About
Dr. Ryan Lash serves as a Teaching Fellow (mapped to Lecturer rank) at University College Dublin's School of Archaeology, where he coordinates modules including Archaeology of Communities and Communicating Archaeology through 2025. Previously a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow at UCD and Naughton Fellow at the University of Notre Dame, his career bridges academic research and public engagement through the Cultural Landscapes of the Irish Coast (CLIC) Project.
His educational background includes:
- BA from University of Notre Dame
- MPhil from University of Cambridge
- PhD from Northwestern University
- Certificate of CPD in Teaching & Learning from UCD
Lash specializes in anthropological archaeology with focus on human-animal-environment relationships in Irish island contexts. His research employs posthumanist and sensory approaches to examine heritage sustainability, early medieval craft/devotion, and comparative pilgrimage/pastoralism anthropology. The CLIC Project's excavations on Inishark and Inishbofin islands form the empirical core of his work, revealing how communities creatively repurpose material legacies across centuries.
Analysis of his 13 recent publications shows consistent methodological innovation combining excavation, participant observation, and experimental archaeology to investigate stone artifacts, mortuary practices, and pilgrimage landscapes. His work particularly emphasizes sensory affordances and multispecies interactions within Bronze Age to contemporary contexts.
Key recognitions include:
- Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021-2023)
- Naughton Fellowship at Notre Dame (2020-2021)
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
Lash has secured significant research funding including the Irish Research Council's Carved in Stone project and NSF grants for doctoral research on heritage organization. He actively collaborates through UCD's Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture, applying techniques like XRF lithic analysis and experimental replication to study early medieval monastic networks. His current work focuses on sustainable heritage frameworks that challenge primitivist narratives of island communities.
The CLIC Project exemplifies his commitment to community-engaged archaeology, integrating local knowledge with scientific methods to document evolving pilgrimage traditions and environmental adaptations on Ireland's western islands.
