Biography
I am a Fellow of St Catharine's College, a Member of the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, and University Associate Professor and Academic Director in Archaeology at the Institute of Continuing Education. I am also a member of the 12-strong UK delegation of IHRA, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the forthcoming Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Westminster, and a Partner of the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre.
I work in the field of Conflict Archaeology and Heritage Studies and am currently chairing an International five year IHRA project on the subject of Holocaust and Roma genocide sites, entitled 'Safeguarding Sites: the IHRA Charter for best practice'. This project aims to create heritage guidelines for international adoption and runs from 2019-2024.
My two most recent completed projects include a digital heritage web-based project on Channel Islander victims of Nazi persecution, The Frank Falla Archive (www.frankfallaarchive.org). This has been produced in collaboration with Freie Universitat Berlin, funded by the German EVZ foundation, and has put online the profiles of 125 concentration camp and Nazi prisons and the biographies of the c. 200-250 islanders who were deported to these institutions. As a spin-off from this project, a teaching pack has been prepared for the Holocaust Educational Trust. My museum exhibition associated with this project, 'On British Soil: Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands', was on at the Wiener Library for the study of Holocaust and Genocide from October 2017 to March 2018, and Guernsey Museum from March to May 2019. My book of the same title, published by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, accompanies the exhibition.
The digital heritage project above complements one of my recent monographs, entitled 'Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands: A legitimate heritage?', which was published by Bloomsbury Academic in April 2019. This volume draws upon testimonies written by former political prisoners for compensation in the mid-1960s and explores why resistance was long neglected as a legitimate theme for heritage in the Channel Islands. It also explores my own heritage activism in this area.
Completed projects of the last few years include:
(1) 'Legacies of Occupation' (Springer 2014), discussed the archaeology and heritage of the WWII German occupation of the Channel Islands.
(2) POW archaeology and material culture; my edited volumes in this field include 'Prisoners of War' (Springer, 2012) and 'Creativity Behind Barbed Wire' (Routledge, 2012), both with Harold Mytum.
(3) 'Protest, Defiance and Resistance in the Channel Islands, 1940-1945' (Bloomsbury Academic 2014), was partnered by Dr Paul Sanders (Reims) and Dr Louise Willmot (MMU). All three of these projects were supported by the British Academy and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
(4) ‘Nazi camps on British soil’ (2012-16) concerned the archaeology and heritage of forced and slave labour in the Channel Islands. The British Academy and McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research has supported the excavations of Lager Wick, a forced labour camp in Jersey, twinned with SS-Strafgefangenenlager Falstad in Norway (the latter of which is directed by Professor Marek Jasinski of NTNU, Trondheim).
(5) The Materiality of Nazi Camps, a special issue of the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, published online in August 2017, and which I co-edited (as lead editor) with Claudia Theune (Vienna) and Marek E Jasinski (NTNU, Trondheim).
Other recent ventures include the investigation of a WWI POW camp in Jersey (2015-2019).
In 2022 I will begin an archaeological project at Ravensbrueck concentration camp with Professor Claudia Theune (University of Vienna).
Research
- The materiality of war; narratives of war given by material culture.
- Post-Conflict Heritage Studies
- Conflict Archaeology
- POW Archaeology
- Holocaust Archaeology
- Holocaust Studies
Publications
BOOKS (authored)
Carr, G. (2020) Nazi Prisons in the British Isles (Pen and Sword, Modern Conflict Archaeology series)
Carr, G. (2019) Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands: A legitimate heritage? (Bloomsbury Academic)
Carr, G. (2017) On British Soil: Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands (McDonald Institute; museum catalogue)
Carr, G., Willmot, L. and Sanders, P. (2014). Protest, Defiance and Resistance in the German Occupied Channel Islands, 1940-1945. (Bloomsbury Academic)
Carr, G. (2014). The Legacy of Occupation: Archaeology, Heritage and Memory in the Channel Islands. (Springer).
