chris Tilley) developing phenomenological theory, methods and approaches in landscape archaeology. This led to her award winning phenomenologically informed research on the landscape placement of Irish megalithic monuments (a comparative analysis of their landscape placement in the Burren and Conemara) and current research into the materiality and deposition of Bronze Age metalwork in the land/waterscapes of South-West England. She has worked on moorland sites (Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor, UK), fenlands (Cambridgeshire, UK), in a volcanic crater (Armenia) and has researched in forests (Japan), boglands (Ireland), waterscapes (Somerset Levels, UK), coastlines (South-West England) and islands (Scotland and Ireland).  

Prior to her full-time role at the Department for Continuing Education as Departmental Lecturer in Archaeological Theory, Methods and Approaches, Fay taught at the Department on a range of courses and was Adjunct Associate Professor at University of Notre Dame (U.S.A. in London) where she designed and taught courses in archaeology and ethics, archaeology and sustainability, London heritage and walking as archaeological praxis. In 2019 she received funding to complete the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School ‘Leading Sustainable Corporations Programme’ in order to inform the development of sustainable thinking in archaeological practice. This initiated the development of new courses in sustainability in archaeology including the Department’s Summer School for Adults (OUSSA) and Day School Programmes, as well as leading an international collaborative online educational project ‘Reading Water: A Contemplative Ecology of the River Nile (Egypt) and River Thames (London)’ as part of COP27 (British Council). She was awarded a PGCert in Teaching and Learning in Lifelong Learning in Higher Education (Birkbeck, University of London) and Higher Education Academy Fellowship. Fay is elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries London and elected Fellow of the Linnean Society London.

Research Interests

Fay’s research focuses on theoretical approaches to the landscapes and material culture of later prehistoric Europe. She is particularly interested in the interplay between archaeology and the philosophy of phenomenology, archaeological theory, methods in landscape archaeology and on innovative approaches to the study of prehistoric archaeology. This includes research and publications on the deposition of Bronze Age metalwork, the landscape placement of monuments and findspots, ideas of the body in later prehistory, the fragmentation and replication of artefacts, methodologies for the study of visual and non-visual cultural markers and on the combined praxis of art/archaeology.

Select publications

Quiddity: Drawing Avebury. In J.H. Jameson and A.Hadji (eds.) Art and Archaeology. (Routledge, 2025, forthcoming)

Behind the Scenes: Monuments to Women in the City of London, UK. In Baugher, S. and Jameson, J. (eds.) Monuments and Statues to Women: Arrival of an Historical Reckoning of Memory and Commemoration. (Routledge Restorative Justice in Heritage Studies and Archaeology, 2025, forthcoming)  

Introduction to Anthropology. (Rice University, 2022). Review Editor: https://assets.openstax.org/oscms-prodcms/media/documents/IntroductiontoAnthropology-WEB.pdf

Confluence. In R. Powell (ed.) Liquidscapes. (artearth, 2019), 105-122. (co-authored with Trimble, R.)

Composite, created, partial and floating bodies: A re-assessment of the Knossos Temple Repositories Assemblage. In M. Mina et al Embodied Identities in the Prehistoric Eastern Mediterranean: Convergence of Theory and Practice. (Oxbow, 2016), 25-32. (co-authored with Simandiraki-Grimshaw, A.)

"There is a cage inside my head and I cannot let things out": an epistemology of collaborative journal writing. In T. Lillis, K. Harringtom, M. Lea and S.Mitchell (eds.) Working With Academic Literacies: Research, Theory and Design. (Parlor Press, 2016), 267-277

Writing through the Body. Considering the construction of identity in Higher Education. International Journal on Learning in Higher Education, 2014, 19/4, 61-67

Destroying the Snake Goddesses: a re-examination of figurine fragmentation at the Temple Repositories of the Palace of Knossos. In J. Driessen et al (eds.) Destruction. Archaeological, Phiological and Historic Perspectives. (UCL Press, 2013), 149-166, (co-authored with Simandiraki-Grimshaw, A.)

Visual collision? Prehistoric rock art and graffiti in an Armenian landscape. In. A. Stefanou and A. Simandiraki-Grimshaw (eds.) From Archaeology to Archaeologies: The ‘Other’ Past. (BAR International Series, 2012), 93-102

Articulating the bridge between theory and practice: a consideration of posters as genres of successful assessment in European Prehistory. Journal of Research in Archaeological Education 2009, 1/2, 41-57

Elemental Interplay: The Production, Circulation and Deposition of Bronze Age metalwork in Britain and Ireland. World Archaeology, 2008, 40/2, 238-252

An island of fluctuating perceptions: the landscape and archaeology of Bute. In. G.Noble, T. Poller, J. Raven and L. Verrill (eds.) Scottish Odysseys. The Archaeology of Islands. (Tempus, 2008) ,37-61, (co-authored with Noble, G.)

Identifying the body, representing self: art, ornamentation and the body in the European Iron Age. In J. Sofaer (ed.) Material Identities. (Blackwell, 2007), 82-99

Online

‘Quiddity: The Sarsen Stones of Avebury’. For, Mobilities, Aesthetics and Ethics Conference Konkuk University, Academy of Mobility Humanities, Seoul, Korea, October 2023 (online presentation live from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Avebury, UK)  https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/rocky-climates/rocky-futures/

‘Excavating the Past: Drawing on Archaeology’.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7XKEY-TqGY, December 2022.

‘Rivers and Tides: A Biography of the River Thames and The Sustainability of Rivers in London’, Global Dialogues: The Worsening Water Crisis, University of Notre Dame International, March 2022 https://think.nd.edu/bq/gd1/

‘Liquid States: A Closer Look at Sustainability and Sacred Water’, Research Seminar, University of Notre Dame, March 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plV8AEq5ZM4