About
Sonia is a bioarchaeologist, focusing on human skeletons. Her 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.
Her research initially focused upon human dispersals through Egypt and changes associated with the development of state formation. From that, she developed an interest 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 her graduate students, she has 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 at Southampton, the Archaeology department curates one of the earliest documented cases of leprosy in the UK.
She also undertakes research in collaboration with staff in Bioengineering. Together they 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 her previous graduate students, they 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.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- bioarchaeology and palaeopathology
- disAbility, impairment, injury and disease
- race, migration and mobility
- identity and human diversity
- ancient Egypt
Current research
Sonia's research focusses on the bodily expression of identity. She has a long-standing interest in the recognition and identification of mobility and migration in past populations, and the potential links with religion, climate change and violence. Similarly, she is interested in how physical impairment may or may not impact on disAbility, and how this may be recognised from bioarchaeology and palaeopathology.
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Pagination
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
-
Next page
Next
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
My teaching focuses on 2 main aspects:
Bioarchaeology and palaeopathology
Ancient Egypt
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
Sonia joined the department from Durham, where she was briefly an Addison Wheeler Research Fellow. Her work there focused upon human dispersals through Egypt and across the Sahara Desert.
Until recently, she was the Director of Admissions for Archaeology and all our combined honours courses. Before that, Sonia was the academic lead and director for Lifelong and Leisure Learning across the University of Southampton. As a result, she is extremely keen to develop outreach and the use of archaeology for widening participation and other educational purposes.
She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In the past, she has 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). She is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna (Austria).
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.