Project role
I am the Principal Investigator (PI) for the MeRit project, leading research and working closely with all members of the project team.
Background
I’m a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading as well as Research Dean for Heritage & Creativity (Arts & Humanities). I’m a Fellow of the British Academy, the Society of Antiquaries and an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.
My research focuses on medieval social archaeology, especially medieval religion, gender, magic, burial and religious communities, including detailed studies of Glastonbury Abbey and Norwich Cathedral.
I’ve shared my research with non-academic audiences through television and radio broadcasts and prestigious public lectures series including the Dalrymple Lectures (2011) and the Rhind Lectures (2017). My AHRC-funded research on Glastonbury Abbey has been shared through co-created resources including an AR app and heritage trail, digital reconstructions, schools’ packs and a guidebook for visitors to the abbey. I was voted Current Archaeology’s ‘Archaeologist of the Year’ in 2016.
Education and training
D Phil, University of York, 1991
BA (Hons) Archaeology, University of York, 1986
Areas of interest
- Gender and social archaeology.
- Medieval material culture.
- Burial archaeology.
- Magic and religion.
- Heritage.
- Digital Humanities.
Research projects
- Glastonbury Abbey: Storytelling through Immersive Heritage Practice, PI, AHRC Follow-on Funding Scheme (2022-3).
- Glastonbury Abbey: Archaeology, Legend and Public Engagement, PI, AHRC Follow-on Funding Scheme (2015-16).
- Glastonbury Abbey Archaeological Archive Project, PI, AHRC (2009-12).
- Glastonbury Abbey Pilot Project, PI, British Academy (2007-8).
- Archaeology of the Medieval Life Course, Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2007-10).
- The Cemeteries of London’s Medieval Religious Houses, PI, AHRC (1999-2003).
- The Archaeological Assessment of Norwich Cathedral Close, PI, English Heritage (1996-8).
Selected publications
Gilchrist R., 2022, ‘Voices from the Cemetery: the Social Archaeology of Late-Medieval Burial’, Medieval Archaeology Vol 66, 2022, Issue 1, pages 120-50.
Gilchrist R., 2020, Sacred Heritage: Monastic Archaeology, Identities, Beliefs, Cambridge University Press, 256pp. Open Access Monograph.
Gilchrist, R. and Green, C., 2015, Glastonbury Abbey: Archaeological Excavations 1904-1979, London: Society of Antiquaries Monograph, xxii + 501pp.
Gilchrist, R., 2014, ‘Monastic and Church Archaeology’, Annual Review of Anthropology 43, 235-50.
Gilchrist, R., 2012, Medieval Life: Archaeology and the Life Course, Boydell and Brewer, 336pp.
Gilchrist, R., 2008, ‘Magic for the dead? The archaeology of magic in later medieval burials’, Medieval Archaeology 52, 119-59.
Gilchrist, R. and Sloane, B., 2005, Requiem: The Medieval Monastic Cemetery in Britain. London: Museum of London Archaeology Service Monograph, 273pp.
Gilchrist, R., 1994, Gender and Material Culture. The Archaeology of Medieval Religious Women. London: Routledge, 222pp.