Prof. V Hall
School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology
Queen's University Belfast
Biography and Irish Studies research interests
Valerie Hall gained a 2:2 in Botany at Queen's University, Belfast in 1968 and subsequently a PhD in Palaeoecology in 1989. Her doctoral thesis was a comparative study of the pollen analytical and documentary evidence for vegetation change in the north of Ireland over the last 2000 years. After a year as a Junior Fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies in Queen's, she was appointed to a Natural Environment Research Council Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship to carry out research on Icelandic volcanic ash in Irish bogland. In 1994, she was appointed to a Lectureship in past environmental studies in the Institute of Irish Studies and in 2002 she joined the staff of the School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology. Throughout her academic career, her research has been conducted with colleagues from the School of Archaeology and Palaeoecology.
Her research interests include researching the impact of volcanism on past climate and landscape through tephrochronology and tephra geochemistry. Tephrochronology and the Greenlandic Ice Core record. Tephra studies in the Falkland Islands and New Zealand. Tracing historic vegetation history and landscape change by combining historical documentary and pollen analytical studies. Irish botanical studies.
1. 2003, Hall, V.A. Vegetation history of mid-to western Ireland in the 2nd millennium AD; fresh evidence from tephra-dated palynological investigations
2. Hall, V.A., Holmes, J. and Wilson, P. (2001) Holocene tephrochronological studies in the Falkland Islands. In Tephras; chronology and archaeology, (eds) E. Juvigne and J.P. Raynal. Les dossiers de l'Archeo-logis No 1, 39-44.
3. Pilcher, J.R. and Hall, V.A. (2001) Flora Hibernica: the wild flowers, plants and trees of Ireland. Collins Press, Cork.
4. Hall, V.A. and Pilcher, J.R. (2002) Late-Quaternary Icelandic tephras in Ireland and Great Britain: detection, characterization and usefulness. The Holocene 12, 223-230.