Dr Harris was awarded her PhD in archaeology in 2008 from UCL Institute of archaeology for the thesis “Cloth in Prehistoric Societies: The social context of cloth in prehistory, with case studies from northern Italy and the Alpine region from the Neolithic to Bronze Age”. Since then she has held postdoctoral positions in the UK and Germany, involving teaching and research.

She is currently ERC Research Associate, for the PROCON Project “Textile Economy and Urbanisation in Mediterranean Europe 1000-500BCE”, based once again in London and also as Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge. From 2013-14 she was Degree Co-ordinator for the MA in Artefact Studies at UCL Institute of Archaeology. In 2012-13 she was Marie Curie Cofund Fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin, for research on “Regional Costume and Identity in the Final Neolithic to Bronze Age; the Statue Menhir Evidence”. From 2008-2011 she was British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow for her project “Cloth Cultures in Prehistoric Europe”. After her PhD she was Facilities Manager at Mildmay Community Partnership, London, which she held in conjunction with the Cotton Fellowship, “Cloth Cultures of Europe and Egypt in the Middle to Late Bronze Age”. As a masters graduate she was employed as a Research Assistant at the Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici, Valcamonica, Italy for the project “World Archives of Rock Art” based in the Valcamonica UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In January 2016 Dr Harris will be taking up the position of Lecturer in Archaeology at Glasgow University.

The focus of Dr Harris' research is prehistoric Europe and the central Mediterranean with expertise in organic artefacts and representational art. She studies textiles, leather and basketry of the Neolithic to Bronze Age and the role of these materials in dress and identity through people represented in stone, metal or ceramics. Through experimental archaeology she explores the technology and materials used to make prehistoric cloth. Her current research questions the role of textiles in the production and consumption of wealth in the early urban centres of the Mediterranean (Greece, Italy, Spain) from 1000-500 BC. In practice, her research involves the analysis, recording and sampling of artefacts across a wide network of museums and archives in Europe.

Books

Harris, S. & Douny, L. (eds.) 2014, Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture, Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek.

Harris, S. & Veldmeijer, A. (eds.) 2014, Why Leather? The Material and Cultural Dimensions of Leather. Sidestone Press, Leiden.

Journals             

Harris, S. & Gleba, M. (in press 2015), Bronze Age moss fibre garments from Scotland – the jury’s out. Archaeological Textiles Review. Vol. 57

Lelong, O. (in press 2015), Wrappings of power: a woman’s burial in cattle hide at Langwell Farm, Strath Oykel, with contributions by Arabaolaza, I. Booth, T. Evans,J. Evershed, RP. Harris,S. Hollund, H. Keely, BJ. Kennedy, C. Lamb, A. Ramsay,S. Walton Rogers, P. Šoberl, L. Wilson, C. and Wilson, L. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (2014).

Harris, S. 2014, Cloth culture in the Middle Neolithic of northern Italy with special reference to basketry (c.4900-4250 BC). In. R. Whitehouse, R. & M. Pearce (eds) Accordia Research Papers Vol. XIII, Accordia Research Institute, University of London, London, pp. 103-130.

Harris, S. & Hofmann, K.P. 2014, From Stones to Gendered Bodies: Regional Differences in the Production of the Body and Gender on the Copper Age Statue-Menhirs of Northern Italy and the Swiss Valais. European Journal of Archaeology. Vol 17 (2),pp. 264-285. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1461957114Y.0000000054

Harris, S. 2014, Sensible dress: experiments with the sight, sound, touch and smell of Late Ertebølle, Mesolithic cloth types. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Vol. 24 (1) pp. 37-56. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959774314000031

Harris, S. 2012, From the parochial to the universal: comparing cloth cultures in the Bronze Age. European Journal of Archaeology, 15 (1) 2012, 61–97. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1461957112Y.0000000006

Higgitt, C. Harris, S. Cartwright, C. Cruickshank, P.,2011, Assessing the potential of historic archaeological collections: a pilot study of the British Museum’s Swiss lake village textiles. The British Museum Technical Research Bulletin. Vol.5. pp.81-94.

Harris, S. Rösel-Mautendorfer, H. Grömer, K. Reschreiter, H. 2010, Cloth Cultures in Prehistoric Europe: the Bronze Age evidence from Hallstatt. Archaeology International, vol. 12, 2008-2009. pp. 22-26.

Harris, S. 2008, Textiles, Cloth and Skins: The Problem of Terminology and Relationship. Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture, 2008, Vol. 6, Issue 3, pp. 222-237.

Harris, S. 2006, A report on the examination of animal skin artefacts from the Bronze Age salt mines of Hallstatt, Austria. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, vol.17, pp.69-76.

