Biography
I am a Fellow of St Catharine's College, a Member of the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, and University Professor in Conflict Archaeology and Holocaust Heritage at the Institute of Professional and Continuing Education (PACE), where I am also Academic Director in Archaeology. 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 with a current specialism in Holocaust heritage, and recently chaired an International five year IHRA project which wrote an international charter to safeguard Holocaust heritage in the 21st century. IHRA adopted the charter in the winter of 2023 at its plenary meeting in Zagreb and it was launched at the European Commission in 2024. From 2023-24 I co-ordinated the Lord Pickles Alderney Expert Review, which calculated how many people were brought to Alderney as forced and slave labour and how many died during the German Occupation. In 2025 I was given an OBE in the King's New Year's Honours List for services to Holocaust research and education.
I have a strong research interest in the heritage and archaeology of internment and imprisonment of all kinds, and my eighth monograph, A Materiality of Internment, was published by Routledge in 2024. This book examined the material culture of civilian internees in Germany in WWII and what it can show us about the experience of internment. My eighth edited volume was published the year before: British Internment and the Internment of Britons, co-edited with Rachel Pistol, was published by Bloomsbury Academic (2023). Recent excavations have included Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany with Professor Claudia Theune (University of Vienna), the Flossenbuerg sub-camp of Svatava with Dr Pavel Vareka (University of West Bohemia), and the Warsaw Ghetto with Dr Jacek Konik (Museum of Independence).
I have many previous research projects. These include a digital heritage web-based project on Channel Islander victims of Nazi persecution, The Frank Falla Archive. 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, accompanied the exhibition.
The digital heritage project above complements one of my recent monographs, entitled Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands: A Legitimate Heritage? (Bloomsbury Academic, 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 decade include:
- Nazi Prisons in the British Isles (Pen and Sword Archaeology, 2020)
- 'Legacies of Occupation' (Springer 2014), discussed the archaeology and heritage of the WWII German occupation of the Channel Islands.
- 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.
- '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.
- ‘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).
- 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).
- Team at the site of the former ghetto of Terezin, Czech Republic
Research
- Holocaust Heritage
- The materiality of war; narratives of war given by material culture.
- Materiality of interment
- Post-Conflict Heritage Studies
- Conflict Archaeology
- POW Archaeology
- Holocaust Archaeology
- Holocaust Studies
Information for Prospective Postgraduate Students
Before contacting me as a potential supervisor for your PhD, please think about the following:
1. Why have you identified me as a good match? Do we have similar research interests? Do I have experience in your chosen field? Have I supervised previous students in your area? One should identify a supervisor based on these things rather than because they're based at particular university.
2. Do you have funding? Funding is very hard to get and PhDs are expensive, as well as requiring huge amounts of dedication to the subject. Are you genuinely passionate about this subject? Do you wish to live and breathe it for 3-4 years? Think about whether your investment will be worthwhile.
3. Please be aware that academia is an increasingly ferociously competitive career and it is extremely hard to get an academic post, even if you're a very strong candidate from a top university. Think hard about your motives for wanting to get a PhD and where this might take you if you cannot get a position in academia.
4. Do you have a clear idea of what topic you want to do your PhD on? Has the work already been done by others and have you checked? Have you thought about why the topic needs doing and why it might be important?
If you're still interested, please contact me.
Key Publications
Key publications
BOOKS (authored)
Carr, G. (2024) A Materiality of Internment (Routledge)
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. (2023) 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. (in press 2025) ‘Holocaust heritage and its problems with inauthenticity’, Protection of Cultural Heritage.
Carr, G. (forthcoming 2025) ‘Double vision, resistancescapes and activism’, Historical Archaeology.
Carr, G. (2025) ‘Holocaust heritage: authenticity, archaeology and climate change’, in I. Saloul and B. Baillie (eds), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Springer Nature. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1007/978-3-030-61493-5_39-1.
Carr, G. and Cooke, S. (2024), ‘The pragmatics of Holocaust heritage in the 21st century: exploring the concept using the case studies of Terezín and Staro Sajmište’. Heritage and Society, 18(1), 37-56.
Cooke, S. and Carr, G. (2023). “Saved from Oblivion’? The uncertain futures of Holocaust heritage’, Global Perspectives 4(1): 88-94. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1525/gp.2023.88094.
Mytum, H., Carr, G., Philpott, R. and Saunders, N. (2023) ‘Placemaking at Les Blanches Banques, Jersey’s First World War Prisoner of War Camp: Nested landscapes of prisoners and guards’, The Antiquaries Journal. 103: 407-437.
Carr, G. (2023) ‘An autograph book, a piano and bodies hanging on the wire: memories of the British experiences in the French transit camp of Compiègne’, in G. Carr and R. Pistol (ed), British Internment and the Internment of Britons: Second World War Camps, History and Heritage. Bloomsbury Academic.
Carr, G. (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.
Publication
Teaching and Supervisions
Teaching
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
Research 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
Yiwen Zhou
Nora Weller
Hyunjae Kim
Past Students
Claire Nevin
Alex Burling
Eloise Sinclair
Bowen Chair
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.
