Brown Bag Series in Archaeology Fall 2024

Brown Bag Series logo

Brown Bag talks are held Thursdays from 12:00-12:50 pm in Rhode Island Hall 108. These talks are free and open to the public.

The schedule for the Fall 2024 semester is below.

September 26, 2024
Suzanne E. Pilaar Birch (Anthropology and Geography, University of Georgia)
“To La Muculufa and Back Again…: Re-investigating a Bronze Age Sanctuary and Village.”

October 10, 2024
Jonathan Russell (Egyptology and Assyriology, Brown University)
“The Power of Substance and Transformation: Re-evaluating the Role of Beer Brewing Technology in Ancient Egyptian Therapeutic Recipe Compositions”

October 17, 2024
Joukowsky Institute Fellows in Focus Lecture:
Gretel Rodriquez (History of Art and Architecture, Brown University)
“Sacred Water, Votives, and Architecture in the Gallo-Roman Spring Sanctuary at Nîmes

October 31, 2024
Leah Neiman (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
Title TBA

November 7, 2024
Regina Uhl (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
“Burial Mounds Between Hallstatt and Assur”

Brown Bag Talks for Fall 2023

Brown Bag Series logo

Brown Bag talks are held Thursdays from 12:00-12:50 pm in Rhode Island Hall 108. These talks are free and open to the public.

The schedule for the Fall 2023 semester is below. (Note that we are still scheduling additional talks, and will be adding to this calendar over the coming weeks.)

Brown paper bag with the JIAAW logo

September 21, 2023:
Mariana Cabral (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
“Archaeology, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Future of the Amazon”

September 28, 2023
Dominic Pollard (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University)
Hinterland and Borderland: Connecting Population, Agricultural Population, and Territoriality on Iron Age Crete”

October 5, 2023
Zachary Silvia (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
“Recent Explorations in the Bukhara Oasis, Uzbekistan: Towards an Archaeology of Rural Lifeways in Hellenistic Central Asia

October 19, 2023
Eric Johnson (History of Art and Architecture, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative, and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, Brown University)
“Epistemologies of Recognition: Contending with Colonial Stonework on Indigenous Land

October 26, 2023
Erynn Bentley (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
“Shadow and Bone: ‘Marginal’ Bone Workers of the Roman West”

November 2, 2023
Leah Neiman (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
“Reciprocal Care or Royal Coercion? Gramscian Common Sense, Consciousness, and Subalternity amongst Workers at Deir el-Medina

November 9, 2023
Robyn Price (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
“Immeasurable Delights: Gardens and Sensory Indulgence in Ancient Egypt”

November 16, 2023
Jordi A. Rivera Prince (Anthropology, Brown University)
“Laying Siege to Violent Narratives for the Final Formative Central Andes (400-1 BCE)

November 30, 2023
Jada Ko (Institute at Brown University for Environment and Society, Brown)

December 7, 2023
Shanti Morell-Hart (Anthropology, Brown University)
“Culinary Arts and Plant Sciences in the Ancient Maya Lowlands “

Brown Bag Talks for Spring 2023

Drawing of a brown paper bag

Brown Bag talks are held Thursdays from 12:00-12:50 pm in Rhode Island Hall 108.
These talks are free and open to the public. The schedule for the Spring 2023 semester is below.

Brown paper bag with the JIAAW logo

February 16, 2023:
Celebrating 2023 Anthropology Day  

February 23, 2023:
Morgan Clark (Department of Anthropology, Brown University)
“True Stories” and Narrative Control: Speech and Image in Classic Maya Mythohistory

March 16, 2023:
Cicek Beeby (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
Parodies of Sexual Violence in Art and Media: A Parallel Study of Ancient Greece and Modern Turkey

March 23, 2023:
Ana Gonzalez San Martin (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
The Hammer and the Sickle: Tracing the Landscape of Labor Organization in Prehistoric Cyprus

April 6, 2023:
Leah Neiman (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
Translating Clitoral Pain in the Kahun Papyrus and What Medicine Doesn’t Have To Say About It

April 13, 2023:
Elizabeth Davis (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
Lived Religion and the Making of Early Christian Identity in Late Antique Asia Minor

April 20, 2023:
Gerasimoula (Mina) Nikolovieni (Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University)
Reading Textile Traces of Modern Greece

May 4, 2023:
M. Elizabeth Gravalos (Department of Anthropology, Brown University and Postdoctoral Scientist in the Negaunee Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum)
Casma Statecraft? Examining Politics and Pottery Production on Peru’s North Coast, ca. 1000-1450 CE

CFP: Archaeology of the Levant

Call for Projects

(Photographs, Films, Multi-Media Installations, Posters)

State of the Field 2020:
Archaeology of the Levant

Friday, March 13 to Saturday, March 14, 2020

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

Abstract Deadline: December 15, 2019

The Levant, a loosely defined region encompassing the modern countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, and Cyprus, is rich in archaeology and history. The region has been central to the discipline of archaeology since the nineteenth century, and arguably even earlier. A long history of colonial rule, political and religious differences, academic specializations and passions, stark financial inequalities and war continue to inform and limit dialogue not only among local and foreign archaeologists working there, but also among scholars, local communities, government officials, and other stakeholders.

Aware of the ancient and modern importance of the region, the peculiar challenges it poses, the possibilities for collaboration, and the need for creative perspectives, the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University will host State of the Field 2020: Archaeology of the Levant on March 13-14, 2020.  The event is part of the Joukowsky Institute’s “State of the Field” conference series, a yearly meeting which aims to highlight and reflect upon specific thematic or regional archaeological topics within a community of scholars whose research engages with those topics.

State of the Field 2020: Archaeology of the Levant will be dedicated to addressing the unique aspects of the Levant through a series of invited papers and presentations, aimed to foster constructive discussion of current and future directions for archaeology in the region. Topics of particular interest include:

  • Current directions, critical trends, and lacunae in archaeological research in any part of the Levant, or in the region as a whole
  • Museum, archival studies, and other investigations that rely primarily on archaeological legacy data
  • The effects of colonial rule, modern geopolitics, fluctuating national boundaries, war, and migration, among many other factors regarding the practice and interpretations of archaeological work in the region

To expand the conversation beyond conventional academic papers, the Joukowsky Institute now invites contributions – particularly from early-career scholars – that touch on the themes of the conference and highlight new and innovative approaches to the study of the Levant. We welcome proposals for traditional conference posters, as well as less traditional projects, such as short films, artwork, podcasts, multi-media installations, or other forms that engage with the themes of the conference in thoughtful and illuminating ways.

Accepted posters and projects will be exhibited throughout the duration of the meeting and will be presented during a dedicated time slot shortly before the Friday-night reception. Contributors are encouraged, though not required, to attend and participate actively in the full conference and will be provided with lunch on Saturday, but will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs.

To submit a proposal for a poster or project, please send an abstract of 250 words or less to Joukowsky_Institute@brown.edu by December 15, 2019. For questions about this Call for Projects, or about the conference, please see our conference website, brown.edu/go/sotf2020, or email Joukowsky_Institute@brown.edu.