Harris, S. 2004b, I tessuti nelle composizioni monumentali della Valcamonica nell'età del Rame, Bollettino del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici, vol.34, pp.222-228.

Book Chapters

Harris, S. 2014, Wrapping the dead: An investigation of the Bronze Age burial mounds of southern Scandinavia through a wrapping analysis. In S. Harris & L. Douny eds., Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, pp.115-134.

Douny, L. & Harris, S. 2014, Introduction: Wrapping and unwrapping, concepts and approaches. In S. Harris & L. Douny eds., Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, pp.15-40.

Harris, S. 2011, Preparing skins in prehistory: a review of evidence and approaches. In R. Thomson, & Q. Mould eds., Leather Tanneries: the archaeological evidence. Archetype Press for the Archaeological Leather Group, London, pp. 57-67.

Harris, S. 2008, Exploring the materiality of prehistoric cloth types. Experiencing Archaeology by Experiment. Proceedings of the Experimental Archaeology Conference, Exeter 2007. In P. Cunningham, J. Heeb & R. Paardekooper eds., Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp. 81-102.
Harris, S. 2003, Representations of woven textiles in Alpine Europe during the Copper Age, In E. Herring & J. B. Wilkins, eds., Inhabiting Symbols: symbol and image in the ancient Mediterranean, Accordia Research Institute, University of London, London, pp.43-84.

Conference Proceedings

Harris, S. 2015, Folded, layered textiles from a Bronze Age pit pyre excavated from Over Barrow 2, Cambridgeshire, England. In K. Grömer & F. Pritchard eds., Aspects of the Design, Production and Use of Textiles and Clothing from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Era. NESAT XII. Archaeolingua Main Series 33. Budapest.pp. 73-81

Harris, S. 2015, Flax fibre: Innovation and Change in the Early Neolithic. A Technological and Material Perspective. In A. Svenson, ed., Textile Society of America 2014 Biennial Symposium Proceedings: New Directions: Examining the Past, Creating the Future, Los Angeles, California, University of Nebraska Digital Commons. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/913

Harris, S. 2014, Introduction: Leather in archaeology, between material properties, materiality and technological choices. In S. Harris, S. & A. Veldmeijer eds., Why Leather? The Material and Cultural Dimensions of Leather. Sidestone Press, pp. 9-21.

Harris, S. 2009, Smooth and cool or warm and soft, investigating the properties of cloth in prehistory. In E. Andersson Strand, M. Gleba, U. Mannering, C. Munkholt, M. Ringgaard, eds., North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles X. Oxford, Oxbow Books, Ancient Textiles Series Vol. 5, pp. 140-112.

Harris, S. 2007, Investigating social aspects of technical processes: cloth production from plant fibres in a Neolithic lake dwelling on Lake Constance, Germany. In V. Beugnier & P. Crombé eds., Plant processing from a prehistoric and ethnographic perspective. Proceedings of the workshop at the Ghent University (Belgium), November 28, 2006. British Archaeological Reports International Series 1718.pp.83-100.

Popular Publications & Short Reports

Harris, S. & Piquette, K.E. 2015. Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) for visualising leather grain surface morphology as an aid to species identification: a pilot study. Archaeological Leather Group Newsletter 42, Sept, pp. 13-18.

Harris, S. 2015, L’iconografia dei tessuti nell'Italia della prima età del Ferro - metodi e potenziale di ricerca. Forma Urbis, XX (9), Pp. 40-44.

Harris, S. 2012. Jane Balsgaard: Photographs from Japan. Textiles & Photography Vol.III. Copenhagen, The Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Textile Research.

Finds Reports

Harris, S. North Cairn Farm: a Bronze Age “hair moss apron” from Dumfries and Galloway – technological and fibre analysis. Submitted to Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, October 2014.

Mould, Q. Harris, S. Cameron, E. The textiles and leather from Whitehorse Cist, Dartmoor. Submitted to Dartmoor National Park Authority, August 2013.

Harris, S. Report on the photographic evidence of the woven material resembling basketry from Langwell Farm cist, Easter Ross, Scotland. Submitted to O. C. Lelong, York Archaeological Trust for Excavation and Research Ltd, July 2012.

Harris, S. Report on the textiles from Over Barrow, Cambridgeshire, with fibre analysis by M. Gleba. Submitted to C. Evans. Cambridge Archaeological Unit, May 2012.

Mould, Q. Harris, S. Cameron, E. Assessment of selected organic objects from the Whitehorse Cist, Dartmoor. Submitted to Dartmoor National Park Authority, February 2012.