SRU Africa People
Anne Haour
- Anne HaourProfessor in the Arts and Archaeology of Africa
- Emaila.haour@uea.ac.uk
- Tel0044 (0)1603 591006
- Academic background BA (1995), Oxford; MA (1998), University College London; DPhil (2002), Oxford; British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow 2002-2005 Hertford College, Oxford; Lecturer in Archaeology 2006-2007, University of Newcastle
- General Research Interests Archaeology, Africa, Indian Ocean, material culture, African archaeology, ceramic analysis, construction of value, coastlines, trade/traders, medieval empires, cowries.
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Gréine Jordan
- Gréine JordanPhD Candidate
- EmailG.Jordan@uea.ac.uk
- Region of Interest Oceania/Africa
- Research Interests Missionaries, Education, children, history of collections, museums, propaganda, The British Empire, colonialism, nationalism, religion, Imagination, Adventure writing, Maritime history
- PhD Thesis Voyagers All? The Historic Role of Missionary Societies in Shaping Children’s Understandings of Britain’s Place in The World
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Amy King
- Amy KingResearch Student
- EmailAmelia.King@uea.ac.uk
- Region of Interest Africa
- Research Interests The art of Central Africa; colonial histories of the DR Congo; histories of Christianity; ethnography, collecting and early photographic practices; missionary projects in Central Africa, materiality and exchange; museum collections and archives
- PhD Thesis Collecting the Congo: Histories of exchange in Baptist Missions c.1885 – 1915
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John Mack
- John MackProfessor of World Art Studies
- Emailjohn.mack@uea.ac.uk
- Tel0044 (0)1603 592463
- Academic Background BA (1971) Social Anthropology; MA The History of Ideas, both University of Sussex (1972); D.Phil Merton College University Oxford (1975); Research Assistant, Assistant Keeper, Keeper Department of Ethnography British Museum (1976-2004); Professor of World Art Studies, University of East Anglia (2004-present)
- General Research Interests African arts and cultures (especially East Africa and the western Indian Ocean islands, the Congo area, West African coastal cultures), thematic approaches to art (eg to memory, miniaturisation, funerary arts, maritime cultures, the contemporary), museum and heritage collections and practice.
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Sonja Magnavita
- Sonja MagnavitaResearch Associate - African Archaeology
- Academic background PhD Goethe Universitat Frankfurt
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Claire Mcgee
- Claire McgeeResearch Student
- Emailc.mcgee@uea.ac.uk
- Region of Interest Africa
- Research Interests The arts and anthropology of Africa; subcultural studies, material culture studies; costuming and performance
- PhD thesis An Exploration of the Marok Subculture of Botswana (working title)
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Abigail Moffett
- Abigail MoffettNewton International Fellow
- EmailAbigail.Moffett@uea.ac.uk
- Project Commodity circulation, consumption patterns and early global trade networks: a study of the cowrie shell in African archaeological contexts
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Sam Nixon
- Sam NixonResearch Associate - African Archaeology
- Emailsam.nixon@uea.ac.uk
- Tel0044(0)1603 597502
- Academic background BA History of Art (1998) UCL; MA Archaeology (2002) UCL; PhD Archaeology (2008) UCL
- Research Interests Long-distance exchange networks and ‘culture contact’ in the pre-modern world; trading societies and trading networks; medieval West Africa and the Sahara; trans-Saharan trade and early West African gold trade; early African architecture.
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Bolaji Owoseni
- Bolaji OwoseniResearch Student
- Emailb.owoseni@uea.ac.uk
- Region of Interest Africa
- Research Interest West African Archeology, Settlement studies, Ethno archaeology, Community engagement, Culture and development
- PhD thesis Archeology of Okesuna area of the Ilorin region, Kwara State, North Central, Nigeria’
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Chris Wingfield
- Chris WingfieldAssociate Professor in the Arts of Africa
- EmailChris.Wingfield@uea.ac.uk
- Tel0044 (0)1603 593756
- Academic Background
BA Archaeology & Anthropology (2000); MPhil Material Anthropology & Museum Ethnography (2002), University of Oxford; PhD (2012), University of Birmingham.
Curator, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (2004-2006); Researcher, Pitt Rivers Museum (2006-2009); Associate Lecturer, Open University (2009-2013); Senior Curator, Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, Cambridge (2012-2018). - General Research Interests Museum collections, Art and material culture, Southern Africa, Missionary Heritage
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Selected African objects in the Sainsbury Centre
Mask. West Africa, Ivory Coast or Liberia: We. Late 19th/early 20th century. h. 21.6 cm. UEA 211
Reliquary head. Central Africa, Gabon: Fang. Late 19th/early 20th century. h 26.0 cm. UEA 240
SRU Africa News & Events
Archaeological visit to Sudan
In February 2020, Professor Haour was hosted by colleagues at the University of Khartoum for a three-week visit to Sudan, and in particular to its Red Sea coastline. The focus of this pilot survey was the identification of archaeological sites of medieval date which apparently played a role in the trade in cowries and pottery, linking the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. The team of archaeologists was received by local guides and youth associations and was shown a number of sites and introduced to local informants who could speak to the cowrie trade and past traditions of settlement. The team also identified a dozen previously unknown sites. This is a region that has long interested historians and archaeologists but is only recently opening up to research after several decades of political instability and conflict with neighbouring Eritrea. The team was privileged to be received with great warmth by local communities, keen to showcase their cultural heritage and to demonstrate the famed Sudanese hospitality. At the conclusion of her trip, Professor Haour delivered a well-attended seminar to colleagues at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Khartoum.
Conferences and Projects
Re-collecting the Missionary Road
In 2017, Chris Wingfield was awarded a Fellowship by South Africa’s National Research Foundation and Department for Science and Industry to spend six months at the ...
Heritage of the Western Indian Ocean
May 10th-11th, 2018
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
This 2 day workshop for invited colleagues and delegates explored how communities from around the Western Indian Ocean lived and...
Cowrie Shells Research Project
Project to study the distribution of cowrie shells in West African from archaeological, museological and biological perspectives.
Exhibiting Concepts, Experiencing Meanings
Current and future curatorial challenges
Convenors: Aristoteles Barcelos Neto and Steven Hooper
This international symposium celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Sainsbury Research...
African Archaeology Research Day 2013
The SRU hosted this annual African Archaeology event in 2013. The theme of the conference was ‘Africa’s material culture past and present’