Carr, G. (2009). Occupied Behind Barbed Wire. Jersey: Jersey Heritage Trust.
Carr, G. (2006). Creolised Bodies and Hybrid Identities: Examining the Later Iron Age and Early Roman Periods of Essex and Hertfordshire. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports British Series 418.
BOOKS (edited)
Carr, G. and Pistol, R. (2022) British Internment and the Internment of Britons: Second World War Camps, History and Heritage. Bloomsbury Academic: London.
Carr, G. and Reeves, K. (ed.) (2015). Heritage and Memory of War: Responses from small islands. Routledge: New York.
Carr, G. and Mytum, H. (eds) (2012). Cultural Heritage and Prisoners of War: Creativity Behind Barbed Wire. New York: Routledge.
Mytum, H. and Carr, G. (eds) (2012). Prisoners of War: Archaeology, Memory and Heritage of 19th- and 20th-Century Mass Internment. New York: Springer.
Carr, G., Swift, E. and Weekes, J. (eds) (2003). TRAC 2002: Proceedings of the Twelfth Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Kent 2002. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Carr, G. and Stoddart, S. (eds) (2002). Celts in Antiquity. Cambridge: Antiquity Publications Ltd.
Baker, P. and Carr, G. (eds) (2002). New Approaches to Medical Archaeology and Medical Anthropology: Practitioners, Practices and Patients. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Selected BOOK CHAPTERS and JOURNAL ARTICLES of the last decade
Carr, G. (forthcoming 2022) ‘Double vision, resistancescapes and activism’, Historical Archaeology.
Carr, G. (forthcoming 2022) 'Narratives of resistance, moral compromise and perpetration: the testimonies of Julia Brichta, survivor of Ravensbrueck', Journal of Holocaust Research 36.
Carr, G. (2021) '"You are requested to ascertain the nationality of Jews residing in Guernsey": Analysing an artefact of collaboration from the Channel Island of Guernsey, 1933-1940. Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History.
Carr, G. and Willmott, L. (2021) ‘A right to compensation after persecution? Examining the testimonies of British victims of Nazism’, in D. Stone, M. Fulbrook and C. Schmidt (eds), Beyond Camps and Forced Labour. Palgrave Macmillan.
Carr. G. (2019) The Jew and the Jerrybag: the lives of Hedwig Bercu and Dorothea Le Brocq. Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Vol. 33(2)
Carr, G. (2019) ‘Double vision and the politics of visibility: The landscapes of forced and slave labour’, in James Symonds and Pavel Vareka (eds.), Archaeologies of Totalitarianism, Authoritarianism and Repression: Dark Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan.
Carr, G. (2018). ‘Denial of the darkness, identity and nation-building in small islands: a case study from the Channel Islands’pp. 355-376 in P. Stone, R. Hartmann, T. Seaton, R. Sharpley and L. White (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Carr, G. (2018). ‘La mémoire du béton: Trouver une place pour les fantômes de la guerre dans les Îles Anglo-Normandes’ / ‘A ‘Tangible Intangibility’: Positioning ghosts of war.’ Terrain 69: 40-57.
Carr, G. (2017). The Material Culture of Nazi Camps: An editorial. International Journal of Historical Archaeology. DOI 10.1007/s10761-017-0444-z.
Carr, G. (2017). The Small Things of Life and Death: an exploration of value and meaning in the material culture of Nazi camps. International Journal of Historical Archaeology. DOI 10.1007/s10761-017-0435-0
Carr, G. (2017). Nazi camps on British soil: The excavation of Lager Wick forced labour camp in Jersey, Channel Islands. Journal of Conflict Archaeology. DOI 10.1080/15740773.2017.1334333
Carr, G. (2017). ‘The uninvited guests who outstayed their welcome: the ghosts of war in the Channel Islands’ pp. 272-288 in N. Saunders and P. Cornish (eds), Modern Conflict and the Senses. Abingdon: Routledge.
