Professor Robin Coningham BA, PhD (Cantab)
Robin Coningham is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health.
He studied Archaeology and Anthropology at King's College, Cambridge and, after a six-month appointment as Graduate Scholar of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, returned to King's to complete his PhD. He then joined the Department of Archaeological Sciences at Bradford in 1994, becoming Professor of South Asian Archaeology and Head of Department in 2004. He moved to Durham in 2005 and was Head of the Department of Archaeology between 2007 and 2008 before becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health.
Professor Coningham is committed to research and has conducted fieldwork in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka aimed at refining Early Historic chronologies and investigating the region's Iron Age urbanisation. Past projects range from excavations in the Citadel of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka's earliest capital, and deep sounding at the Bala Hisar of Charsadda in the Vale of Peshawar - one of the great sites on Pakistan's portion of the Silk Road, to reinvestigations of the birthplace and childhood home of the Buddha in Nepal.
With colleagues from Sri Lankan and British Universities, he directs a major investigation of the hinterland of Anuradhapura, analysing the organisation and development of the city's extra-mural settlements and also works in Iran, where joint excavations at Tepe Pardis and Tepe Sialk are beginning to provide a firm chronology for the spread of late Neolithic communities in the Central Plateau and their socio-economic development. Professor Coningham is committed to the preservation of cultural heritage, leading and participating in eight missions for UNESCO, and is developing a Centre for Ethics in Cultural Heritage with the Durham philosopher, Geoffrey Scarre.
In addition to these activities, Professor Coningham is a member of the British Academy’s sponsored Institutes and Societies Committee, an Expert Referee for Panel SH6 of the European Research Council and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Robin is in attendance at meetings of the University Council. He is a member of Senate, the University Executive Committee, the Academic Progression Committee, the Research Committee, the Health and Safety Committee and the Ethics Committee.