Professor Gilly Carr

Professor Gilly Carr
University Professor of Conflict Archaeology and Holocaust Heritage, Academic Director in Archaeology, University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education (PACE)

Biography

I am Professor of Conflict Archaeology and Holocaust Heritage. I am also Academic Director in Archaeology at PACE, a Fellow and Director of Studies in Archaeology at St Catharine's College, and a Partner of the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre. Outside the University I am a member of the UK delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the UK Holocaust Memorial. My research sits at the intersection of archaeology, heritage studies, Holocaust studies and history. I have a particular interest in European WWII and Holocaust archaeology and like to excavate at such sites each summer. I am also interested in the archaeology, material culture and heritage of WWII internment and imprisonment, and am also an expert in the heritage and memory of the German occupation of the Channel Islands, especially its victims of Nazism. I am currently working on the state of Holocaust heritage in the 21st century and the problems it faces, particularly from climate change.

As Academic Director in Archaeology at PACE, I have oversight of all archaeology, classical studies and Medieval period certificates and diplomas. My role is to ensure high quality and accessible undergraduate-level teaching and to support the part-time tutors in my team in teaching effectively for our diverse range of students to help them all achieve to the best of their ability. 

I received my PhD and MPhil in archaeology here in Cambridge (St John's College).

Research topics

I publish in the fields of archaeology, heritage studies, Holocaust studies and history. I am the author of c. 75 publications, including 8 monographs and 8 edited volumes. I have published extensively on the archaeology, heritage and history of the German occupation of the Channel Islands, especially its victims of Nazism, and regularly work on heritage projects with Jersey Heritage and Guernsey Museums. In 2024 & 2025 I brought Stolpersteine memory stones to the Channel Islands. I have previously worked on memorials, excavations and exhibitions in the Channel Islands, including 'On British Soil', which also travelled to the Weiner Holocaust Library in London. From 2023-24 I co-ordinated the Lord Pickles Alderney Expert Review, which accurately calculated the number of prisoners who came to the island during the Nazi occupation and the number who died. From 2019-2024 I led the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's flagship project, the IHRA Charter for Safeguarding Sites.

Publications

Books

  • Carr, G. (2024). A Materiality of Internment (Routledge)., 2024
  • Carr, G. and Pistol, R. (ed.) (2023). British Internment and the Internment of Britons: Second World War Camps, History and Heritage. Bloomsbury Academic., 2023
  • Carr, G. Nazi Prisons in Britain: Political Prisoners in the Channel Islands during the German Occupation (Pen and Sword Books)., 2020

Journal articles

  • 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., 2024
  • 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. (published online 7 Dec 2023)., 2023
  • Cooke, S. and Carr, G. (2023). “Saved from Oblivion’? The uncertain futures of Holocaust heritage’, Global Perspectives 4(1): 88094. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1525/gp.2023.88094., 2023
  • Carr, G. (2022) ‘Narratives of Resistance, Moral Compromise and Perpetration: The testimonies of Julia Brichta, survivor of Ravensbrück’, The Journal of Holocaust Research vol. 36(4): 240-260. DOI: 10.1080/25785648.2022.2116830, 2022
  • 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, 28(1): 95-118. DOI: 10.1080/17504902.2021.1894831, 2021
  • Carr, G. (forthcoming) 'Double vision, Resistancescapes and Activism', Historical Archaeology, 2020
  • Mytum, H., Philpott, R., Carr, G., Saunders, N. (2020). ‘“This Camp seemed almost to be a model of its kind”: the Les Blanches Banques Camp for German World War 1 Prisoners of War’, Bulletin of the Société Jersiaise 32(4): 841-863., 2020

Book chapters

  • Carr, G. (2025) ‘Holocaust heritage: authenticity, archaeology and climate change’, Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cultural Heritage and Conflict., 2025
  • 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., 2023
  • Carr, G. (2022). ‘The biographies of resistant material culture in occupied landscapes: the Channel Islands in World War II’, pp. 159-177 in T. Clack and M. Brittain (eds.). Archaeologies of Cultural Contact: At the Interface. Oxford: Oxford University Press., 2022
  • Carr, G. (2021). ‘Campscapes and homescapes of the mind’s eye: a methodology for analysing the landscapes of internment camps’, pp. 293-308 in N. Saunders and P. Cornish (eds) Conflict Landscapes: Materiality and Meaning in Contested Places, 1900-2007. London: Routledge., 2021
  • 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: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference. Palgrave Macmillan., 2021

Courses Taught