Carr, G. (2016) ‘A culturally constructed darkness: dark legacies and dark heritage in the Channel Islands’ in G. Hooper and J. Lennon Dark Tourism: Practice and Interpretation. Routledge.
Carr, G. and Sturdy Colls, C. (2016). Taboo and Sensitive Heritage: Labour camps, burials and the role of activism in the Channel Islands, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 22 (9). DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2016.1191524
Carr, G. (2016). ‘Illicit Antiquities’? The Collection of Nazi militaria in the Channel Islands. World Archaeology48(1). DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2016.1152196
Carr, G. (2015). The hidden heritage of forced and slave labour: examining the commitment to remembering in the Channel Islands. Skrifter [Transactions] 4, The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. Special issue: Painful Heritage: Studies in the Cultural Landscape of the Second World War, edited by M. Jasinski and L. Sem.
Carr, G. (2015). ‘Have you been offended? Holocaust memory in the Channel Islands at HMD 70. Holocaust Studies: a Journal of Culture and History. 22(1): 44-64. DOI: 10.1080/17504902.2015.1103026
Carr, G. and Reeves, G. (2015) Islands of War, Islands of Memory: An introduction, in G. Carr and K. Reeves (eds), Heritage and Memory of War: Responses from small islands. Routledge.
Carr, G. (2015) Islands of War, Guardians of Memory: the afterlife of the German Occupation in the British Channel Islands, in G. Carr and K. Reeves (eds), Heritage and Memory of War: Responses from small islands.Routledge.
Carr, G. (submitted b). Landscapes of longing: the material culture of Channel Islander internee camps of WWII, in N. Saunders and P. Cornish (eds) Conflict Landscapes: Materiality and Meaning in Contested Places, 1900-2007. London: Routledge.
Carr, G. (submitted c). Resistance material culture in occupied landscapes: the Channel Islands in World War II, in T. Clack (ed.) Material Hybridity: Archaeologies of Contact. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carr, G. (submitted d). ‘In the eye of the beholder? Terrorscapes in small places’ in R. van der Laarse and G. Verbeck (eds), Terrorscapes: Memories of Mass Violence in Contemporary Europe. Palgrave McMillan.
Carr, G. and Jasinski, M.E. (2013). ‘Sites of Memory, Sites of Oblivion: The archaeology of twentieth century conflict In Europe’, pp. 36-55 in M. Bassanelli and G. Postglione (eds.), Re-enacting the Past: Museography for Conflict Archaeology. Siracusa: LetteraVentidue.
Carr, G. (2013). Resistance, the body and the V-sign campaign in Channel Islander WWII German internment camps, pp. 117-131 in J. Symonds, A. Badcock and J. Oliver (eds), Historical Archaeologies of Cognition. London: Equinox Publishing Ltd.
Carr, G. and Mytum, H. (eds) (2012). Cultural Heritage and Prisoners of War: Creativity Behind Barbed Wire. New York: Routledge.
Mytum, H. and Carr, G. (eds) (2012). Prisoners of War: Archaeology, Memory and Heritage of 19th- and 20th-Century Mass Internment. New York: Springer.
Carr, G. (2012). Of coins, crests and kings: symbols of identity and resistance in the occupied Channel Islands. The Journal of Material Culture, 17 (4): 327-344.
Carr, G. (2012). Examining the memorialscape of occupation and liberation: a case study from the Channel Islands, International Journal of Heritage Studies 18(2): 174-193.
Carr, G. (2012). Occupation heritage, commemoration and memory in Guernsey and Jersey, History and Memory 24 (1), 87-117.
Carr, G. (2012). Dark tourism, bunkers and memorials? A case study from the Channel Islands, pp. 173-184 in G. Postiglione and M. Bassanelli (eds), Military Archaeological Landscapes: The Atlantik Wall as Case Study. Siracusa: LetteraVentidue.
