Ph.D.  Miami University
M.A.  Wheaton College Graduate School
B.A.  Wheaton College

Field Notes and News

Yale Monastic Archaeology Project-North (John the Little's Monastery in Wadi Natrun)

Digging into King Tut's Ancestry (2010)

Fulbright Scholar (2007)

Interim Field Report for Excavations at the White Monastery (2007) 

Yale Monastic Archaeology Project-South (White Monastery) (2005-2008)

Digging into Monastic History (2006)

NEH Collaborative Research Grant for Excavations at the White Monastery (2005)

Excavations at the Geiger House at Wittenberg University (2005)

Excavations at the Underground Railroad Gammon House, Springfield, OH (2004)

Publications: Book Chapters

“The Afterlife of Sherds: Architectural Reuse Strategies at the Monastery of John the Little, Wadi Natrun,” in Functional Aspects of Egyptian Ceramics within their Archaeological Context, eds. Bettina Bader and Mary Ownby (Leuven: Peeters, 2012). Co-authored with G. Pyke.

"Architecture of the Coptic Church" in Churches of Egypt, ed. Gawdat Gabra and Gertrud van Loon (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2007; paperback 2012), 19-27.

"Divine Architects: Designing the Monastic Dwelling Place,” in Egypt in the Byzantine World, 450-700, ed. Roger Bagnall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007; paperback 2010), 368-389. 

Articles

“Treading on Antiquity: Anglo-American Missionaries and the Religious Landscape of Nineteenth-Century Coptic Egypt,” Material Religion 8.2 (2012): 127-152.

“New Archaeology at Ancient Scetis: Surveys and Initial Excavations at the Monastery of St. John the Little in Wadi al-Natrun: Yale Monastic Archaeology Project,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 64 (2010): 217-228. Co-authored with S. Davis, T. Herbich. S. Ikram, D. McCormack, M.-D. Nenna and G. Pyke

“Second Report on the Excavation of the SCA in the Area of the Monastery of Shenute at Suhag,” Peter Grossmann, and contribution on “Ceramic Survey,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 63 (2009): 167-219.

“The Geography of the Monastic Cell in Early Egyptian Monastic Literature,” Church History 78.4 (2009): 1-36. 

“A Geophysical Survey of Ancient Pherme: Magnetic Prospection at an Early Christian Monastic Site in the Egyptian Delta,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 43 (2007): 129–37. Co-authored with T. Herbich and S. Davis.

"An Archaeological Mission for the White Monastery,” Coptica 4 (2005): 1-26.

"The Excavation in the Monastery of Apa Shenute (Dayr Anba Shinuda) at Suhag,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 58 (2004): 371-382. Co-authors Mohamed Abdal-Rassul, Peter Grossmann and Elizabeth S. Bolman

Courses Taught

Ancient Mediterranean Worlds (Fall 2012)

Antiquity in Novels and Film

Archaeological Field Methods

Archaeology of the Near East

Arrian, Alexander and the Archaeology of Conquest

Athleticism and Sexuality in Antiquity (Spring 2013)

Byzantium: The Mediterranean World

Excavating Egypt’s History: The Amarna Period (Fall 2012)

Early Islamic History

Great Mongol Khans

Greek Archaeology

Herodotus and the Greeks

Holy Antique Women! Byzantine Female Hagiography

Late Antiquity  (Fall 2012)

Martyred Bodies in Late Antiquity

Modern Middle East

Mummies, Myths and Monuments of Ancient Egypt (Spring 2013)

Nomadic Archaeology of Asia

Premodern World History (Spring 2013)

Silk Road Empires

Senior Thesis Seminar in History

Travel in the Ancient World 

Awards 

    2007-2008 Fulbright Scholar to Egypt
    2007 and 2006 Dumbarton Oaks Project Grant in Byzantine Studies for the White Monastery Federation Project
    2005 National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant for the White Monastery Federation Project with Elizabeth Bolman, Principal Investigator
    2003 Freeman Grant for Travel to Japan and Course Development
    2003 Faculty Research Fund Board, Wittenberg University
    2001-03 Faculty Development Board, Personal Enrichment Grant
    2002 NEH Summer Institute, Eurasian History, Harvard University
    2000 Erasmus Institute Summer Seminar in History, University of Notre Dame

    1998-1999 USIA Fellow, American Research Center in Egypt, Cairo, EGYPT 

Research Interests

As an active archaeologist, she has worked in England, Jordan and Egypt. Her professional work is focused upon the archaeology and history of monasticism in Egypt from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. She is currently working on projects on monastic spatial relationships to religious practice and an article on teaching pre-modern history.