CV
Helen Dawson is a prehistoric archaeologist specialising in the study of the Mediterranean islands. After leaving her native Sicily to study Mediterranean prehistory at Cambridge and University College London (PhD 2005), she moved to Berlin in 2013 and joined the Topoi Excellence Cluster of the Freie Universität Berlin as a Marie Curie – COFUND Research Fellow (2013-2015) and as a Gerda Henkel scholar (2015-2019). Her latest research uses network analysis to trace connections between the coastal and island communities of Sicily and the wider Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. Local, regional, and inter-regional networks illustrate changes in centrality and marginality during this period.

Employment

• 2020-2021 Adjunct Professor in Archaeology, University of Bologna
• 2015-2019 Gerda Henkel Research Scholar, Topoi Excellence Cluster, FU Berlin
• 2013-2015 Marie Curie - COFUND Research Fellow, Topoi Excellence Cluster, FU Berlin
• 2006-2013 Adjunct Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Kent
• 2005-2011 Senior Archaeologist - Museum of London Archaeology

Education

• 2005 PhD Archaeology, University College London
• 2000 MPhil Later European Prehistory, University of Cambridge
• 1999 BA Hons Archaeology, University College London

Selected publications

• Dawson, H. 2020. Network science and island archaeology: advancing the debate. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. Published online ahead of print:  doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2019.1705439
• Dawson, H. 2019. As good as it gets? “Optimal” marginality in the Longue Durée of the Mediterranean islands. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 7(4): 451-465
• Dawson, H. 2019. “Island Archaeology”, in C. Smith (ed.) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology  doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3280-1
• Dawson, H. 2016. “Brave new worlds: Islands, place-making, and connectivity in the Bronze Age Mediterranean”, in B. Molloy (ed.) Scales and modes of interaction between prehistoric Aegean societies and their neighbours. Proceedings of the Sheffield Aegean Round Table (2013). Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology, 323-342.
• Dawson H. 2014. Mediterranean Voyages. The Archaeology of Island Colonisation and Abandonment. Institute of Archaeology Series. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press/Routledge