Homeless Heritage describes the process of using archaeological methodologies to collaboratively document how contemporary homeless people use and experience the city. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken in Bristol and York, the book first describes the way in which archaeological methods and theory have come to be usefully applied to the contemporary world, before exploring the historical development of the concept of homelessness. Working with homeless people, the author undertook surveys and two excavations of contemporary homeless sites, and the team co-curated two public heritage exhibitions - with surprising results. Complementing a growing body of literature that details how collaborative and participatory heritage projects can give voice to marginalised groups, Homeless Heritage details what it means to be homeless in the twenty first century.

Auteur

Rachael Kiddey is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford where she works on a project called Architectures of Displacement: The Experiences and Consequences of Emergency Shelter. She received her PhD from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York in 2014. Her doctoral research involved developing methodologies for working archaeologically with homeless people; documenting how heritage can function in socially useful and transformative ways. This research was shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Award for Widening Participation Initiative of the Year 2012 and was shortlisted for the Society for Historical Archaeology Mark E. Mack Community Engagement Award 2016. Rachael also works as Editorial Assistant at the Independent Social Research Foundation where, among her responsibilities, is the production of the interdisciplinary Bulletin.