Susan Oosthuizen

Susan Marian Oosthuizen is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. She specialises in examining the origins and development of early medieval and medieval landscapes, and in the evolution of systems of governance.

Career

Oosthuizen completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Southampton, her master's degree at SOAS, University of London, and her PhD at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. She also holds a PGCE from the University of Cambridge.

Elected to an Emeritus Fellowship of Wolfson College, Cambridge from January 2019, she was previously a Governing Body Fellow of the College from 2002 to 2018. Within the University of Cambridge, she was associated with the Institute of Continuing Education, the Department of Archaeology and the Faculty of History.

She holds a National Award for History Teaching in Higher Education, awarded by LTSN for History, Archaeology and Classics, The Historical Association, History at the Universities Defence Group, and The Royal Historical Society. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) on 7 June 2007, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) in 2015.

In 2019, Oosthuizen published ''The Emergence of the English'', in which she argued that rather than being born out of conquest and settlement by Germanic-speaking tribes, the origins of England and the English people can be traced to political and demographic continuity with Roman Britain. Oosthuizen's ideas have been described as " anti-migrationist", and have received a critical response from several scholars of early Anglo-Saxon England.John Hines, "Review: ''The Emergence of the English''", in ''The Antiquaries Journal'', Volume 100 (September 2020), pp. 464-466: "This booklet trumpets forth the very opposite of the proper critical approaches responsible academics try to instil in the students they seek to educate: respect for and care with evidence and interpretative methods – ie ensuring that you know what you are talking about; reading secondary sources with care and objectivity – not seeing only what you are looking for whether it is there or not, or cherry-picking references."

Select publications

*Oosthuizen, S. 2019. ''The Emergence of the English''. Arc-Humanities Press, York.
*Oosthuizen, S. 2017. ''The Anglo-Saxon Fenland''. Oxbow, Oxford.
*Oosthuizen, S. 2016. "Beyond Hierarchy: Archaeology, common rights and social identity". ''World Archaeology'' 48 (3). 381–394.
*Oosthuizen, S. 2016. "Culture and Identity in the Early Medieval Fenland Landscape". ''Landscape History'' 37(1). 5–24.
*Oosthuizen, S. 2016. "Recognizing and Moving on from a Failed Paradigm: The Case of Agricultural Landscapes in Anglo-Saxon England c. AD 400–800". ''Journal of Archaeological Research'' 24(2). 179–227.
*Oosthuizen, S. 2013. "Beyond Hierarchy: The archaeology of collective governance". ''World Archaeology'' 45(5). 714–729.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oosthuizen, Susan
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Living people
British women archaeologists
Medieval archaeologists
Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Fellows of Wolfson College, Cambridge
British women historians
Landscape historians
Year of birth missing (living people)
Alumni of the University of Southampton
Alumni of SOAS University of London
Fellows of the Royal Historical Society