Dr Jonathan Gardner (PhD, MA, BA (Hons), FHEA)

Chancellor's Fellow

Biography

Background

I am a contemporary archaeologist and critical heritage studies researcher. My work examines processes of recent and contemporary large-scale landscape transformations in the UK using archaeological methods. My research at HCA studies the  traces of the longstanding exploitation of Scottish hydrocarbon resources as a form of contested heritage. I also teach courses on archaeology and heritage studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Previously I undertook a four year research project at Edinburgh College of Art (School of Art) as Leverhulme Early Career Fellow  that examined the creation and use of waste-modified landscapes (Reimagining British Waste Landscapes). Understanding the use of waste materials in landscape modification as a form of creative practice, I investigated different varieties of land-reclamation, artificial hill building, dumping, and land-art across the UK and how they are used and valued as creative spaces. This has produced numerous papers and a final monograph is in preparation for UCL Press (to be published late 2025).

Prior to joining ECA, I was a Teaching Fellow in Heritage and Museum Studies between 2017 and 2019 at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (UCL). I gained my PhD in 2017 (also from the Institute of Archaeology) which traced the material remnants of mega events like the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Great Exhibition of 1851. This resulted in my first monograph, A Contemporary Archaeology of London’s Mega Events: From the Great Exhibition to London 2012 (2022, UCL Press: open access). Prior to my doctorate, I completed an MA in Cultural Heritage Studies, following an undergraduate degree in Archaeology, both at the UCL Institute of Archaeology.

Before this, I worked as a commercial archaeologist excavating on construction sites across London and south-east England for companies including Museum of London Archaeology and UCL Archaeology Southeast. I continue to work on archaeological fieldwork projects whenever I can.

Qualifications

  • PhD, Archaeology and Heritage. UCL Institute of Archaeology, 2012-17
  • MA Cultural Heritage Studies. UCL Institute of Archaeology, 2010-11
  • BA(Hons) Archaeology. UCL Institute of Archaeology, 2004-07

Responsibilities & affiliations

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Undergraduate teaching

  • Archaeology 1A (co-course organiser)
  • Heritage Studies and the Archaeology of the Contemporary World: Investigating How the Past Shapes the Present (course organiser and lecturer)

Postgraduate teaching

  • Research Source and Strategies for Archaeology (co-course organiser)

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I can potentially act as assistant supervisor to PhD researchers interested in the following topics (please email me if you have an idea for a project):

  • contemporary archaeology
  • critical heritage studies
  • urban archaeology (historical and modern periods)
  • artistic and creative collaborations
  • waste and discard studies
  • hydrocarbons as heritage
  • political geologies and archaeology
  • archaeological ethics
  • development led/commercial archaeology  

Current PhD students supervised

 

Kyriaki Sigala (Art, Edinburgh College of Art)

The Politics and Poiesis of Wastelands 

 

Sinéad Kempley (Art, Edinburgh College of Art)

Fictioning waste and wasting: thinking through deceleration and dead ends in mythopoetic installation and moving image

Research summary

My  interests lie in using archaeology to study large-scale landscape and social transformation in the contemporary era. This has included the industrial-scale transformation of landscapes with dumped waste materials; the impact of the remnants of hydrocarbon extraction and processing infrastructure on the built and natural environment; and urban redevelopment driven by mega events such as the modern Olympic and Paralympic Games. I use archaeology to examine the remains of the recent past and present to better understand what becomes valued as heritage and what becomes considered disposable, wasted or forgettable. 

 

 

Thematic interests:

  • Contemporary archaeology (archaeology of the contemporary world)

  • Historical/Post-medieval archaeology

  • Waste and wastelands
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Heritage as social actor
  • Critical heritage studies
  • Urban archaeology
  • Archaeological methods 
  • Ethics
  • Development-led archaeology (commercial archaeology/CRM)

 

Time periods

late 19th- 21st centuries

 

Places

  • Scotland
  • England
  • Wales
  • Archaeology of London  

Current research interests

My current research looks at the longstanding exploitation of Scottish hydrocarbon resources as a form of contested heritage. As ancient materials of the past that were initially eagerly sought out and burnt, the value of hydrocarbon strata and their present-day extraction are increasingly questioned in the face of a future dominated by fossil-fuelled climate breakdown. Connecting archaeology and history to the rapidly growing field of the energy humanities, I examine how our valuation of hydrocarbons shapes how we live in the present, and hope to do so in the future. The research program will initially examine sites and material culture connected to the coal, oil shale and oil and gas industries of the Firth of Forth area, Fife and the Lothians. I will be examining the material and social impacts of these fossil fuel industries in a broad sense to understand how these geological materials shaped Scotland and Scottish society over the last 250 years and how this varies with different hydrocarbons. Besides reshaping entire landscapes, creating new settlements, infrastructure, and pollution, hydrocarbons are enmeshed with a broad swathe of cultural and political discourse. Scotland presents a significant example of a country not only utterly dependent on these materials, but also one that has experienced multiple forms of hydrocarbon extraction over several hundred years and that now faces rapid decarbonisation. I also have an ongoing interest in the practice of archaeology as an industry: how we 'extract' knowledge about the past, particularity in commercial contexts work to enable construction work and produce value. As part of this I am examining the tools, practices, and workplaces of archaeologists, as well as the ethics of development-led archaeology. This recently led to a publication on the 'archaeology of the archaeology industry' (2020).

