Julie Durcan

Dr Julie Durcan is a Research Fellow at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, and holds roles as William Golding Junior Research Fellow and Stipendiary Lecturer at Brasenose College. Her research focuses on luminescence dating, Quaternary environmental change, and palaeohydrology, particularly in low-latitude regions such as India, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Australia, and Namibia. She specializes in reconstructing fluvial systems to understand socio-environmental dynamics affecting ancient civilizations like the Indus Valley.

Dr Durcan holds a PhD in Geography from Aberystwyth University (2013), an MSc in Quaternary Science from the University of London, and a BSc in Geography from the University of Sheffield. Her teaching includes physical geography courses at the undergraduate level and supervising tutorials at Brasenose and St John’s Colleges.

Her current projects, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, explore Holocene socio-environmental relationships in the Indus Valley and refine luminescence dating techniques. She co-authored the R package Luminescence and developed DRAC, a dose rate and age calculator for trapped charge dating.

Dr Durcan’s research integrates luminescence dating with archaeological and geomorphological studies to trace long-term environmental changes and their societal impacts. Her work bridges geology, archaeology, and environmental science, with applications to understanding climate-driven river dynamics and human adaptation strategies.