I have been working in archaeology since I was a teenager in the early 1980s, volunteering during the summers for the Museum of London on various developer-led excavations. It was the start of a long, if discontinuous career in contract archaeology which has existed parallel to most of my academic life - until recently. My formal education however began as an undergraduate at the Institute of Archaeology UCL, where I was also first introduced to archaeological theory (North American, processual) by Ann Stahl. It was a very influential period, which subsequently led me to study for a doctorate under Ian Hodder at the University of Cambridge, where my horizons were broadened even further. After completing my PhD in the mid-1990s and a half-hearted search for academic posts, I returned to full-time work in contract archaeology. My experience, particularly with the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, was inestimable. The director Chris Evans always managed to bring in dynamic and original people, and through them, I learnt a different side of fieldwork and its relation to academic research. It was also during this time I started to publish my first books and also develop my primary interest in the archaeology of the modern world. Seeking new opportunities and experiences, I moved to Iceland in 2002 to work for an independent archaeological research institution and then in 2006, I entered my first academic post at the University of Iceland, where I remain today.
My main interests lie in archaeological method and theory as well as the archaeology of the modern world, with a special focus on the North Atlantic. I have worked on projects in South Africa, Turkey and England as well as Iceland.