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Dr Gilly Carr

Fellow
Subject: Archaeology
Director of Studies in Archaeology
University Associate Professor and Academic Director in Archaeology

Dr Gilly Carr joined the Fellowship of St Catharine's in 2006 and has been a Director of Studies since 2000. Before this she taught at the University of Kent after her MPhil and PhD at Cambridge (St John's College.)

Dr Gilly Carr's research spans the fields of archaeology, heritage studies, Holocaust studies and history, where her particular interest is in the Second World War in Europe. Gilly is also a member of the UK delegation of the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), where she chairs the five-year project 'Safeguarding Sites', writing a Charter to safeguard Holocaust heritage in Europe. She is also on the academic advisory board of the UK Holocaust Memorial Centre which oversees content. Gilly has over 70 publications, including 14 edited and authored volumes with two more on the way. Her latest monograph, 'A Materiality of Internment' (Routledge), about the objects made in internment camps in Germany in WWII, will be published in 2024. Her latest co-edited volume (with Rachel Pistol), 'British Internment and the Internment of Britons' will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2023. Her most recent published monograph is 'Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands: A Legitimate Heritage?', published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. It examines those islanders who were sent to Nazi prisons and concentration camps during the war and the long-term impact of their experiences, most especially their long-term marginalisation from heritage and public memory. Gilly's long-term in the Channel Islands was recognised with the European Heritage Prize in 2020. 

Gilly has a particular research interest in wartime incarceration, internment and imprisonment; she is currently involved in an excavation at Ravensbrueck concentration camp with Professor Claudia Theune (University of Vienna) and has recently been involved in fieldwork in Jersey, working with colleagues on a WWI POW camp. Earlier projects involved excavation of WWII prison camps in Norway and Jersey.

Research interests

Gilly's research spans the fields of archaeology, heritage studies, Holocaust Studies and history, where her particular interest is in the Second World War in Europe. Her fieldwork has focused on the Channel Islands, where the German occupation has provided the subject of her most recent three monographs. Her latest monograph, Victims of Nazism in the Channel Islands: A Legitimate Heritage? was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019. 

Gilly has a particular research interest in wartime incarceration, internment and imprisonment, and is currently working on a co-edited volume with Rachel Pistol on civilian internment from 1939-1945. Gilly's book on Nazi prisons in the British Isles came out in the autumn of 2020.
Previous volumes include 'Legacies of Occupation: Heritage, memory and archaeology' (Springer 2014), 'Protest, Defiance and Resistance in the Channel Islands: German Occupation 1940-1945' (Bloomsbury Academic 2015). 

Gilly is also active in various related heritage projects in the Channel Islands. Her most recent exhibition, 'On British Soil: Victims of Nazism in the Channel Islands' was shown at the Wiener Library in London in 2018 and in Guernsey in 2019. Gilly has also written a website, www.frankfallaarchive.org, which details the stories of all Channel Islanders deported to Nazi prisons and camps.

Currently, Gilly is chairing the IHRA's 'Safeguarding Sites' project. It seeks to build heritage guidelines for incorporation into national legislation of all 32 IHRA member countries to safeguard Holocaust and Roma genocide sites. The project will last from 2019-2024.

St Catharine's is a friendly college. As archaeology is a small subject, students in this subject get a great deal of support and guidance from me. I'm a hands-on director of studies and do my best to help students get the most from their studies while they're here in Cambridge.
  • Carr, G. (2020) Nazi Prisons in the British Isles (Pen and Sword)
  • Carr, G. (2019). Victims of Nazism in the Channel Islands: A legitimate Heritage? (Bloomsbury Academic)
  • Carr, G. and Reeves, K. (ed.) (2015). Heritage and Memory of War: Responses from small islands. Routledge: New York.
  • 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). Legacies of Occupation: Archaeology, Heritage and Memory in the Channel Islands. (Springer). Nominated for James Deetz book prize.
  • 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. (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. (Paper issue 22.3, Sept. 2018).
  • 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 (Published in print 2016 in vol 11 (2-3): 135-157.
  • 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): 702-715. DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2016.1191524
  • Carr, G. (2016). ‘Illicit Antiquities’? The Collection of Nazi militaria in the Channel Islands. World Archaeology 48(2): 254-266. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2016.1152196
Vice Chancellor's Impact Award 2016, EAA European Heritage Prize Medal 2020; Vice Chancellor's Impact Award 2016
2006