My research interests cover a broad span of time, from prehistory to the twentieth century. However, all of my research places a strong emphasis on material culture as a means to illuminate lives that are often neglected in historical narratives and makes use of cutting-edge digital methodologies and datacentric approaches.

I have a deep interest in the methodological difficulties caused by problems that, by their nature, transcend a single scale or mode of analysis. Intellectually, my work attempts to bridge the kind of detailed enquiry required to fully comprehend small–scale phenomena, and the building of the long–term, large–scale syntheses that are needed to put these insights into their proper historical context.

This breadth of scale requires looking at vast quantities of information at widely varying levels of analysis. The difficulties inherent in doing this have shaped my interest in the development and use of digital methodologies, and particularly in the complexities of integrating these tools in the humanities and social sciences. The unique capabilities afforded us by digital tools enable the exploration and interrogation of immense, and immensely complex, datasets beyond individual capabilities. This ability to cope with great density of information is essential to bridge the gap between macro– and microanalysis and to build the kinds of syntheses that enable narratives with both breadth and depth.