Carr, G. (2011). Engraving and embroidering emotions upon the material culture of internment, pp. 129-146 in A. Myers and G. Moshenska (eds.) Archaeologies of Internment. New York: Springer.
Carr, G. (2010). The archaeology of occupation and the V-sign campaign in the Channel Islands during WWII, International Journal of Historical Archaeology 14 (4): 575-592.
Carr, G. (2010). The slowly healing scars of Occupation, Journal of War and Culture Studies 3 (2): 249-265.
Carr, G. (2010). Shining a light on dark tourism: German bunkers in the British Channel Islands, Public Archaeology 9(2): 65-86.
Carr, G. (2010). The archaeology of occupation: a case study from the Channel Islands, Antiquity 84 (323): 161-174.
Carr, G. (2009). Landscapes of occupation: a case study from the Channel Islands, pp. 35-43 in N. Forbes, R. Page, and G. Perez (eds.) The Heritage of Europe’s Deadly Century: Perspectives on 20th Century Conflict Heritage presented in the seminars of the Culture 2000 Landscapes of War Project. Swindon: English Heritage Publications.
Carr, G. (2009). Occupied Behind Barbed Wire. Jersey: Jersey Heritage Trust. (Museum catalogue; 14K words, 61 pages).
Carr. G. (2009). Archaeology that Matters, British Archaeology 104, Jan/Feb 2009: 18-22.
Carr, G. (2008). The politics of forgetting on the island of Alderney, Archaeological Review from Cambridge 22 (2): 89-112.
Teaching and Supervisions
For 2021/22 I will be teaching courses on the following topics at ICE / Dept of Archaeology:
Conflict Archaeology (Diploma)
Dark Heritage (Diploma)
Dark Heritage (MPhil)
Holocaust Heritage (online course)
Advanced Diploma
I am regularly involved in teaching the following courses at ICE:
Introduction to Archaeology
Prehistoric Britain
Conflict Archaeology
Dark Heritage
Holocaust Heritage
Britain and the Holocaust
Dissertation supervision
I currently supervise students who are interested in conflict archaeology, post-conflict heritage, Holocaust heritage, and dark heritage. I will also supervise history students interested in Britain and the Holocaust. I am also interested in supervising students who wish to study for an MPhil or PhD (or undergraduate dissertation) in the following topics:
Topics related to WWII archaeology and heritage, especially but not exclusively in Europe, and especially relating to countries which were occupied during this period.
Topics related to the materiality of war.
Topics related to internment. While I am particularly interested in supervising students who are interested in military POWs or civilian internees, I would also welcome students interested in the archaeology and heritage of other forms of incarceration, such as prisons or labour or concentration camps.
Any projects within conflict archaeology, Holocaust heritage, dark heritage, or conflict-related heritage studies.
Archaeological, heritage or historical dissertations on any aspect of the German occupation of the Channel Islands.
Current Students
Nora Weller
Hyunjae Kim
Past Students
Emily Moon
Polly Harlow
Alexandra McKeever
Raphael Henkes
Margaret Comer
Susan Shay
Alexa Laherty
Pierre Lee
Amy Dolben
Simon Weppel
Hyun Kyung Lee
Leanne Philpot
Sofia Carreira Wham
Alice Rose
Cydney Stasiulis
Greta van Lith
Alison Smith
Alice Moore (History Faculty)
Olivia Rogers (History Faculty)
Other Professional Activities
Member of the UK delegation of IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance).
Member of academic advisory committee for Holocaust Memorial in Westminster.
Co-curator of On British Soil, an exhibition at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London
In 2016 I filmed a couple of documentaries with the BBC on the search for Channel Islanders whose bodies were missing in the Nazi camp and prison system for 70 years. I am also regularly on TV, radio or local media in the Channel Islands.
I have been involved with Jersey Heritage on a number of different heritage-related projects, including heritage trails, museum exhibitions and gallery re-interpretations. I have also worked with heritage authorities in Guernsey on memorial erections, museum exhibitions, heritage trails and other heritage projects.
