Mr Scott Dunleavy

Position Governing Body Fellow Junior Research Fellow
School Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Archaeology
Email sgd45@cam.ac.uk
Department link Dept of Archaeology

Scott is a Research Associate on the Entangled Project based at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. His research explores the global and regional connections of southeastern Africa during the Global Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, using historical, archaeological, and ethnographic research methods, with a particular interest in sociality of trade and commercial activity and cross-cultural consumption.

Scott completed his undergraduate degree in History at Brunel University London in 2018. He first came to Cambridge to study for an MPhil in World History before continuing to a PhD in History, in both cases as a member of Wolfson College. His doctoral thesis, entitled ‘Firearm Adoption in the Societies of the lower Zambezi, 1600-1888', traced the varied ways firearms were utilised and recontextualised in the lower Zambezi valley of Mozambique through the early modern and modern periods.

Scott is a Research Associate within the ENTANGLED project, based at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. The project is focused temporally and geographically on the coastal regions of southern Africa during the Global Middle Ages (500-1500 CE), an area that represented the furthest southwestern point of the extensive Indian Ocean world. ENTANGLED employs an interdisciplinary methodology of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic analysis to explore the development of maritime economies in southern Mozambique as well as the nature and directionality of coastal-interior trade routes, and how these were situated within a global context. As a historian by training, Scott’s research within ENTANGLED is focused primarily on the analysis of early Portuguese written documentation, alongside the collection and utilisation of oral histories and traditions relating to south-central Mozambique.

What's on

Event Type (field_event_type)

A close-up of a purple allium flower with a spherical cluster of tiny blossoms on a tall stem, set against a softly blurred garden background.

Wolfson Bulb Trail

11/04/2026 at 10.00

Our new bulb trail allows you to enjoy our thoughtfully planted displays and explore our beautiful College Gardens at your own pace.

A vibrant abstract collage filled with layered cut-paper shapes, symbols, and text fragments in bright reds, oranges, blues, and purples, radiating outward from a glowing central area.

Art Exhibition: 'Epic Journeys'

11/04/2026 at 10.00

Visit Wolfson's latest exhibition 'Epic Journeys' featuring work by distinguished artist Hassan Aliyu.

An older woman in a red striped shirt and glasses stretches her arms out while standing on a sandy beach with waves in the background.

Lessons from WHO Non-Communicable Disease Initiative about Chronic Disease

21/04/2026 at 17.30

What links osteoporosis and heart disease? Dr Gordon Klein reveals surprising connections between two of ageing's biggest health challenges, and what they mean for prevention.