Biography
I am an archaeologist interested in the politics of everyday life and intimate communities, as well as archaeological and social theory. After completing a BA (Archaeology and Classical Studies) at the University of Evansville, I came to Cambridge in 2013 for an MPhil in Archaeological Research, and subsequently my PhD (2020). During the pandemic I moved to the University of Leicester, where I have worked as a teaching fellow, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and postdoctoral research associate. In 2024 I was delighted to return to Cambridge part-time as Senior Editorial Assistant for the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
Research
My PhD (Cambridge, 2020) looked at early farmer houses at Çatalhöyük in Türkiye, studying how people modified houses as they lived in them in order to understand pressures and tensions in their homes. I have since looked at domestic spaces as a lens on prehistoric mobility (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Leicester, 2021-4) and kinship and social structure in European later prehistory (Postdoctoral Research Associate on the Making Oddkin project, Leicester, 2024-5). More broadly, I am a theory omnivore and especially interested in the ways feminist, Marxist and posthumanist theories work together (and clash) as perspectives on the past—especially intimate sides of life that are easy to overlook as venues for politics.
Key Publications
For a full list, see my Google Scholar profile.
Recent publications:
Kay, K. and Eriksen, M.H. 2024. Mapping collaborations: working in the contact zone of posthumanism and gender archaeology. In U. Matić et al., eds., Gender Trouble and Current Archaeological Debates. Springer.
Kay, K. 2024. Has ‘the household’ outlived its usefulness in household archaeology? In T. Kienlin, ed., Household Practices and Houses – Current Approaches from Archaeology and the Sciences. Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH.