Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University

Saturday, 13 NOVEMBER, 2010

Boston University

Kathryn L. Swanson Ness ([email protected])
I am a third-year PhD student at Boston University, concentrating on historical archaeology. My research interests include ethnogenesis, comparative colonialism, Caribbean archaeology, ceramic studies, and museum studies. I have a BA in Anthropology with a secondary major in Art History from the College of William and Mary.

Chantel White  ([email protected])
I’m a Ph.D. candidate at Boston University. I’m currently writing my dissertation on the emergence and intensification of farming practices in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the southern Levant (Jordan). I’m exploring the social aspects of household-level food production, including cultivation and agricultural tasks, food storage, and preparation and consumption activities. I am carrying out an examination of macrobotanical remains, combined with phytolith analysis, from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (LPPNB) deposits at the village site of el-Hemmeh.

Tico Wolff ([email protected])
I am a doctoral candidate at Boston University’s Department of Archaeology. Despite forays into the worlds of N. American CRM and archaeological survey in western Turkey, I’ve worked largely in central and southern Italy on a variety of Classical and prehistoric sites. I received an MA in Geoarchaeology at BU working on Iron Age burial mounds in central Lydia. I am currently writing my dissertation on the social dynamics of living spaces in Bronze Age southeastern Italy (specifically Calabria and Sicily). A central component of my study is the incorporation of soil micromorphology as a means of approaching the domestic built environment as material culture and understanding socio-technical aspects of household and community life.

Brown University

Kate Blankenship (Anthropology) ([email protected])
Kate Blankenship is a first-year PhD candidate in the Anthropology department at Brown, with a focus on Maya archaeology and epigraphy. Her research interests include the integration of epigraphic data into archaeological analyses, and the social roles of children in Classic Maya society. She received her M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas in 2010.

Emanuela Bocancea (JIAAW) ([email protected])
Emanuela Bocancea is a first year doctoral student at the Joukowsky Institute.  She hails from (almost) perpetually frozen Edmonton, Alberta (in western Canada), where she received a BA (Honors) in Classics and an MA in Classical Archaeology at the University of Alberta.  Her research is broadly focused on issues of colonization and the changes (or lack thereof) which were brought about by Roman conquest/annexation.  She is especially interested in Dacia and how its incorporation into the Roman Empire changed the religious landscape.  Her interests also include archaeological theory, underwater archaeology, and the use of archaeology in nationalist projects.

Sarah Craft (JIAAW) ([email protected])
She has surveyed in Antalya and Mersin provinces in Turkey, excavated in Sicily, and spent the past two summers in Çorum province, Turkey, as the GIS specialist for the Avkat Archaeological Project. Her current research interests include movement as a place-making process, memory, and the intersection of cognitive science, GIS technology, and archaeology in understanding how ancient peoples experienced their landscapes, with a particular focus on the late Roman and early Byzantine landscapes of Anatolia.

Müge Durusu-Tanriover (JIAAW) ([email protected])
Müge received her B.F.A. in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design from Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkey) in 2006. She completed her M.A. degree in the same university, this time in the Department of Archaeology and History of Art, in 2010. In her M.A. thesis, she worked on the interface of landscapes with archaeology, and focused on the Late Bronze – Early Iron Age transitional landscapes of the Upper Euphrates and the Amuq. Her field experience includes excavating in the mound of Hacimusalar (Antalya, Turkey; 2008-present) under the auspices of Bilkent University and surveying in coastal Cilicia (Turkey; 2007-present) as part of the Mopsos Project of Penn State University. Müge’s research focuses on Anatolia in the Bronze and Iron Ages, and uses landscapes and the use of space as tools for studying archaeological material. She is a Fulbright grantee for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Linda Gosner (JIAAW) ([email protected])
Linda is a first year student at the Joukowsky Institute. She has excavation experience in Egypt (Tausert Temple, Tomb of Karakhamun), Spain (Torre d’en Galmes, Pintia, Pollentia), and Portugal (Ammaia). Her research interests include colonization and cultural interaction during the Roman period in the Iberian Peninsula as well as in Egypt. She is especially interested in the technological and social aspects of production, trade, and the ancient economy.

Katherine Harrington (JIAAW) ([email protected])
Katherine received a B.A. in Classical Archaeology from Dartmouth College in 2006, and completed the post-baccalaureate program in Classical Languages at the University of California, Davis in 2009. Her senior thesis discussed methods of analysis of Classical and Hellenistic Greek pebble mosaics, from issues of iconography to the creation of a computer program capable of measuring the size and shape of individual pebbles in an image. Her fieldwork experience includes five seasons as an excavator and assistant supervisor at the Athenian agora (2005-2009) and one season with the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project as a fieldwalker and excavator (2010). Katherine’s research interests focus on the archaeology of Greece, specifically in the Early Iron Age and Archaic Period. Long intrigued by the intersections of science and archaeology, she has recently become interested in the application of science to the study of production. She also enjoys studying domestic space and household archaeology.

