Honorary Degree for Cambridge Medieval Archaeologist

The University of Cambridge's Carenza Lewis has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by the University of East Anglia!

Carenza Lewis The oration for this honour recognized Carenza's deeply rooted association with East Anglia, her academic contribution to archaeology (particularly regarding the study of medieval rural landscapes) and the wider social impact her work – both as one of the original members of the long-running, award-winning series Time Team and through the Higher Education Field Academy.

Mostly away from the media spotlight, Carenza, working from the University of Cambridge Department of Archaeology had, since 2004, been making use of the appeal and accessibility of archaeology to widen access to higher education among under-represented groups. In particular, the Higher Education Field Academy project had been involving secondary school pupils in working with rural residents to carry out new archaeological excavations in historic villages – the subject, of course, of Carenza's academic research. Pupils taking part had been able to take on the challenge of learning varied new physical and mental skills, boosting their academic self-confidence and empowering them by enabling them to make a vital contribution to academic research, as their discoveries helped illuminate settlement development over the last two millennia.

The oration invited the audience to consider what a fantastic experience participation in such a project has been (and continues to be) for the thousands of people involved: for the teenagers in particular, the novel fascination of revealing the past has been combined, as a result of Carenza's commitment to uniting academic research and public engagement, with gaining the skills and confidence needed to help them advance their own futures.