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Dr. Jo Buckberry

Reader

Area
School of Archaeological & Forensic Sci
Faculty of Life Sciences
E-mail
J.Buckberry@bradford.ac.uk
Phone
+441274234289
Dr. Jo Buckberry

Biography

Jo joined the University of Bradford in 2004. She leads the MSc Human Bioarchaeology and Palaeopathology, is the Head of the Biological Anthropology Research Centre (BARC) and is the School EDI lead. She is the co-chair of N-Able, the university network for disabled staff, and sits on a variety of EDI committees across the University in that capacity. 

Jo’s research focuses on archaeological, osteological and palaeopathological analysis of human remains dating to the Anglo-Saxon, medieval and post-medieval periods. She is particularly interested in the relationship between osteological indicators of identity and burial practices, and in the mortality and morbidity of individuals buried within different contexts, geographical areas and chronological periods. She has specialised in the analysis of peri-mortem trauma relating to both interpersonal violence and judicial execution. Jo has also researched the application, refinement and development of methods of sex assessment and age estimation from human skeletal remains. She is currently researching the impact the Industrial Revolution had on health.

Research

Bioarchaeology; palaeopathology; human osteology;  trauma analysis; age estimation and sex assessment; early medieval, medieval and post-medieval funerary archaeology

Research projects

Date
to
Role
Principal Investigator

The health of human populations, past and present, are influenced by external factors including population density, economy and subsistence. Major research has investigated the negative impacts the transition to agriculture and shift to complex societies have had on population health; the third major global transition is industrialisation. Popular perceptions of Victorian population health, exemplified by contemporary writers such as Dickens and Gaskell, include crowded slums, wide spread disease, hazardous working conditions, poor childhood health and low life expectancy; negative trends in health that we believe began in the 18th century. Skeletal evidence of disease appears to support these perceptions, with high rates of rickets, trauma, TB and neoplastic disease evident within excavated populations, but there has been limited synthesis of these data to date. This project will combine age-at-death data from parish records and burial registers with historic evidence of disease and skeletal evidence of pathology to explore the extent and severity of health impacts, and will investigate patterns relating to social status and the rural/urban divide, and will add to our understanding on the impact that industrialisation has on health, and thus society.

Research collaborator

Teaching

Bioarchaeology; Human Osteology; Palaeopathology; Forensic Anthropology; Funerary Archaeology

Modules

  • Bones, Bodies And Burials - ARC6030-B
  • Palaeopathology - ARC7029-C
  • Analysis of Human Remains - ARC7008-B

Professional activities

  • British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, President (15 September 2018)
  • Senate, University of Bradford, (1 September 2014)
  • Paleopathology Association, Secretary (9 April 2014)
  • British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, Grants Secretary (15 September 2012)
  • British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, Non-executive committee member (15 September 2007)

  • Durham - BA in Archaeology
  • University of Sheffield - MSc in Osteology, Palaeopathology and Funerary Archaeology
  • University of Sheffield - PhD, 'A Cultural and Anthropological Study of Conversion Period and Later Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire'

  • University of Bradford - Reader (1 May 2017)
  • University of Bradford - Senior Lecturer (1 July 2015)
  • University of Bradford - Lecturer (5 January 2009)
  • University of Bradford - Experimental Officer (4 October 2004)
  • Trinity College Carmarthen - Lecturer (1 October 2002)

  • Head of Research Centre: Head of the Biological Anthropology Research Centre.

Publications