Fall 2024 Milwaukee AIA Lectures

In-Person Lectures

Sunday, September 22, 2024, 3:00 pm
Mantha Zarmakoupi, Assistant Professor, History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
“An Archaeology of Disability”
Sabin Hall, Room G90, 3413 North Downer Ave., UW-Milwaukee Campus

The accessibility of historic architecture not only determines who can experience the past, but it also informs how we think about disabled people as part of history. In this lecture Dr. Zarmakoupi will present the ways in which the exhibition “An Archaeology of Disability,” designed by her and her colleagues, offers an experiment in the historic reconstruction of the Acropolis in Athens that moves beyond ableist approaches to classical heritage.* This installation presents an experiment in the historic reconstruction of the Acropolis in Athens. The reconstructions recover ideas about bodies and impairment at one of the most canonical, influential, and notoriously inaccessible architectural sites. Dr. Zarmakoupi’s talk will explore what it means to reconstruct lost elements of the Acropolis through the lens of human impairment. Such an approach contrasts to the pursuit of “accessible heritage” — a balance between historic authenticity of architecture and technical modifications made for accessibility.

Mantha Zarmakoupi is the Morris Russell and Josephine Chidsey Williams Assistant Professor in Roman Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. She is both an architectural historian and a classical archaeologist. She has multidisciplinary training in architectural design (Athens), history and theory of architecture (Harvard), and classical archaeology (Oxford). She has been a Fellow at Freie Universität in Berlin, New York University, the University of Cologne, the Getty Research Institute (Visiting Scholar), the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies and the National Hellenic Research foundation; and in 2023 she was a member of the School of Historical Studies of the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton. Before joining the University of Pennsylvania, she was Birmingham Fellow and Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the University of Birmingham.

Midwest Archaeological Conference
Thursday to Saturday, October 16–19
Hyatt Hotel and Conference Center, Milwaukee

Thursday, October 24, 2024, 5:15-6:60 pm
Christina Maranci, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University
“Living on the Edge: Armenian Art and the Margins of Art History”
Mitchell Hall, Room 195, UW-Milwaukee Campus

The art and architecture of Armenia belongs to an extraordinary tradition that doesn’t often get studied. Dr. Maranci’s talk will reflect on the many surprising ways in which medieval and early modern Armenian art is distinctive but is also connected to other artistic traditions, from French Gothic Cathedrals to South Asian textiles. As an example, the speaker will consider the seventh century ruins of the church of Zvartnots in relation to the late seventh-century Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

Christina Maranci is the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies in the Departments of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. Her work explores the art and culture of Armenia in all aspects, but with special emphasis on the late antique and medieval periods. She is the author of four books and over 100 articles and essays on Armenian art and architecture, including most recently The Art of Armenia (Oxford UP, 2018). She is also co-founder of East of Byzantium, a workshop and lecture series designed to support graduate students working on the Christian East. Maranci has worked on issues of cultural heritage for over a decade, with a focus on the at-risk Armenian churches and monasteries in what is now Eastern Turkey.

Archaeology Watch Party

On Sunday, November 10, 2024 the AIA-Milwaukee Society and Saint John’s on the Lake are teaming up to present an archaeological “watch party.” The watch party will give us an opportunity to watch the video of the April Archaeology Hour presentation. Following that, engage in live discussion and Q&A led by Dr. Jennifer Haas, Assistant Professor and Director of ARLC, Department of Anthropology, UW-Milwaukee.

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Sunday, November 10, 3:00 pm
Jeff Altschul, Center for Collaborative Synthesis in Archaeology, University of Colorado
“Cultural Resource Management: What Most Archaeologists Do For a Living,”
North Cultural Arts Center, Saint John’s on the Lake, 1800 North Prospect, Milwaukee

Cultural Resource Management (CRM) involves the identification, assessment, preservation, and management of cultural or archaeological resources, which include historic sites, buildings, structures, landscapes, and artifacts. This is done through surveys and studies of potential sites, excavations, and the creation of management plans and guidelines for their protection. CRM archaeology is a type of public archaeology that involves the identification, evaluation, preservation, and management of archaeological resources. In the U.S. CRM archaeology is funded by the public and is required by federal law and policy. It aims to balance progress with the protection of cultural heritage and can impact a wide range of federally funded developments.

Dr. Jeff Altschul is the co-founded two cultural heritage management (CHM) consulting firms—Statistical Research, Inc. (1983, USA.) and Nexus Heritage (2008, UK). He also co-founded the SRI Foundation (2001, president) and the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis (co-president, 2018). Since 1975, he has served as principal investigator on more than 1,000 CHM projects in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He is a past-treasurer and past-president of the Society for American Archaeology and a past president of the Register of Professional Archaeologists. His interest in synthesis stems from a desire to see CHM data reach their full research potential in support of understanding long-term socio-environmental processes that can benefit society.

Other Fall 2024 Events

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Wednesday, September 25, 7:00 pm CT
Chip Colwell, Independent Scholar
“On the Origins of Stuff”

Over three million years ago, our ancient ancestors realized that rocks could be broken into sharpedged objects for slicing meat, making the first knives. This discovery resulted in a good meal—and eventually changed the fate of our species and our planet. In this talk, Dr. Chip Colwell shares his thrilling and accessible new book, So Much Stuff: How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything published by the University of Chicago Press, 2023.

An archaeologist, public anthropologist, and former museum curator, Colwell traveled the world to investigate how humanity took three leaps that led to stuff becoming inseparable from our lives—inspiring a love affair with things that made humans who we are and may also lead us to our downfall.

Event Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5117225291697/WN_vVREmkxeRg-2WBD8fVpHJw#/registration

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Wednesday, October 16, 7:00 pm CT
Solange Ashby, Assistant Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA
“Ancient African Queens”

This lecture will focus on two queens of the ancient kingdom of Meroe (Kush/Nubia) who ruled contemporaneously with Roman control of Egypt and the authors of the New Testament gospels – the 1st century of the Common Era (AD). Dr. Ashby will contrast the queens’ self-presentation with the ways in which New Testament authors and contemporary Greek historians such as Strabo describe the soleruling Meroitic queens.

Solange Ashby is an Africanist and archaeologist whose expertise focuses on language, religion, and the role of women in ancient Egypt and Nubia. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles and received her PhD in Egyptology from the University of Chicago.

Event Registration:
(https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8717222870095/WN_s9bbH48wRSiL_ch9nIdgLA#/registration)

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Wednesday, November 13, 7:00 pm CT
Alison Futrell, Associate Professor, Roman History, University of Arizona
“The People’s Arena”

Mass events in the Colosseum were highly visible performances of Rome’s imperial power. But how did the arena impact the lives of ordinary individuals? This talk explores evidence for the experiences of the people in the sands, the seats, and the substructures, beyond the emperor’s box.

Alison Futrell is Associate Professor of Roman History at the University of Arizona. She received her BS in Anthropology from the University of Utah, and her MA and PhD in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research is guided by her interest in the symbols and rituals of power in the Roman Empire, with particular focus on the deployment of gender and material culture in imperial politics.

Event Registration:
(https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9617225305655/WN_pxiiQrp3SUGJt-UPyH0geg#/registration)