Colleen has been a member of the Society of Antiquaries for Scotland since she was a student and was Vice President 2000-2003. She graduated from Durham University in 1978 and in 1984 gained her PhD there, with a study of the Viking and Late Norse period in Caithness. She retired from Glasgow University Archaeology in 2019, having researched on the Viking period in Scotland since 1978 and taught several generations of students at all levels since 1988 across a number of Universities (Leeds, University College London, Aberdeen, Glasgow Continuing Education). She has served on several national and international committees (e.g. Member of Ancient Monuments Board of Scotland 2000-2002, Panel Member Arts and Humanities Research Council c2008-2011; European Science Foundation Assessment Panel 2010-2013 and as President of the Scottish Society of Northern Studies). Between c 1989 and 1995 she was editor of Discovery and Excavation in Scotland and joined the Editorial Board of the Journal of the North Atlantic in 2010. She has published extensively, both books and journal articles, and the recent EUP volume eds Horne, Pierce and Barrowman 2023 Vikings Age in Scotland: Studies in Scandinavian Archaeology is dedicated to her long -standing contribution to the subject.
As Curator of Archaeology, Glasgow Museums (Kelvingrove) (1990 -2002) she curated a major exhibition on Scythian Gold from Russia at the Burrell Collection and was the British lead curator for the Vikings in the North Atlantic Smithsonian Millennial exhibition (1998-2002) with specific responsibility for object selection from Scottish Museums. This was viewed by 5 million visitors in North America across several venues. As a specialist in material culture she was head hunted to train Icelandic students in Viking artefactual studies. She has excavated extensively throughout Scotland, but also at Tintagel, Cornwall and in Iceland. She is internationally renowned for her lecturing on the Vikings in Scotland (e.g. The Stigler Lectureship, Arkansas 2000 and Beck Lectureship, University of Victoria, Canada 2007; University of Iceland and University of Lund). For the last 25 years she has lectured on small cruise ships around the Viking world, promoting Scotland on this wider stage. She currently holds honorary research posts at UHI, University of Durham, Hunter College, New York (Senior Research Collaborating Research Fellow (from 2003) and Adjunct Professor Graduate School, City University New York (from 2005).