Susan Herringer (Engineering) ([email protected])

Tom Leppard (JIAAW) ([email protected])
Leppard’s chief interests relate to the archaeology of complex societies in the prehistoric Eastern and Central Mediterranean, and in particular the late third, second, and early first millennia in the Aegean and Adriatic. He also maintains interests in the theory of complex societies, island archaeology (especially small islands, island networks, and island identities), and in archaeological method, in particular the applicability (and limitations) of GIS-led approaches.

Martin Willis Monroe (Egyptology and Ancient Western Asia) ([email protected])

Claudia Moser (JIAAW) ([email protected])
Claudia has participated in excavations and post-excavation analysis at Villa Magna inItaly, in San Venanzo, Italy and in Akrotiri, Greece. Claudia’s main research interests include Roman sanctuaries and the ritual that is enacted within them, the interaction of native Italian with Greek and Eastern religions, changes in burial practices and funerary customs, and the interplay of classical languages and material objects.

Elizabeth Murphy (JIAAW) ([email protected])
With field experience in the American Southwest, Cyprus, England, and Turkey, Elizabeth is currently studying ceramic material from the Potters’ Quarter of the Roman city, Sagalassos (Turkey), in order to investigate tableware and coroplast production cycles and techniques. Her primary interests are in material studies, crafts production, organization, and technologies, ancient economy, and social status of artisans during the Roman period.

Jessica Nowlin (JIAAW) ([email protected])
I am primarily interested in issues of colonialism throughout different time periods, but centered upon central Italy and Rome.  I am interested in the material and landscape changes that occur in the interaction of groups from different backgrounds, particularly through aspects of trade, road networks, and settlement patterns.  I have excavation experience in Belize, Ukraine and Italy, along with survey work in southern Italy.  Methodologically I am mostly interested in the use of digital techniques in archaeology, particularly the use of GIS, remote sensing, and photogrammetry.

Colin Porter (Anthropology) ([email protected])
Colin Porter is a fourth-year graduate student in the Department of Anthropology studying historical archaeology. His work centers on colonialism, particularly in New England, and its consequences. His dissertation research focuses on fortified-house sites in Southern Rhode Island as places of changing engagements between colonists and Indians through the experience of King Philip’s War.

Timothy Sandiford (JIAAW) ([email protected])
I am a second year PhD. student at the JIAAW. I have worked for the last five years at the site of Abydos (Upper Egypt) and Kilise Tepe (Mersin Province, Turkey). This past summer I worked for the Brown University Petra Archaeological Project.

My interests are based in the methodology of remote sensing and GIS as applied to archaeology. I am currently looking at moving into the sphere of Islamic Archaeology from a more Late Antique focus. In terms of theory I am interested in the concept of archaeology as socio-cultural action, post-colonialism and Orientalism within the archaeological investigation of the Middle East.

Bradley Sekedat (JIAAW) ([email protected])
Bradley Sekedat is starting his dissertation, which looks comparatively at small-scale quarries in the eastern Mediterranean as locations of social and material interaction. He hopes to develop an understanding of ‘place’ as one of expanded networks that work through social and material interactions to link locations such as quarries to the broader landscape in ways that transcend economics. More generally Brad is interested in regional studies and survey methodology and he has worked in Turkey, Greece and Italy on both survey and excavation projects.

Alex Smith (JIAAW) ([email protected])
Alex graduated from Brandeis University in 2009 with a B.A. in Classical Archaeology and Anthropology. From 2007-09, he excavated with the Boston University Mediterranean Archaeological Field School on the Balearic island of Menorca, Spain. Alex has also excavated with the American Institute for Roman Culture at the Villa delle Vignacce, Rome in 2008. This past summer he worked on the inter-site survey of the El Zotz Archaeological Project in Guatemala. His current research interests include the archaeology of Spain, political implications of archaeological study, and data visualization.

Julia Troche (Egyptology and Ancient Western Studies) ([email protected])
Julia is currently a second year Ph.D. graduate student at Brown University in the Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies. Her undergraduate thesis was entitled “The Political Implications of Hatshepsut’s Building Program in the greater Theban region,” which largely looked at the implications of Pharaonic building programs within religious landscapes. Other significant research interests include the archaeology of text, Egyptian festivals, household religion, ancestor worship and domestic architecture (or “household archaeology”) in Egypt and its neighbors.

Clive Vella (JIAAW) ([email protected])
My main research focuses on Central Mediterranean islands and Southern Italy between the Late Neolithic and Middle Bronze Age. Also, I use lithic assemblages as a means to comprehend the technological adaptation, and thus the movement required to procure these raw materials and organisation of territories. I am also interested on applying spatial analysis on a site level to better comprehend the internal organization and occupational use of settlement spaces. Within this research I am particularly interested in the act of voyaging and navigation.

