Dr Helen Wickstead MCIfA FHEA FSA

About

Dr Helen Wickstead is Senior Lecturer in Museum and Gallery Studies at Kingston University, London. Working as an archaeologist and curator, she has spent decades excavating rubbish and rescuing forgotten, neglected, stigmatised or hidden phenomena. Her publications include; histories of aerial archaeology and old maps; the world's first dedicated study of Soho Bibles (including the discovery of 21 smuggled into the British Library); an archaeology of concrete megaliths; an investigation of suburban folklore; nineteenth-century photographs from the secret museum inside the British Museum; a study of phallus collecting; an account of the Edwardian Cult of Kata and assorted archaeological excavation reports. Her research has been funded by English Heritage, AHRC, and Wellcome Trust.

Helen has worked as an archaeologist and museum professional in the UK, France, Czech Republic, Turkey and Sudan. As Director of Art + Archaeology she created 21 funded short residencies for visual artists working at excavations, laboratories and museums and co-curated exhibitions at venues including Whitworth Art Gallery and Salisbury International Arts Festival. In 2012, when the government introduced huge rises in university tuition fees, Helen founded the Free University of Seething to encourage free learning for all.  She is currently Archaeologist of Today at the Museum of Today and Professor of the Overlooked at the Free University of Seething. She is a member of the AHRC Early Career Peer Review Panel and a Museum Mentor for the Society for Museum Archaeology. She has a doctorate from UCL and has been elected to the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) at the highest corporate level. She is Director of Recycle Archaeology a project creating new social and sustainable uses for artefacts that cannot find a home in museums.

Academic responsibilities

Senior Lecturer and Course Director

Qualifications

  • M.A. Archaeology, University College London
  • PhD. Archaeology, University College London

Teaching and learning

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

Research student supervision

Main supervision

Other supervision

Publications

Number of items: 38.

Article

Wickstead, Helen and Knowles, Pete (2022) Men-only clubs and museums : associational culture and the gendering of Herne Bay's museum between the wars. Museum History Journal, ISSN (print) 1936-9816 (Epub Ahead of Print)

Wickstead, Helen (2022) Recycle archaeology’s labels for landfill. Extinction Rebellion 'Writers Rebel',

Wickstead, Helen (2022) Recycle archaeology : social and sustainable alternatives for de-selected materials. The Archaeologist, 115, pp. 23-25. ISSN (print) 1368-9169

Wickstead, Helen (2021) Learning and discovery : Kingston University students contributing to the Save Burlington House Campaign. Society of Antiquaries London,

Wickstead, Helen (2020) Letters from Charles Darwin and Arthur Keith discovered through the SMART project. Museum Archaeologists News, 64, pp. 6-9. ISSN (print) 0959-4272

Wickstead, Helen [Reviewer] (2020) Book Review of 'Breaking the surface : an art/archaeology of prehistoric architecture' by Douglass Bailey. European Journal of Archaeology, 23(2), pp. 321-325. ISSN (print) 1461-9571

Wickstead, Helen (2020) Soho typescripts : handmade obscene books in post-war London bookshops. Porn Studies, 7(2), pp. 187-211. ISSN (print) 2326-8743

Wickstead, Helen (2018) The archive : sex in the secret museum : photographs from the British Museum's Witt Scrapbooks. Photography and Culture, 11(3), pp. 351-366. ISSN (print) 1751-4517

Wickstead, Helen (2017) "Wild worship of a lost and buried past" : enchanted archaeologies and the cult of Kata, 1908–1924. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 27(1)(4), pp. 1-18. ISSN (print) 1062-4740

Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn (2015) Concrete prehistories : the making of megalithic modernism. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2(1), pp. 195-216. ISSN (print) 2051-3429

Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn (2015) Aerial archaeology and the 'lost gardens' of Seething Wells. London Archaeologist, 14(3), pp. 73-78. ISSN (print) 0024-5984

Carey, Chris J., Wickstead, Helen, Juleff, Gill, Anderson, Jens and Barber, Martyn (2014) Geochemical survey and metalworking : analysis of chemical residues derived from experimental non-ferrous metallurgical processes in a reconstructed roundhouse. Journal of Archaeological Science, 49, pp. 383-397. ISSN (print) 0305-4403

Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn (2012) A Spectacular History of Survey by Flying Machine! Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 22(1), pp. 71-88. ISSN (print) 0959-7743

Barber, Martyn and Wickstead, Helen (2010) 'One Immense Black Spot': Aerial views of London 1784-1918. London Journal, 35(3), pp. 236-254. ISSN (print) 0305-8034

Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn (2010) A newly recorded hilltop enclosure at Myncen Farm, Minchington. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 131, pp. 103-112. ISSN (print) 0070-7112

Barber, Martyn and Wickstead, Helen (2009) A 'new' enclosure at Minchington, Dorset. Research News : newsletter of the English Heritage Research Department(13), pp. 29-30. ISSN (print) 1750-2446

Wickstead, Helen (2009) The Uber-Archaeologist: Art, GIS and the male gaze revisited. Journal of Social Archaeology, 9(2), pp. 249-271.

