2022-23 Milwaukee AIA Lectures

In-Person Lecture

Sunday, March 12, 2023, 3:00 pm
Nancy Wilkie Lecture in Archaeological Heritage
Dr. Ömür Harmanshah, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago
“Rural Landscapes, Archaeological Fieldwork, and Cultural Heritage Destruction in Turkey”
Sabin Hall, Room G90, UWM
3413 North Downer Ave, Milwaukee, 53211

Archaeological remains and landscapes are witnesses to deep time histories, yet they have increasingly been victims of targeted destruction as well as practices of looting in recent decades. Cultural heritage is always entangled with the politics of the environment, while heritage is always understood as a resource at risk waiting for a salvage operation. A major challenge for archaeologists today is that they have to serve as chroniclers of the unprecedented levels of heritage destruction under the current Turkish regime, and to contextualize this destruction within the conditions of precarity, extraction, and dispossession, which are different forms of environmental injustice. Late capitalist management of landscapes in the contemporary Turkish countryside have created disposable landscapes of extreme extraction and large-scale excavation. In his talk, Dr. Harmanshah will focus on various practices of heritage destruction in the western part of Konya Province, Turkey, where the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project has been documenting ancient and historical settlements and landscape features, while also keeping an account of ongoing heritage destruction since 2010. He will argue that on-the-ground fieldwork as a creative practice and collaboration with local heritage communities are essential to performing such work as compared to remote sensing methods. 

Dr. Harmanshah is currently an Academic Trustee on AIA’s Governing Board. He holds the AIA’s Nancy Wilkie Lectureship in Archaeological Heritage for 2022-23. This endowed lectureship was established to honor Nancy Wilkie, AIA President 1999-2002, and is intended to engage audiences in the fascinating and timely issues that are shaping the present and future of the field.

For more about Dr. Harmanshah see:
https://arthistory.uic.edu/profiles/harmansah-omur
https://omurharmansah.wordpress.com
Yalburt Yaylasi Archaeological Landscape Research Project

Zoom Lectures – Spring 2023

January 2023

Dr. Kara Cooney, Professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture, Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angleses

Prof. Cooney produced a comparative archaeology television series, titled “Out of Egypt,” which aired in 2009 on the Discovery Channel and is available online. Her popular books include The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt, When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt, and The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World. Her podcast, Afterlives of Ancient Egypt, features discussions on ancient Egyptian history and society.

Archaeology Hour Talks
“The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World”
Tuesday, January 17, 9:00 pm CT (Event Registration)
Wednesday, January 18, 6:00 pm CT (Event Registration)

Archaeology Abridged Talk
“Ramses the Great: Power and Patriarchy”
Thursday, January 26, 1:00 pm CT (Event Registration)

February 2023 Talks

Joan Breton Connelly, Professor of Classics and Art History, New York University
Joan Breton Connelly is a classical archaeologist with excavation experience throughout Greece, Kuwait, and Cyprus. Since 1990, she has directed the NYU Yeronisos Island Expedition on Cyprus, leading an interdisciplinary investigation of the island’s ecology, geomorphology, archaeology, history, and maritime connectivity. Connelly was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship for her work in Greek art, myth, and religion. She has had two books named to the Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times and her book, The Parthenon Enigma, won the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Ralph Waldo Emerson Award in 2015. Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece (2007) also won the Archaeological Institute of America’s James R. Wiseman Book Award. Connelly has also been honored with the AIA’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, NYU’s Lillian Vernon Chair for Teaching Excellence, and NYU’s Golden Dozen Teaching Award.

Archaeology Hour Talks
“A Maritime Small World in Western Cyprus: Yeronisos Island, Maniki Harbor, and Cape Drepanum”
Tuesday, February 21, 9:00 pm CT) (Event Registration)
Wednesday, February 22, 6:00 pm CT) (Event Registration)

Archaeology Abridged Talk
“The People of Cape Drepanum, Cyprus: A Rock Cut Family Tomb of Hellenistic and Roman Date”
Thursday, February 23, 1:00 pm CT (Event Registration)

March 2023 Talks

David Carballo, Professor of Archaeology, Anthropology, and Latin American Studies, Boston University
David Carballo specializes in the archaeology of Latin America, especially central Mexico and has topical interests in households, urbanism, religion, social inequality, and working with contemporary communities in understanding ancient ones. Current investigations focus on Teotihuacan’s Tlajinga district, a cluster of non-elite neighborhoods on the periphery of what was then the largest city in the Americas. Recent books include Cooperation and Collective Action: Archaeological Perspectives (ed., 2013), Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico (2016), Teotihuacan: The World Beyond the City (ed., 2020), and Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain (2020). 

Archaeology Hour Talks
“Collision of Worlds: An Archaeological Perspective on The Spanish Invasion of Aztec Mexico”
Tuesday, March 14, 9:00 pm CT (Event Registration)
Wednesday, March 15, 6:00 pm CT (Event Registration)

Archaeology Abridged Talk
“Traitors or Native Conquistadors? The Role of Tlaxcala in the Fall of Aztec Mexico”
Thursday, March 23, 1:00pm CT (Event Registration)

April 2023 Talks

Sara Gonzalez, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Washington
Sara Gonzalez works at the intersection of tribal historic preservation, Indigenous Studies, and public history. Her research specifically examines how community-based participatory approaches to research improve the empirical and interpretive quality of archaeological narratives, while also situating archaeology within a more respectful and engaged practice. This involves exploring the diverse applications of minimally invasive field methods and digital media as tools for contributing to the capacity of tribal communities to manage their historic and environmental resources. Centered on her ongoing collaboration with tribal communities in California, Oregon, and Washington, Gonzalez has developed multiple classroom, lab, and field school programs that provide undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to participate directly in research with tribal communities that contributes to their capacity to study, manage, and represent their heritage. She has coauthored numerous journal articles and in 2018 coauthored the book The Archaeology of Metini Village: An Archaeological Study of Sustained Colonialism.

Archaeology Hour Talks
“With, For, And By: Doing Archaeology in a Grand Ronde Way”
Tuesday, April 18, 9:00 pm CT (Event Registration)
Wednesday, April 19, 6:00 pm CT (Event Registration)

Archaeology Abridged Talk
“The Science of Storytelling”
Thursday, April 27, 1:00 pm CT (Event Registration)