Richard Reece: A Career in Archaeology (UCL/The Institute of Archaeology)

Originally published 4th November 2019
Richard joins David for a two-part episode, reflecting on how the study of Roman Britain has evolved since he published 'My Roman Britain', his unique writing style, reviewer feedback - both to him and from him - and how his own approach to material nearly saw him axed from teaching Roman Britain at UCL.
He also discusses how he came to lecture in archaeology, starting as a schoolboy digging in Cirencester, to studying biochemistry at university and working as a school-teacher for a while, his subsequent journey around Europe collecting data on Roman coins, and the unexpected turn of events that helped him to fund a PhD. Along the way, he recalls meeting the who's-who of Romano-British archaeology: Ian Richmond, Mortimer Wheeler, Molly Cotton, Shepperd Frere ...and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
In the second half, Richard discusses his work on Roman coinage and how the desire to keep correcting himself propelled his work forward, his influence on those who have gone on to be prominent scholars in their own right (and why he's happy none of them are 'Reecian' in style), deciding to write a book on the archaeology of the Later Roman Empire, and his thoughts on the current state of archaeology.
You can download My Roman Britain from Richard's academia.edu page here, as well as many of Richard's other publications.