Assistant Professor and Assistant Curator in Ancient Art
About
On leave for 2022-23 academic year.
My research combines digital humanities methodologies, close visual analysis, and the study of material contexts and textual sources, in order to reconstruct, and subsequently analyse, the visual culture of the ancient Roman world. My work variously considers overlooked aesthetic concepts, neglected visual media, and marginalized ethnic groups whose works (particularly funerary reliefs and mosaics) have long been sidelined in accounts of ancient Roman art. I address the full gamut of Roman visual media in my writing: from sculpture to glass vessels, and from fresco paintings to jewellery. Foci of interest include Roman visualities; abstract aesthetics in the ancient Roman world; and visual expressions of layered cultural identities in the art of the Roman East. In my curatorial work at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, I am particularly interested in developing galleries as immersive, interactive, spaces, and in experimenting with reconstructing ancient lighting effects, with visitor controls, for the display of Roman glass.
Affiliations:
- History of Art
- Kelsey Museum
- IPCAA (Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology)
- IPGRH (Interdepartmental Program in Greek and Roman History)
Awards:
- Kress Foundation
International Travel Award (CAA) (2018)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Postdoc-Stipendium (2017)
- Andrew W. Mellon
Postdoctoral Fellowship (AUB) (2016-17)
- Andrew W. Mellon
Fellowship (Art Institute of Chicago) (2014-15)
- Chester Dale
Fellowship (CASVA) (2013-14)
- Nicholson Center for
British Studies Fellowship (University of Chicago) (2011-12)
Fields of study:
- Art and visual culture of the ancient Roman world
- The reconstruction of overlooked Roman aesthetic concepts
- The Syrian diaspora in the Roman Empire
