This section features program highlights - this includes such aspects as guest lectures, site visits and faculty publications.
Lecture Series
- John Ochsendorf, Director of the American Academy in Rome & Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The vaulted architecture of Rome has influenced builders for millennia. But the challenge of understanding and maintaining the cultural heritage of arches, vaults and domes is particularly acute today.
[read more]
- Dr. Michelle Hobart's with David Abulafia, Professor of Mediterranean History in the University of Cambridge
Michelle Hobart’s new book is a major contribution to both Sardinian and Mediterranean history. A Companion to Sardinian History brings together a major group of authors who provide the first significant overview of this island’s Medieval history in English.
David Abulafia, author of The Great Sea (Oxford, 2010), put this major book into its wider Mediterranean context.
[read more]
- Christopher Prescott, Director of The Norwegian Institute in Rome
addressing one of the most pressing heritage topics in Europe – how to integrate new immigrant communities into national narratives.
[read more]
- Dr. Peter Campbell: 'Fishers, Divers, and Scientists: Engaging Communities in Underwater Cultural Heritage'
Underwater sites are among the most challenging environments for archaeologists and cultural heritage managers. It is necessary to engage stakeholders of all types, such as fisher, divers, and local communities, in order to properly preserve and protect submerged sites. This talk examines these challenges, as well as the potential, of maritime archaeology through current research projects.
[read more]
- Nicholas Stanley-Price, conservationist
Nicholas Stanley-Price, a conservationist with a Dr. Phil. in Archeology from Oxford University guest lectured a Sustainable Cultural Heritage class on his role as a member of the advisory committee of the Non-Catholic (Protestant) Cemetery in Rome. His lecture focused on the practical aspects of maintaining a site that is both an active cemetery and also an important historical place housing the tombs of famous visitors to Rome such as Shelley and Keats. He illustrated some of the challenges this dual role entails for the management of the site.
[read more]
- Dr. Mahsvari Naidu, senior lecturer in Anthropology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa
Robben Island tourism and the relationship that South Africans and foreigners have with its difficult heritage.
[read more]
-
The Archaeology of Star Wars: Archaeology of Pop Culture
To celebrate the International Archaeology Day, AUR organized a lecture in which was illustrate d the meaning of Archaeology in contemporary popular culture using the example of Star Wars saga and its "archaeo-appeal".
[read more]
Recent Field Trips
- Sperlonga and Terracina
A trip taken with the aim of seeing the Villa of Tiberius and the Temple of Jupiter Anxur, two very well preserved archaeological sites. The Villa of Tiberius itself is sparsely excavated and possibly too small to be a real imperial villa, but the star attraction is the adjacent rock cut swimming pool. It originally contained groups of statues of various characters from the Odyssey by Homer which are reconstructed in the nearby museum. The Romans believed that all the tales related by Homer in the Odyssey took place along this coast and many of the modern place names derive from this.
[read more]
- Rome and Athens: J-term course and field trip
This 10-day field course took place on-site in Rome and Athens and explored the issues facing archaeological heritage management in two World Heritage cities which are also capitals of their respective nations.