Wickstead, Helen, Carey, Chris, Bayer, Olaf and Barber, Martyn (2009) Discoveries to the east of Cranbourne Chase: the Damerham Archaeology Project. PAST(61), pp. 9-12. ISSN (print) 0965-1381

Wickstead, Helen, Carey, Chris, Bayer, Olaf and Barber, Martyn (2009) Remote sensing and geophysical survey near Damerham, Hampshire. CBA Wessex News(Spring), pp. 17-19. ISSN (print) 1475-5130

Fyfe, Ralph, Bruck, Joanna, Johnston, Robert, Lewis, Helen, Roland, T. P. and Wickstead, Helen (2008) Historical context and chronology of Bronze Age land enclosure on Dartmoor, UK. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35(8), pp. 2250-2261. ISSN (print) 0305-4403

Wickstead, Helen (2008) Drawing time. British Archaeology(101), pp. 44-49. ISSN (print) 1357-4442

Bruck, Joanna, Johnston, Robert and Wickstead, Helen (2003) Excavations of Bronze Age field systems on Shovel Down, Dartmoor 2003. PAST(45), ISSN (print) 0965-1381

Wickstead, Helen (1996) In reply to MacDonald, Hung and Crawford, 1995, 'Prehistory as propaganda'. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 7, pp. 9-12. ISSN (print) 0965-9315

Book

Wickstead, Helen (2008) Theorizing Tenure: Land Division and Identity in Later Prehistoric Dartmoor, South-West Britain. Oxford, U.K. : Archaeopress. 242p. (British Archaeological Reports, British Series, (BAR 465)) ISBN 9781407303116

Book Section

Wickstead, Helen (2021) The museum of yesterday? In: Zaba, Jarek, (ed.) The museum of today : personal wonders, 2020-2021. Kingston upon Thames, U.K. : Kingston University Press. pp. 8-14. ISBN 9781909362567

Wickstead, Helen (2020) The Bornais Phallus. In: Sharples, Niall, (ed.) The economy of a Norse settlement in the Outer Hebrides : excavations at mounds 2 and 2A Bornais, South Uist. Oxford, U.K. : Oxbow Books. (Bornais, 4) ISBN 9781789255386 (In Press)

Wickstead, H (2020) The phallus in the closet : collecting and classifying ancient sculpture. In: Joseph-Lester, Jaspar, (ed.) Everything is sculpture. Royal College of Art. (In Press)

Wickstead, Helen (2019) Cults of the distribution map : geography, utopia and the making of modern archaeology. In: Gillings, Mark , Haciguzeller, Piraye and Lock, Gary, (eds.) Re-mapping archaeology : critical perspectives, alternative mappings. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 37-72. ISBN 9781138577138

Wickstead, Helen (2013) Between the lines: drawing archaeology. In: Graves-Brown, Paul , Harrison, Rodney and Piccini, Angela, (eds.) The Oxford handbook of the archaeology of the contemporary world. Oxford, U.K. : Oxford University Press. pp. 549-564. (Oxford handbooks in archaeology) ISBN 9780199602001

Wickstead, Helen (2008) Drawing archaeology. In: Duff, Leo and Sawdon, Phil, (eds.) Drawing: the purpose. Bristol, U.K. : Intellect Books. pp. 13-27. ISBN 9781841502014

Wickstead, Helen (2008) Land, landscape and Englishness in the discovery of prehistoric land division. In: Chadwick, Adrian M., (ed.) Recent Approaches to the Archaeology of Land Allotment. Oxford, U.K. : Archaeopress. (BAR International Series, (BAR S187)) ISBN 9781407303550

Wickstead, Helen (2006) Archaeologist. In: Adams, Eileen and Baynes, Ken, (eds.) Professional Practices. London, U.K. : Campaign for Drawing. pp. 12-13. (Power Drawing)

Conference or Workshop Item

Wickstead, Helen (2022) Recycle Archaeology : reuse and recycling of de-selected archaeological artefacts for public benefit. In: Post-Medieval Archaeology Congress 2022; 20-21 May 2022, Held online. (Unpublished)

Wickstead, Helen (2016) Prehistoric sex objects : the phalli of Windmill Hill. In: TAG 2016; 19-21 Dec 2016, Southampton, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wickstead, Helen (2016) The prehistoric phallus : a history of archaeology and sex. In: Centre for Medical History Seminar Series; 12 May 2016, Exeter, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Exhibition

Copsey, Laura [Curator], Taylor, Rachel Emily [Curator] and Wickstead, Helen [Curator] (2022) Illustration X Recycle Archaeology Student project (UAL & KSA). Colouring In : The Past : A Symposium. .

Wickstead, Helen [Contributor] (2011) Manual Setting. Manual Setting. , 28th Jan to 11th Feb 2011 , Danielle Arnaud Gallery.

Monograph

Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn (2010) Archaeology on your farm: gaining from history. (Manual) Kingston upon Thames : Damerham Archaeology Project. 6 p.

This list was generated on Wed Sep 13 06:57:11 2023 BST.