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Dr Esther Breithoff

Positions held:
  • Senior Lecturer, School of Historical Studies
  • Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Archaeology and Heritage, School of Historical Studies
  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    I joined the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology in 2019 after holding postdoctoral positions at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the UCL Institute of Archaeology. My research spans the fields of Contemporary Archaeology and Critical Heritage Studies and has ranged across a number of different topics鈥攊ncluding war, natural and cultural heritage, nuclear and petroleum industries, dictatorships and biobanking鈥攂ut traces a common set of interests in the relationships between conflicts, resources, recycling and rights across more-than-human worlds聽in the Anthropocene.

    Administrative responsibilities

    • UBEL DTP Pathway Lead for Archaeology and Heritage
    • HCA Research Committee

    Honours and awards

    • UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Renewal UKRI, February 2023
    • UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship UKRI, February 2019
    • Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) QR 鈥減ump priming鈥 allowance UCL Institute of Archaeology/Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences, November 2019
    • 鈥極utstanding PhD Thesis鈥 award for Excellence in Science and Research Fond National de la Recherche Luxembourg (Luxembourg National Research Fund), November 2017
    • 鈥楤est Doctoral Research Thesis鈥 award for the Faculty of Arts University of Bristol Research Degrees Exam Board, November 2016
    • Santander Travel Grant Award for Research in Latin America on Business and Economic-related themes Banco Santander, November 2013
    • FNR Luxembourg Aides 脿 la Formation-Recherche PhD Grant scheme Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg, November 2012
    • Santander Travel Grant Award for Research in Latin America on Business and Economic-related themes Banco Santander , November 2011

    ORCID

  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • conflict archaeologies
    • critical heritage studies
    • Anthropocene
    • posthumanism
    • heritage futures
    • (de)colonialism
    • material culture
    • worlding practices
    • waste and recycling
    • (non)human rights

    Research projects

    Material Memories

    Abstract

    My聽UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship on "Material Memories" aims to develop a programme of research and leadership activity, subsequently forming the basis for an affiliated programme of research-based teaching, which will foreground the role of archaeology and critical heritage studies in addressing some of the most urgent questions of our time, specifically in relation to armed conflict, human-thing relationships聽and recycling practices in Paraguay and Laos in the Age of the Anthropocene. 聽

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within 糖心logo入口:
    2

    I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students interested in the archaeology and heritage of recent conflict, and aspects of Contemporary Archaeology and Critical Heritage Studies more broadly.

    Current doctoral researchers

    • CLAIRE WALSH
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      Wasted London: Rubbish and Recycling from the Romans to the late Victorians

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • JENNIFER PUTNAM
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      If Walls Could Talk: Prisoner Graffiti in Nazi Camps and Ghettos
      Awarded:
      2024

    Teaching

    Convener of The Politics of the Past: Heritage in a Changing World MA module 

    Teaching modules

    • Critical Approaches to Archaeology and Heritage
    • Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past
    • Public History and Heritage: Theories, Issues and Practice
    • Museum Cultures - Approaches, Issues, Skills
    • The Politics of the Past: Heritage in a Changing World
    • Approaching the Past
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    • Breithoff, Esther (2026) . International Journal of Cultural Property 33, ISSN 0940-7391.
    • Breithoff, Esther (2025) . Antiquity: A Review of World Archaeology 100 (409), ISSN 0003-598X.
    • Breithoff, Esther and Leonard, Matthew (2025) . Landscapes 25 (2), pp. 168-185. ISSN 1466-2035.
    • Harrison, R. and Breithoff, Esther (2017) . Annual Review of Anthropology 46 (1), pp. 203-221. ISSN 0084-6570.
    • Breithoff, Esther (2014) . Archaeologia luxemburgensis 1, pp. 125-129. ISSN 2354-5526.
    • Breithoff, Esther (2013) . Revista Cadernos do Ceom 26 (38), pp. 65-84. ISSN 1413-8409.

    Book

    • Breithoff, Esther (2020) . London, UK: UCL Press. ISBN 9781787358089.
    • Harrison, R. and DeSilvey, C. and Holtorf, C. and Macdonald, S. and Bartolini, N. and Breithoff, Esther and Fredheim, H. and Lyons, A. and May, S. and Morgan, J. and Penrose, S. (2020) . London, UK: UCL Press. ISBN 9781787356016.

    Book review

    • Breithoff, Esther (2020) .
    • Breithoff, Esther (2017) .

    Book section

    • Breithoff, Esther (2021) . In: Bangstad, T.R. and P茅tursd贸ttir, 脼. (eds.) Heritage Ecologies. Archaeological Orientations. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138294646.
    • Breithoff, Esther and Harrison, R. (2020) . In: Harrison, R. and Sterling, C. (eds.) Deterritorializing the Future: Heritage in, of and after the Anthropocene. Critical Climate Change. London, UK: Open Humanities Press. pp. 155-187. ISBN 9781785420887.
    • Leonard, M. and Breithoff, Esther (2019) . In: Skeates, R. and Day, J. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology. Routledge. ISBN 9781138676299.
    • Breithoff, Esther (2017) . In: Saunders, N.J. and Cornish, P. (eds.) Modern Conflict and the Senses. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 213-228. ISBN 9780367873233.
    • Breithoff, Esther (2016) . In: Chesterton, B.M. (ed.) The Chaco War: Environment, Ethnicity, and Nationalism. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781474248877.
    • Breithoff, Esther (2012) . In: Saunders, N.J. (ed.) Beyond the Dead Horizon: Studies in Modern Conflict Archaeology. Oxbow Books. pp. 146-158. ISBN 9781842174715.

    Exhibition

    • Breithoff, Esther and Leonard, Matthew and Dawkins, L. (2026) .

    Thesis biron

    • Breithoff, Esther (2015) .