Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World

Research Interests and Teaching
Within Archaeology, my research concentrates on landscape, material culture studies (things), the practices underlying archaeology and the history of archaeology. These interests have three primary facets in my current postdoctoral research. First, my work articulates human relations with the landscapes of Greece in general, and the Argolid in particular, over the very long term. From the development of agricultural practices in the Neolithic to pastoral economies and the dynamics of the Greek polis to contemporary land-use my work develops historical geographies of the Greek countryside. Second, my work explores the relationships of people and things, specifically in the context of ‘media’ (whether 2nd-century BCE inscriptions, 1st-century CE coins, or 18th-century maps) as developing modes of circulating actions and ideas. These research interests have driven the production of two co-authored books to be completed by summer 2008: From Isthmus to Gulf: A Chorography of the Eastern Morea and Archaeology: The Discipline of Things. Third, my interests in archaeological practice have served as a springboard to revisiting core questions related to field methodologies in both excavation and survey. How do we produce an accurate portrayal of the material past? What constitutes a satisfactory interpretation? Such questions are the heart of my work in comparative histories of archaeology — with the Classical Topographer, William Martin Leake or the multi-disciplinary French Expédition Scientifique de Morée — and, perhaps not surprisingly, they have led me to address issues related to the reception of the Greco-Roman past in late 18th and early 19th century Europe whether in Greece or Sicily, London or Paris. Recently, I have helped initiate an international project between Brown University and Stanford University, Bishops Library of Durham, UK, and the Bibliotheque nationale de France called “Anglo-American Antiquarians” to investigate the intersection of pre-1820’s antiquarian practice and Greco-Roman antiquity with the development of modern science.

Drawing on the richness of Classical Archaeology, my work often addresses key issues which resonate across the wider profession of archaeology. I am now putting the finishing touches on a co-edited manuscript of conversations exploring the trans-disciplinary scope of archaeology with practitioners including Lewis Binford, Colin Renfrew and Patty Jo Watson: Conversations through Archaeology. Furthermore, in nearing the completion of my current postdoctoral research, I am beginning the process of revising my dissertation, which I intend to publish under the title Listening to Things. The book addresses a range of questions relating to the future of the archaeological past through a series of case studies from Classical Archaeology (including the Argolid Exploration Project). What is the character of the pasts produced by archaeology and more specifically how are these pasts manifested, translated, circulated, stored and reanimated? How have the documentary practices of archaeology transformed over the last 300 years? And what types of pasts do these documentary practices allow us to transport into the future?

Since my undergraduate research I have explored the edges of information technology and design in Archaeology, Classics and Anthropology. From Video Production (we have a world class video archive here at JIAAW) to Database Design, this work has culminated in the founding of the Metamedia Laboratories at Stanford University (https://metamedia.stanford.edu) and the establishment of a Visualization Lab with a Web 2.0 infrastructure (workplace) here at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University. I am also a co founder of both archaeolog.org (https://archaeolog.org) and archaeography.com (https://archaeography.com). While, I am committed to expanding our range of expression into innovative domains, I also strive to critically understand the consequences of these endeavors.

Degrees
Ph.D., Classical Archaeology, Stanford University 2005

M.A., Landscape Archaeology, University of Sheffield 1998

B.A. (summa cum laude) Archaeology, Classical Studies, and Geography, University of North Carolina at Greensboro 1996

Courses

• Archaeology in the 'Information Age' (a seminar in archaeological media: from paperwork to pixalwork)
• Archaeologies of the Greek Past (an introduction to archaeology in Greece)
• The Archaeology of Democracy: Social transformations in Ancient Greece, ca. 900-323 BCE (a graduate seminar exploring the formation of democracy)
• 13 Things: Archaeology, material culture, science studies and design (an introduction to the study of things)

• Things! The material worlds of humanity (a seminar in material culture and thing studies)

Recent Publications

• "Things are Us! A Commentary on Human/Things Relations under the Banner of a ‘Social’ Archaeology." (Co-author with Timothy Webmoor) Norwegian Archaeology Review 41(1). 2008
• "Archaeology on the ground: The memory practices of David Webb." European Journal of Archaeology. 2008 (in press)
• "William Martin Leake: a contemporary of P.O. Brøndsted in Greece and in London." (Co-author with T.V. Buttrey) in P.O. Brøndsted (1780-1842) - A Danish Classicist in his European context. Rasmussen, B.B., Jensen, J.S., Lund, J. and Märcher (eds) Historisk-filosofiske Skrifter 31, 15-34. 2008
• "Symmetrical archaeology: Excerpts of a manifesto." World Archaeology. 546-562. 2007
• "Arqueología Simétrica. Un Manifiesto Breve". In González-Ruibal, A. (ed.) Arqueología Simétrica. Un Giro Teorico sin Revolucion Paradigmática. Complutum, 18, 305-313. 2007
• “Landscape, time, topology: An archaeological account of the southern Argolid Greece” in Envisioning Landscape: Situations and Standpoints in Archaeology and Heritage, Hicks, D., Fairclough, G. and McAtackney, L. (eds) One World Archaeology. 194-225. 2007
• "Vision, Media, Noise and the Percolation of Time: Symmetrical approaches to the mediation of the material world." Journal of Material Culture 11(3), 267-292. 2006
• "Archaeology and modernity or archaeology and a modernist amnesia?" Norwegian Archaeology Review, 39(1). 49-52. 2006
• “On multiple fields. Between the material world and media: Two cases from the Peloponnesus, Greece.” Archaeological Dialogues 11(2), 133-164. 2004
• “Four archaeological engagements with place: mediating bodily experience through peripatetic video.” The Visual Anthropology Review 20(2), 57-72. 2004