Past research interests

My recent work has examined how industrial processes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries across the UK generated modified or novel terrain from dumping of waste materials. I investigated how such new landscapes (reclaimed ground, artificial hills, slag heaps etc.) nonetheless came to be valued and used as places of heritage and creativity. You can read more about this project and its case study sites on on the project website at https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/wastelandscapes/. I also have conducted extensive research into the archaeological traces of recent cultural mega events - large scale temporary spectacles such as expositions and sporting events - and the role heritage played in their hosting and aftermath.

Knowledge exchange

I continue to work with colleagues across the university on an Una Europa project connected to peripheral cultural heritage across cities in Europe (with a case study in Granton, north Edinburgh). I was also recently involved in developing a heritage walking trail ('the Groundbreakers) in Queen Elizabeth Olympic park, east London. This showcased some of the hidden history of the former Olympic/Paralympic Park area to a wide audience via a website and on-site resources, and was based on my mega events research. See the trail online here. 

Project activity

Scotland's Hydrocarbon Heritage, 2024 - ongoing

Past project grants

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, 2020-24: 'Reimagining British Waste Landscapes'
AHRC Doctoral Fellowship, 2012-2016: The Archaeology and Heritage of London's Mega Events'

Academic Monograph

2022. A Contemporary Archaeology of London’s Mega Events: From the Great Exhibition to London 2012. London: UCL Press. 

https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787358447  

 

Journal Articles  

2013. Five Rings: Enclosing the London 2012 Olympic Games. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 23 (1), 1–22.

https://student-journals.ucl.ac.uk/pia/article/id/232/

2018. Beneath the rubble, the Crystal Palace! The surprising persistence of a temporary mega event. World Archaeology, 50 (1), 185–199.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1489734

2020a. Recurring Dreams: Mega Events and Traces of Past Futures. Archaeology International, 22 (1), 86–99.

https://doi.org/10.5334/ai-399

 2020b. The industrial archaeology of the archaeology industry. IA: The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, 43 (1+2), 13–26. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26924256

2023. Gaining Ground: Bomb Rubble, Reclamation and Revenance. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 10 (1), 25–48. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.25782

2024a. Rubble Archaeology on the North Edinburgh Shoreline: Creative Research in the Time of COVID-19. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 35 (1), 24–57. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.2041-9015.1650

Gardner, J., Benjamin, J., and Edgeworth, M., 2024b. Introduction: Making Ground: The Archaeology of Waste Landscapes. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 10 (1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.25622

2024c. What Makes a Wasteland? A Contemporary Archaeology of Urban Waste Sites. Historical Archaeology, (Special Issue: Urban Dissonance).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-024-00510-x 

 

Book Chapters

2020. Competing for the past: the London 2012 Olympics, archaeology, and the ‘wasteland’. In: V. Apaydin, ed. Critical Perspectives on Cultural Memory and Heritage: Construction, Transformation and Destruction. London: UCL Press, 45–66. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787354845

2022. London’s mega event heritage and the development of UCL East. In: C. Melhuish, H. Benesch, D. Sully, and I. Martins Holmberg, eds. Co-curating the city: universities and urban heritage past and future. London: UCL Press, 154–176. https://uclpress.co.uk/book/co-curating-the-city/

2024. Of blaes and bings: the (non)toxic heritage of the West Lothian oil shale industry. In: E. Kryder-Reid and S. May, eds. Toxic Heritage: Legacies, Futures, and Environmental Injustice. London: Routledge, 35–49. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003365259-5 

 

Other articles  

2016. How do you lose a river? Living Maps Review, 1 (1), 1–14.

http://livingmaps.review/journal/index.php/LMR/article/view/27

2024. How Second World War Bomb Rubble Was Used to Make 135 Football Pitches in East London. The Conversation.

http://theconversation.com/how-second-world-war-bomb-rubble-was-used-to-make-135-football-pitches-in-east-london-218672

 

'The Groundbreakers' heritage trail and website

An interactive guide to the diverse history of the former 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Park in Stratford, east London developed by LivingMaps and partners. I acted as archaeological consultant and contributed content to the archaeological and industrial history sections. Explore the trail online here.

This article was published on