Susan Alcock (JIAAW Faculty) ([email protected])

Jeffrey Becker (JIAAW Faculty) ([email protected])

John Cherry (JIAAW Faculty) ([email protected])

Bryn Mawr College

Steven Karacic ([email protected])
I am a Near Eastern Archaeologist interested in ceramics. The majority of my work thus far has focused on Late Bronze Age Anatolia.

Harvard University

Bridget Alex ([email protected])
I think humans are the silliest of species and am interested in all aspects of pleistocene archaeology and evolution. My research focuses on applying stable isotopes to the middle to upper transition in central and eastern Europe. How did modern humans respond to this unique social and environmental landscape? I also like Texas rock art.

Janis Calleja ([email protected])
My current research interest focuses on archaeological studies of post-colonial interactions of indigenous and European peoples in North America. Other professional interests and experiences include lithic technology, sourcing studies, Native American collaborative research, public education, and California, Southwest, and Mesoamerican archaeology.

Jeffrey Dobereiner ([email protected])
Jeffrey Dobereiner is a 1st year graduate student in Harvard University’s Department of Anthropology. His geographic focus in Mesoamerica and his interests include archaeological chemistry, the development and maintenance of complex societies and political economy. He has worked at archaeological sites in Guatemala, Honduras, and Israel, and is currently performing research at the Maya site of Copan.

Janling Fu ([email protected])
I am a PhD student in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard working on the relationship between feasting and state formation in Iron Age Israel. My primary archaeological experience has been of early Philistine settlement at Ashkelon, Israel, although I now work at Zincirli, ancient Sam’al, in Turkey. I am interested in agency, language, questions of identity, and ideology. I would do a lot for a good coffee.

Lisa Griffith ([email protected])
I’ve just started my masters’ degree archaeology work through Harvard Extension and my research interests are mainly in classical archaeology.  I’m particularly interested in Greek and Roman influence in the Near East and on ancient trade in the Mediterranean.  Last year I attended a field school in Menorca Spain where we were excavating the Roman ruins of the city of Sanisera.  In the future I’d like to learn more about underwater archaeology and about analysis of ancient DNA.  This semester I’m working as a Research Assistant at Harvard processing artifacts excavated from a local (MA) public archaeology project.

Andrew Johnston ([email protected])
I am a 5th-year graduate student in the Ancient History program of the Department of the Classics at Harvard, and I suppose I would identify myself as a Roman cultural historian with a strong interest in archaeology. For the last two years I have been on staff with the Gabii Project, with Brown’s own Jessica Nowlin and Jeff Becker, and before that I worked on projects in Spain and Sicily. I am writing my dissertation on social memory in Roman Spain and Gaul, which, among other issues, explores how material culture and the use of space can give insight into the construction of local memory and identity in provincial communities.

Zinovi Matskevich ([email protected])

Max Price ([email protected])
Max is a first year (G1) graduate student at Harvard, interested in zooarchaeology & animal domestication in the Near East. To explore these questions, he is investigating early PPN sites in northern Mesopotamia/southern Anatolia. Max has worked on faunal remains from sites in Turkey, Syria, and Israel, and excavated in Syria, Jordan, Isreal, and Peru.

Sarah Adler Rous ([email protected])
I am a third-year graduate student in Classical Archaeology. My main research interests at the moment are geography and representations of space in the ancient world, both textual and visual, the re-use of ancient materials, and the archaeology of the Troad in the Greek and Roman periods. I have done fieldwork at Troy (Turkey) and at Gabii (Italy).

Willem VanEssendelft ([email protected])
I am a Masters candidate in the Harvard Extension program and am writing my thesis. I am focused on Aztec writing and have an overlapping interest in utilizing GIS and Remote Sensing to address questions of polity formation. My fieldwork has been in the northern Yucatan and Copan so I’m also interested in work on the Maya.

Nathaniel VanValkenburg ([email protected])
Hi! My doctoral research, conducted under the aegis of the Proyecto Arqueológico Zaña Colonial (PAZC), has combined archaeological survey, excavations, geophysical survey, satellite remote sensing, ceramic characterization, and archival research to examine how Spanish colonial forced resettlement (the reducción movement) transformed indigenous socio-political organization and political subjectivity in the Zaña and Chamán valleys (Perú) during the late 16th century AD. Through spatial analysis of archaeological settlement dynamics in GIS software and close readings of colonial documentary sources, I’ve sought to demonstrate how ideal, administrative models of resettlement were refracted by prior modes of political affiliation, as well as conflicts and compromises during the resettlement process itself. Through analysis of excavated materials, I also explore how indigenous political social identity was redefined in the 17th century as local actors were incorporated into global networks of production, consumption, and exchange.

