Born in Walsall, Hadley studied Modern History at the Universities of Hull and Birmingham.[2]
She was a temporary lecturer in History at the University of Leeds.[3] In 1996, Hadley was hired by the University of Sheffield as a lecturer.[2] From 2009 to 2018, Hadley was a professor at the University. She served as Faculty Director of Post-Graduate Studies from 2009 to 2013. She was promoted to Head of Department in 2014. She also was Acting Vice-President for Arts and Humanities at the University from 2017 to 2018.
Hadley joined the University of York in 2018. She has written several publications on Anglo-Saxon culture and society and Viking-Age history. Her primary research focus is the study of childhood, gender, migration, and funerary rituals.[4] Hadley is Director of White Rose College of Arts and Humanities, Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, and York.[5]
Current research
Hadley's most recent research includes contributions to The Rothwell Charnel Chapel Project,[6] the Sheffield Castle project and Tents to Towns: the Viking Great Army and its Legacy project. Hadley, along with Dr Jennifer Crangle and Dr Elizabeth Craig-Atkins (University of Sheffield), led the Rothwell Charnel Chapel Project’,[7] which focuses on the 13th century charnel chapel at Holy Trinity Church, in Rothwell, Northamptonshire. The below-ground chapel house contains one of two remaining medieval ossuaries in England.[6]
Hadley co-directs the "Viking Torksey project" on the 9th century Viking winter camp at Torksey, Lincolnshire with Prof. Julian Richards, and its extension Tents to Towns.[8] Building on the late Mark Blackburn's identification and characterisation of the site,[9] the new project focused on the legacy of the Viking army in the area, its interaction with the local community, the development of Anglo-Saxon towns, and the changing nature of commerce during the Anglo-Saxon period at Torksey.[10] Hadley has co-authored a new book with Prof. John Moreland (University of Sheffield) on Sheffield Castle, which was destroyed (slighted) during the English Civil War. The book is based on the research project led by Hadley and Moreland on previous excavations of the castle site.[11]
Media
From 1998 to 2010, Hadley appeared on five episodes of the British TV series, Time Team. She also appeared as herself in the TV Movie Documentary, Saxon Hoard: A Golden Discovery in 2012.[12]
Awards and honours
In November, 2006, Hadley was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.[13]
Selected publications
Books (authored)
Hadley, D. M. (2000). The Northern Danelaw: Its Social Structure c. 800-1100. Leicester University Press. ISBN978-0-7185-0014-6.
Hadley, Dawn M. (2001). Death in Medieval England: An Archaeology. Tempus. ISBN9780752414706.
Hadley, Dawn M. (2007). The Vikings in England: Settlement, Society and Culture (Manchester Medieval Studies). Manchester University Press. ISBN978-0719059827.
Hadley, Dawn M. (2020). Sheffield Castle: Archaeology, Archives, Regeneration, 1927-2018 (White Rose University Press). White Rose University Press. ISBN978-1-912482-28-3.
Hadley, D.M; Richards, J.D. (2021). The Viking Great Army and the Making of England. Thames and Hudson. ISBN978-0500022016.
Books (editor)
Hadley, Dawn M.; Dyer, Christopher, eds. (2017). The Archaeology of the 11th Century: Continuities and Transformations (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monographs). Routledge. ISBN978-1138201156.
Crawford, Sally; Hadley, Dawn; Shepherd, Gillian, eds. (2018). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Childhood (Oxford Handbooks). Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0199670697.
Hadley, Dawn M.; Richards, Julian D., eds. (2000). Cultures in Contact: Scandinavian Settlement in England in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. Brepols Publishers. ISBN9782503509785.
Journal papers
Hadley, D.M. (2000). "Burial practices in the northern Danelaw". Northern History. 36 (2): 192–216.
Hadley, Dawn (2008). Warriors, Heroes and Companions: Negotiating Masculinity in Viking-Age England. Vol. 15. pp. 270–284. doi:10.2307/j.ctvh1dw9r.10. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
Hadley, D.M.; Hemer, K.A. (2011). "Microcosms of Migration: Children and Early Medieval Population Movement". Childhood in the Past. 4 (1): 63–78. doi:10.1179/cip.2011.4.1.63. S2CID126871923.