Dr Brenna Hassett
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Brenna is a biological anthropologist and archaeologist. Her research focuses on childhood, health, and growth in the past. Active research areas include dental anthropological approaches to understanding early development, health and growth in the transition to sedentary and agricultural living, and the history and practice of archaeology. She writes books for popular audiences on bones and teeth including 'Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death' and 'Growing Up Human: the Evolution of Childhood'. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and is also 1/4 of Team TrowelBlazers, a project advocating for equality and the recognition of women's contributions to the digging sciences.
Brenna teaches on courses in both the Forensics and Archaeology degrees, covering research methods, archaeological theory, and several different fieldwork options.
Brenna has carried out considerable research into the human past using biological anthropological techniques, covering a broad range of subjects from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Central Anatolia to Post-Medieval London. Her work focuses on understanding health and growth in the past, and she is also interested in methodological developments in dental anthropology that move research forward such as the work carried out at the Natural History Museum London with Louise Humphrey and Christopher Dean on the 'Tooth Fairy' Project.
Her most recent large research project was the AHRC-funded 'Radical Death' project with David Wengrow examining retainer burial and mass graves in Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia. Currently, she is investigating changes in health at the dawn of the Neolithic in Central Anatolia with several field projects.
As an active science communicator, Brenna publishes well-received trade books on aspects of archaeology and anthropology. She is committed to a more equal practice of science through outreach and research through the TrowelBlazers Project.
- PhD Dental Anthropology, University College London, 2011
- MA Archaeology, University College London, 2004
- BA Anthropology, University of California Los Angeles, 2002
- AA Dahlberg Award, 2004
- Archaeology
- Forensic Anthropology
- Osteology
- Dental Anthropology
- History of Archaeology
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Member Royal Anthropological Institute
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- AHRC Research Grant 'Radical Death' 2018
Email: Email:Dr Brenna Hassett
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