Rutgers University

Melanie Crisfield ([email protected])
I am a PhD candidate at Rutgers University specializing in theoretical and experimental research into the origins of bipedalism.  I am interested in bipedalism and tool use, and have a personal interest in flintknapping.  I have worked in recent prehistoric Native (Canadian) archaeology and at Early Pleistocene East African archaeological/paleoanthropological sites.

Sarah Hlubik ([email protected])
Sarah is a second-year Master’s student at Rutgers University, where she concentrates on Pleistocene archaeology, Homo erectus lifeways, and the origins of humanly controlled fire.  She began excavations this past summer on the Karari Escarpment of the Koobi Fora region, and is currently analyzing data from the summer and writing up her thesis.

Jay S. Reti ([email protected])
My research interests concern the technological reconstruction of Oldowan hominins.  Through stone tool replication experiments, I have developed methodologies that statistically compare the behaviors used to create Oldowan stone tools.  Experimental assemblages are used as a behavioral model and applied to archaeological materials, thus allowing for direct technological comparisons between sites.
University at Albany

Jaclyn Nadeau ([email protected])
As an archaeologist who focuses on the analysis of lithic debitage, my research involves linking technological and behavioral processes. Currently, I am studying the cause and effect of changes that occurred during the Transitional Archaic (3,700-2,700 BP) in eastern New York. One of my goals is to apply analytical methods from other regions to the archaeological issues of northeastern North America.

University at Buffalo

Massimo Betello ([email protected])
Massimo Betello is a PhD student specializing in Roman Archeology at the State University at Buffalo. He obtained his Laurea Magistrale at the University of Venezia (Italy) and came to the US after been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. He has been working in Pompeii for the last 8 years doing excavations and research with Italian and foreign universities. He has also worked as a contract archaeologist on sites in Northern Italy. His main interests are Roman architecture, building techniques, household archeology, urbanization, archaeological methodology and theory, and negotiation between public and private space. He has also developed an interest in GIS applications, and he is planning to integrate them in his dissertation.

Aaron Chapnick ([email protected])
I am currently working toward my PhD in Mediterranean Archaeology at SUNY Buffalo. I completed my BA at Florida State University in 2009 with a thesis analyzing rooms in Pompeian baths. My primary interests are in Roman urbanism, architecture, GIS, and spatial/statistical analysis. I have worked on projects in Italy and Greece.

Jess Richardi ([email protected])
I am a second-year PhD tudent in the ancient history program at the State University of New York at Buffalo. My research interests include late Roman historiography, the Roman army, early Christianity, and material culture in the late Roman West. I am currently involved in the study of Roman military activity in the late 4th century CE.

Theodore Tibbits ([email protected])
Theodore Tibbitts is a second year Masters and Ph.D. student at University at Buffalo’s Classics Department. He received his B.A. in Classical History and Archaeology from Brandeis University in 2009. His interest include Roman archaeology, Roman daily life, food and wine production, baths, and numismatics.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Honora Sullivan-Chin ([email protected])
I’m a first year in the MA/PhD program here at UMass. I am a historical archaeologist, and I hope to base my MA research on excavations at the W.E.B. DuBois boyhood homesite, a historic site in Western Massachusetts.

Rebecca Broedel ([email protected])
I am a doctoral student at UMass who works in the eastern Mediterranean to identify pottery sources and styles reflecting the identity of Cypriot peoples in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. I am an archaeologist who works in the field of petrology in order to analyze sources and production practice. I am also interested in the identification of pottery workshops throughout the Mediterranean.

Jill Bierly ([email protected])
My research centers around Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology focusing on topics such as: Cypriot Identity, the Phoenicians as occupiers/foreigners, Heritage and Museum studies. Currently, as a participant in the European Field Studies Program 2010-2011 cohort, I am creating a research design (to be carried out early in 2011) that investigates re-visioning archaeological site museums to better incorporate context of artifacts after excavation as well as contemporary community engagement.

University of Massachusetts, Boston

Bill Farley ([email protected])
My research interests include the subsistence strategies and daily practice of the native peoples of Southern New England in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. My methodological focus is paleoethnobotany and I am currently conducting original research on the subsistence of a Mashantucket Pequot community in the first half of the 19th century. By comparing the strategies and practices of euroamericans and reservation Mashantuckets during this period, I hope to discover both the pressures upon and the coping mechanisms of both groups.

Kathryn Catlin ([email protected])
I’m a master’s student in Historical Archaeology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. My thesis uses soil cores to describe land use, environmental change, and social stratification in Viking Age Iceland. Other research interests include GIS, remote sensing and geophysics, historical archaeology of New England and the Mid-Atlantic regions, landscape archaeology, and political economy.