Professor Gilly Carr, ICE’s Academic Director of Archaeology, made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

Congratulations to Professor Gilly Carr, ICE's Academic Director in Archeology, and Professor of Conflict Archaeology and Holocaust Heritage, who has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King's New Year Honours List, for her services to Holocaust Research and Education.

We spoke to Gilly to hear about her award, how it felt when she found out and how the Institute has helped her in her life's work.

She says: "I was incredibly excited and honoured. I am absolutely thrilled for my research and teaching to be recognised in this way. I've been working hard on behalf of victims of Nazism and the Holocaust for 15 years and for this to be seen as nationally important and worthwhile encourages me to redouble my efforts."

“They don't tell you precisely the things you get the honour for, but I imagine that it was for chairing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's Safeguarding Sites project which wrote a European heritage charter to safeguard Holocaust sites from all of the challenges they face in the 21st century.”

Gilly also coordinated the Lord Pickles Alderney Expert Review, which delivered its results in May 2024 at the Imperial War Museum. It calculated how many prisoners were sent to the island during its Nazi occupation and how many died during WWII. She has also served as a member of the UK delegation of IHRA for 8 years, in addition to the academic advisory board of the new UK Holocaust Memorial for 5 years - all alongside 22 years of teaching at the Institute.

Gilly explains how working at ICE allows her to turn her research into new online courses quickly, and also to integrate them into new Certificates and Diplomas. She says: “Talking through new ideas with students helps feed back into research, so for an academic this is a really helpful process and I enjoy sharing my research with students.

“For example, while working on the IHRA Charter for Safeguarding Sites, I was able to turn that into an online course on Holocaust heritage, and I now incorporate that into the Diploma in Conflict Archaeology and Heritage.”

Gilly’s new part time, online short course in ‘Holocaust Heritage’, starts on 17^th February. Sign up here.

Gilly shares: “It's an honour I never imagined receiving; it wasn't on my radar. It feels like an official seal of approval for all of the work I have done throughout my career. I have heard an OBE described as 'a pat on the back', and I think that's right. It's very encouraging.

“Academics do the work they do because they love it; it's a vocation. But sometimes you have to nurture your own sense of self-belief because external affirmation doesn’t often come along, and an OBE says that someone else has seen what you do and approves of and appreciates it - in this case, the Prime Minister and the King -, and thinks it's nationally important, and that's a lovely thing.”

On 30 January, you can join Gilly in conversation with Holocaust survivor Dr Peter Santos, for Holocaust Memorial Day. Find out more and sign up for free here.

The Undergraduate Diploma in Archeology: Conflict Archaeology and Heritage  is now open for applications. Apply by 18 August to join our October 2025 cohort.