Beth Munro is a Roman archaeologist, with interest and expertise in Roman villa architecture and the ancient circular economy. She completed her undergraduate degree at UBC, doctorate at the University of Oxford and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Manitoba (2010-11). She has taught Classical Studies and Archaeology at five universities, including at the universities of Winnipeg, Oxford and Edinburgh, and now supports research trainees at the SickKids Research Institute in Toronto.

Previously, she was also an Early Career Research Associate at the Institute of Classical Studies in London and Research Manager at the Institute of Making at University College London, where she contributed her circular economy expertise to contemporary sustainable materials projects. In addition to her research, she has excavated at Roman sites in Italy and the UK, and is currently with AMNE in Romania.

Beth’s research focuses on ancient architectural recycling, especially of Roman villas, models of the ancient economy, craft production processes and their associated social organizations. She is particularly interested in construction and demolition workforces and the processes of materials preparation and recycling through cycles of building reconstruction.

In addition to research on Roman recycling, she has also contributed to multidisciplinary research on contemporary materials recycling. She conducted research on the UK Right-to-Repair movement and authored an influential report on the Kenyan repair and reuse economy as part of a project funded by the UK government.

Beth’s current projects focus on two interrelated areas. First, her work on multi-craft recycling spaces has prompted a broader investigation of craft communities. Using archaeological, spatial, and experimental methods, she examines how craftspeople interacted with patrons and other labour groups, shared knowledge and resources, formed inter-specialist networks, and developed shared ritual or religious practices. These areas have significant implications for understanding technological transmission and innovation in antiquity.

Second, she is also working on network analyses of recycled building materials in the Roman world, examining when, where, and under what conditions materials circulated, including cases of long-distance movement. While economic constraint explains much recycling in Late Antiquity, evidence across periods and contexts increasingly suggests complex social, political, and personal motivations for recycling. Her involvement in the AMNE Apulum Roman Villa Project offers an opportunity to test these approaches using new data from a frontier-zone villa site.