Phone:

(023) 8059 4778

Email:

S.R.Zakrzewski@soton.ac.uk

Dr Sonia Zakrzewski 

Associate Professor

Dr Sonia Zakrzewski is an Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton.

I am a bioarchaeologist, focusing on human skeletons. My interests are in biological anthropology, race, human diversity and variability, and the study of the human body to understand aspects of migration and mobility, diet, identity, disease, religious practice and social organisation in past populations.

I joined the department from Durham, where I was briefly an Addison Wheeler Research Fellow. My work there focused upon human dispersals through Egypt and across the Sahara Desert. More recently, I have been interested in the interplay between funerary archaeology, the mortuary record and aspects of bodily identity. This research has concentrated on Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt groups and, more recently, on medieval burial grounds (both Christian and Muslim). With my graduate students, I have become interested in the bioarchaeology of religion and the activities associated with religious practice. This has implications for palaeopathology and studies of disease, and, within the skeletal collections here at Southampton, we have one of the earliest documented cases of leprosy in the UK.

I also undertake research in collaboration with staff in Bioengineering. We use computed tomography (CT) to get high resolution images of human bones and teeth, and then use these to understand other aspects of past lives, such as locomotor practices and dental treatment. Together with one of my graduate students, we have looked at an unusual Roman dwarf skeleton to evaluate her dis/Ability.  This type of work has been used to improve the development of dental implants and other prosthetics.

I am currently the Director of Undergraduate Admissions for Archaeology and all our combined honours courses. I was previously the academic lead and director for Lifelong and Leisure Learning across the University of Southampton. As a result, I am extremely keen to develop outreach and the use of archaeology for widening participation and other educational purposes.

I am a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In the past, I have served as the Vice-President of the Paleopathology Association (PPA), and on the organising board of the Society for the Study of Human Biology (SSHB) and the British Association for Biological Anthropology & Osteoarchaeology (BABAO).