Michael Shapland undertook an MA in the Archaeology of Buildings at the University of York in 2008, and completed his PhD on Anglo-Saxon tower-nave churches at UCL in 2012. He has worked for several commercial units across the UK, before joining UCL's field archaeology unit - Archaeology-South-East - as a specialist in historic buildings in 2013. His research interests lie in theoretical approaches to the archaeology of standing buildings, and elite power structures of early medieval England. He was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2018, and lives in Lewes, East Sussex.