Introducing the Team!

Interview sessions for the six CITiZAN Outreach and Training posts were held in London, York and Portsmouth this February. We feel very fortunate in the standard of the successful applicants; the wealth and range of experience they bring with them bodes well for the success of the project.

CITiZAN (London)

The London office is based at MOLA with the Community Archaeology team, and shares space with the Thames Discovery Programme.

• Gustav MILNE (Project Leader): worked for the Museum of London since 1973 on several Roman and Medieval harbour excavations and has taught at UCL Institute of Archaeology since 1991. He set up the Thames Archaeological Survey from 1992-3 (English Heritage/ Environment Agency/ MoL) and then the HLF-supported Thames Discovery Programme in 2008 at UCL (which transferred to MOLA in 2011). He has undertaken hulk surveys for Kent County Council and RCHME (on the River Medway and River Lee), and worked on the HLF application for the CITiZAN project with Courtney Nimura from 2012-13.

• Stephanie OSTRICH (Project Officer): has an MA in Archaeology from UCL and a BSc in Anthropology and a BA in History from University of California, Riverside. She has worked in London archaeology for over 6 years and has over 8 years of archaeological archiving experience in the UK and abroad, focusing on digital data management and database design. She is heavily involved in community and outreach projects, including the Temple of Mithras oral history project, the Walbrook Discovery Programme and the Day of Archaeology, and helped to develop and maintain MOLA’s social media output.

• Lara BAND (Training): has an MA in Historical Archaeology from the University of Leicester. Prior to employment as an archaeologist at MOLA she was a curator at Åland Maritime Museum, Finland, and an archaeologist for Åland’s Board of Antiquities where she worked on a series of coastal sites and surveys. Before moving to Finland she worked on a variety of archaeological sites in England including Boxgrove and the waterlogged prehistoric site at Shinewater Marsh, both in Sussex. She has also undertaken a variety of teaching and heritage training posts, such as at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum.

• Oliver HUTCHINSON (Outreach): read Archaeology at UCL and was recently working on two projects there, one an Anglo Saxon ArcGIS project, the other a community archaeology scheme for the Micropasts initiative exploring 3D printing in archaeology. Prior to that he was heavily involved for five years in setting up and delivering educational training programmes in Yorkshire on climate change, having previously excavated on archaeological sites in Devon, Sussex, Belize and Romania.

CITiZAN (York)

The team for north-east and north-west England, hosted by the Council for British Archaeology in their HQ in York, with the Director Mike Heyworth.

• Andy SHERMAN (Training): has a BA in Archaeology from Lampeter and was employed by the Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust for over seven years on a series of excavation and publication projects. He has spent a substantial period working on the ARFORDIR intertidal zone community archaeology project in Wales, one of the schemes that initially inspired the CITiZAN programme. Prior to working for GGAT, Andy worked briefly for the National Trust for Scotland and the Centre for Wetland Archaeology based at the University of Hull. He specialises in wetland and intertidal archaeology and has an interest in ancient boat building techniques.

• Megan CLEMENT (Outreach): has a BA in Archaeology from Bradford, worked as a professional archaeologist and held one of the CBA’s recent Community Archaeology Training Placement posts in 2014, working with schools, youth groups and adults with learning disabilities, as well as with the Young Archaeologists’ Club. During her placement, and subsequently, she was based with Archaeological Services WYAS in West Yorkshire.

CITiZAN (Portsmouth)

The team operating in south-west England will be hosted by Mark Beattie-Edwards and the Nautical Archaeology Society in Historic England’s facility in Fort Cumberland.

• Lauren TIDBURY (Training): brings 4 years of highly relevant experience of project management and educational programmes at the Maritime Archaeology Trust (Southampton) and already has a detailed knowledge of the coastline on SW England. She is a qualified diver (including Sea Survival Techniques and Powerboat Level 2), holds a BA and an MA in maritime archaeology (Southampton University) and has a number of published and unpublished reports to her name.

• Alex BELLISARIO (Outreach): has a BA and an MRes from Winchester and has also studied at Southampton University. She has worked on outreach and training projects in Cornwall, and has particular research interests in palaeolandscape reconstruction and the effects of climate change on fluvial and coastal systems. She has most recently been working as the HER data manager for Hampshire, experience that will be of inestimable value to the data-rich CITiZAN programme.