Meet the Fellows

The Society of Antiquaries is proud to bring together a distinguished community of scholars, practitioners, and enthusiasts dedicated to the study and stewardship of the material past. In our new Meet the Fellows series, we invite you to discover the diverse paths, passions and perspectives that animate our Fellowship today.

Through a series of conversations, Fellows reflect on the formative experiences that drew them to their disciplines, the sites and stories that have shaped their careers, and their hopes for the future of heritage, culture, and antiquarian study. Each interview offers a window into the richness and variety of our shared field — and celebrates the enduring spirit of inquiry and innovation that has defined the Society for more than three centuries.

We hope these profiles will inspire new connections, spark new conversations, and reaffirm the vital role that the study of the past plays in understanding our present and imagining our future.

Dan Hicks FSA: Facing the Past, Shaping the Future

Dan Hicks FSA

The study of the past is, by its nature, a dialogue between memory and material, endurance and evolution. Few scholars exemplify this conversation with more vigour and vision than Professor Dan Hicks FSA, MCIfA — Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator of World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. As he prepares for the launch of his latest book, Every Monument Will Fall: A Story of Remembering and Forgetting, the Society of Antiquaries spoke to Professor Hicks about the experiences that have shaped his distinguished career, his reflections on antiquarianism today, and his hopes for the future of heritage work.

Dan Hicks’ journey into the world of archaeology began not in a library or a lecture theatre, but in the gardens of Castle Bromwich Hall. At sixteen, a two-week work experience placement on a Leverhulme Trust-funded excavation close to his home in north Birmingham opened the door to a new world. The project director, Chris Currie, would become a formative influence, offering Hicks his first paid work after his A-levels and instilling a deep commitment to public archaeology — as well as a spirited, punk-inflected irreverence towards the more rarefied traditions of the discipline.

“Chris instilled a commitment to local, community and public archaeology,” Hicks recalls, “and brought a kind of scholarly irreverence and punk DIY sensibility to the politest corners of English landscapes and art history.” When Hicks went up to Oxford to read Archaeology and Anthropology, it was with this grounding in both scholarship and subversion — a combination that would continue to shape his work.

Over a decade in professional archaeology followed, with Hicks taking on roles at Warwickshire and Gloucestershire County Councils, Oxford Archaeology, and beyond. Among the many sites and projects that have left their mark, one experience stands out in hindsight: the 1998 excavation of the future Sackler Library site in Oxford. Hicks remembers Mortimer Sackler’s visit — and the bottles of champagne he distributed to the excavation team — with a certain poignancy, given the later revelations surrounding the opioid crisis and the subsequent removal of the Sackler name from many institutions.

“That sequence of events sticks with me as a reminder of the significance of generational change in archaeology and heritage,” Hicks reflects. His words capture the essential truth that to steward the past is also to grapple with the ever-shifting present, to “turn your face violently towards things as they exist now”, quoting Stuart Hall.

Such reflections lie at the heart of Hicks’ approach to antiquarianism, and his appreciation of the Society of Antiquaries’ role in fostering dialogue across disciplines. Having served as a Fellow for nearly twenty years — including a term as Trustee — he sees the Society as a vital meeting place where archaeology, anthropology, architecture and art history intersect, ensuring that the study of the past remains vibrant and relevant. “Understanding the human past will always benefit from such cross-disciplinary and cross-sector exchanges,” he affirms.

It is perhaps unsurprising that when asked which antiquary or historian from the past he would most like to converse with, Hicks gently but firmly declines the hypothetical. “Frankly, I’m far more interested in talking to living people rather than trying to communicate with the dead,” he says. For him, the pressing task is to widen the conversations we have today — to include all communities and stakeholders, to democratise memory and heritage.

Indeed, challenging misconceptions is a running theme of his work. Hicks is keen to clarify that antiquarianism is not about a nostalgic longing for the past, nor archaeology a simple search for lost glories. “Antiquarianism isn’t about studying the past: it’s about studying what survives from the past. Curation isn’t about keeping things the same: it’s about being part of how a society chooses what it wishes to hold onto and to remember. Archaeology isn’t about discovering the past: it’s the science of human endurance.” It is a powerful reorientation of perspective — one that urges scholars and practitioners to look forward as well as backward.

When it comes to safeguarding the fabric of history, Hicks is deeply mindful of the choices and responsibilities involved. He recalls with sadness the demolition of the Dorman Long Tower on Teesside in 2021, a monument of the industrial age swept away in the name of redevelopment — and a poignant example of the uneven politics of heritage conservation. His family’s mining roots and his academic ties to Oxford render the destruction of industrial monuments and the preservation of imperial memorials all the more personal. The title of his new book, Every Monument Will Fall, captures the inevitability of change, and the need to consciously shape the memory cultures we wish to sustain.

For those aspiring to contribute to the protection of heritage, Hicks offers sage and sobering advice: “The past doesn’t need your protection. What may need your protection is what survives from the past, alongside caring about communities who are part of that past and how it survives in the present.” It is a call to action, not for nostalgia, but for engaged stewardship.

As for future projects, Every Monument Will Fall promises to be a landmark contribution, interrogating the histories of monumentality, empire, and the selective nature of public memory. Launch events in London and Oxford will celebrate its publication on 1 May. Alongside the book, Hicks continues to advocate for policy changes in museum and heritage practice, particularly in relation to the institutional treatment of ancestral human remains.

Dan Hicks’ career is a reminder that to be an antiquary today is to be an active participant in shaping collective memory — a process as much about the future as it is about the past. His work challenges us to confront the complexities of heritage with honesty, creativity and care. In doing so, he ensures that antiquarianism, like the Society itself, remains vital, dynamic, and ever-evolving.

Biography

Dan Hicks FSA, MCIfA is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator of World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. Bluesky/Instagram: @ProfDanHicks. Every Monument Will Fall: A Story of Remembering and Forgetting is published on 1 May by Penguin (Hutchinson Heinemann). There are launch events in London (Pushkin House/Swedenborg Hall, Thursday 1 May) and in Oxford (Blackwells, Wednesday 7 May).

Article author

This interview was conducted by Elizabeth Gilkey. Elizabeth is an archaeologist and Society of Antiquaries volunteer whose research interests span Classical antiquity and heritage practice. She is presently completing postgraduate studies in Archaeology at University College London, having previously obtained a Master’s degree in Classical Civilisation from the University of London. She will commence a DPhil in Archaeology at the University of Oxford in Michaelmas Term 2025.