David Wengrow

Wengrow enrolled at the University of Oxford in 1993, obtaining a BA in archaeology and anthropology.[2] He went on to qualify for an MSt in world archaeology in 1998 and then studied for a D.Phil. under the supervision of Roger Moorey completed in 2001.[3] Andrew Sherratt was a notable influence during Wengrow's time at Oxford.[4]

Between 2001 and 2004 Wengrow was Henri Frankfort Fellow at the Warburg Institute and Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford; he was appointed to a lectureship at the UCL Institute of Archaeology in 2004, and in 2011 was made Professor of Comparative Archaeology (a title formerly held by Peter Ucko).[5] Wengrow has conducted archaeological excavations in Africa and the Middle East, most recently with the Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraqi Kurdistan.[6] He is the author of three books and numerous academic articles on topics including the origins of writing, ancient art, Neolithic societies, and the emergence of the first states in Egypt and Mesopotamia.[7] In 2020, Wengrow completed a major work on the history of inequality with LSE anthropologist David Graeber just three weeks prior to Graeber's untimely death, as recorded in Wengrow's tribute to his long-time co-author.[8] 'The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity' is expected to be published in Fall, 2021.[9]

Wengrow is a recipient of the Antiquity Prize[10] and has delivered the Rostovtzeff Lectures (New York University),[11] the Jack Goody Lectures (Max Planck Institute)[12] and the Biennial Henry Myers Lecture (Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain).[13] He served as external coordinator of the Mellon Research Initiative at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts[14] and was Distinguished Visitor at the University of Auckland.[15]