Rate My Professor Sian Halcrow

Siân Halcrow is a Professor in the Department of Anatomy in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Otago. She earned a BA (Hons) in Anthropology from the University of Auckland and the University of Otago, followed by a PhD in bioarchaeology from the University of Otago in 2006. Her academic career at Otago includes appointment as Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy in December 2010, with subsequent promotions to her current professorial position. Halcrow's research centers on bioarchaeology, with a focus on infant and child health and disease in past populations, social issues of childhood, and ethical considerations in the study and curation of human remains. She investigates major human transitions, such as the intensification of agriculture, through the experiences of vulnerable groups in prehistoric Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South America. Her work also encompasses forensic anthropology and the bioethics of anatomical skeletal legacy collections.

Halcrow has authored or co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications since 2007, including key papers such as 'Growing up different in Neolithic China: A contextualised bioarchaeology of childhood' (2020), 'Care of Infants in the Past: Bridging evolutionary anthropological and bioarchaeological approaches' (2020), 'New bioarchaeological approaches to care in the past' (2017), and 'Newborn twins from prehistoric mainland Southeast Asia: birth, death and personhood' (published in Antiquity). She has co-edited volumes on childhood in the bioarchaeological record and serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Bioarchaeology International. Her contributions have earned major accolades, including the British Academy Global Professorship (2025, the first awarded to a New Zealander, valued at over $2 million for research at Durham University on bioethics of skeletal collections), James Cook Research Fellowship (2023), Fulbright New Zealand Scholar Award (2023), Rowheath Trust Award and Carl Smith Research Medal (2018), and New Zealand Association of Scientists Hill-Tinsley Medal (2018). She has secured grants from the Marsden Fund, Australian Research Council, and FONDOCYT, influencing ethical practices in handling human remains globally. Halcrow delivered the 2018 Carl Smith Research Medal Lecture titled 'Children as Canaries in the Coalmine: Modelling social stress in past populations'.