I am the Canada Research Chair in Human Evolutionary Studies and a Full Professor of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. I joined SFU in July 2007, after stints at University College London, Washington State University-Pullman, and the University of British Columbia-Vancouver.
I obtained my BA in the Department of Archaeology and Prehistory at the University of Sheffield, UK, and my PhD in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Liverpool, UK. After the latter, I carried out postdoctoral research in the Department of Anthropology at University College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust.
I have worked on a wide range of topics in evolutionary anthropology, including the identification of species in the hominin fossil record, the reconstruction of hominin phylogenetic relationships, and the estimation of body mass from skeletal material. I have also used methods and theory from evolutionary biology to investigate archaeologically- and ethnographically-documented patterns of material culture variation. Recently, I have been working on the early Medieval period in Europe, and on human-environment interaction over the long term.
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London