Jeffrey P. Emanuel

Jeff Emanuel (harvard.academia.edu/JeffEmanuel) is Associate Director of Academic Technology at Harvard University, leading a team of highly experienced instructional technology professionals that researches, develops, implements, and supports digital tools and approaches to teaching, learning, and research (see grants & projects). The Academic Technology team serves the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University's largest school, and supports over 1,100 faculty, 1,000 researchers, and 10,000 students across Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

In 2015, Jeff and a History Department faculty member, Gabriel Pizzorno, co–founded the Harvard University Digital Scholarship Support Group (DSSG), a network that operates in lieu of a Center for Digital Scholarship or Digital Humanities to provide training, research support, and infrastructure development for digital scholarship, as well as to provide faculty, students, and staff interested in incorporating digital methods into their teaching and research with a single point of entry to the many resources available at Harvard.

Jeff is also a member of the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching's University–wide Teaching and Learning Consortium, a network of pedagogy experts that "incubates and refines teaching and learning ideas and initiatives that cross school and disciplinary boundaries," and was co-Chair of the Digital Futures Consortium at Harvard (DFC), a "network of technologists, faculty, researchers, and librarians engaged in the ongoing transformation of scholarship through innovative technology through sharing expertise across the global academic community, facilitating new forms and methods of research, and fostering collaborative projects that bring about field changing developments in scholarship" (see University & department service). An active initiative since 2012, the DFC was sunset in 2019 as a result of the activities and engagement that were its raisons d'être having been successfully incorporated into organizations and activities across the University (including the Digital Scholarship Support Group).

Additionally, Jeff holds an appointment as CHS Fellow in Aegean Archaeology and Prehistory at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies, researching naval warfare and the development of maritime technology with a focus on the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age transition (see books, publications, and conference & workshop papers). He has also served as a member of the Society for American Archaeology's (SAA) Media Relations Committee and the SAA's Gene Stuart Award committee.

Previously, Jeff was a founding member of HarvardX, a presidential initiative at Harvard (led by the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning) that focuses on digital teaching, learning, and research, both on campus and online. He served as Inaugural HarvardX Fellow, Inaugural Senior Fellow, and Senior Project Lead, leading in the design and development of online learning experiences, curriculum, and business and project managenent processes, and receiving the Harvard CIO Council's "Golden Bit Award" in 2013 for "significant contributions to Harvard University's Strategic IT Initiative in Online Learning." He also served as project director for two key software development initiatives, the Open edX/LTI Annotation Tool development project and, in collaboration with Harvard's Library Technology Services (LTS) and Arts & Humanities Research Computing (DARTH), the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)-based Shared Canvas/Mirador high resolution image project (see grants & projects). Administratively, Jeff served as founding co-chair of the HarvardX Instructor Experience and Student Experience Committees, as a founding member of the FAS Blended Learning Support Team, and as a curriculum developer and lead instructor on Blended Learning and Flipped Classroom Techniques for the inaugural sessions of the HarvardX/FAS Faculty Academy (see University & department service).

A member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Jeff conducted his graduate study at Harvard, where he concentrated in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology and earned the Director's Prize for Outstanding Thesis in the Social Sciences. Prior to this, Jeff studied Classics (with a Classical Archaeology concentration) at the University of Georgia, where he also served as a security leadership fellow with the Center for International Trade and Security, served as a Franklin College of Arts & Sciences Ambassador, and competed in water polo and triathlon. While at Georgia, Jeff was recognized for excellence in scholarship and citizenship, receiving awards for local and international community service from the University and from the Athens–Clarke County Rotary Club, including the Pillar of the Community Award (awarded for "assisting others above and beyond the call of duty"), the Bulldog Vision Award (for "demonstrating outstanding leadership and vision for the betterment of the community"), and the Circle of Excellence Award for international community service. His volunteer service has included establishing a program to teach English to orphaned children in rural South Korea, and being trained to serve as an officer of the Juvenile Court representing underprivileged children in abuse, neglect, and custody cases in Georgia. He also holds an associate's degree in Information Systems Technology from the community College of the Air Force.

Jeff previously served as a Special Warfare operator in the US Air Force. His assignments included a year in Korea (2002) and deployment to Iraq (2003) as a member of a joint special operations task force. He returned to Iraq in 2007 as a civilian journalist, reporting from the front lines for several newspapers, magazines, and websites, including an exclusive report from Samarra that was the cover story of the November 2007 issue of The American Spectator magazine. Additionally, Jeff is founder and managing partner of a web development and digital strategy firm, Lighthouse Strategies & Consulting, and has worked as a consultant, senior project manager, and online content and communication strategist, developing dynamic websites and digital communication strategies for businesses, nonprofits, and academic organizations from the Beltway to the Rocky Mountains.

Organizations

Academic Technology for the Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Books

Emanuel, J. P. (2020). Naval Warfare and Maritime Conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mediterranean . Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 117; Ancient Warfare Series 2. Brill. Link to publisher Abstract

In Naval Warfare and Maritime Conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mediterranean, Jeffrey P. Emanuel examines the evidence for maritime violence in the Mediterranean region during both the Late Bronze Age and the tumultuous transition to the Early Iron Age in the years surrounding the turn of the 12th century BCE.

There has traditionally been little differentiation between the methods of armed conflict engaged in during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, on both the coasts and the open seas, while polities have been alternately characterized as legitimate martial actors and as state sponsors of piracy. By utilizing material, documentary, and iconographic evidence and delineating between the many forms of armed conflict, Emanuel provides an up-to-date assessment not only of the nature and frequency of warfare, raiding, piracy, and other forms of maritime conflict in the Late Bronze Age and Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition, but also of the extent to which modern views about this activity remain the product of inference and speculation.

Emanuel, Jeffrey P. 2020. Naval Warfare and Maritime Conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mediterranean (monograph). Ancient Warfare Series, Volume 2; Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, Volume: 117. Leiden: Brill.

Emanuel, J. P. (2017). Black Ships and Sea Raiders: The Late Bronze–Early Iron Age Context of Odysseus' Second Cretan Lie . Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Lexington Books. Link to publisher Abstract

The Late Bronze Age ended with a bang in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean: palaces and empires collapsed, from Greece to Egypt; coastal territories were beset by pirates and marauders; migratory peoples were on the move across land and sea; and geopolitical lines were permanently redrawn – conditions reflected, in many ways, by the world portrayed in Homer’s Odyssey. The notorious ‘Sea Peoples,’ mysterious groups of warriors who were credited by the pharaoh Ramesses III with destroying empires across the Near East at this time, fit into this puzzle in some way, although their exact role continues to be hotly debated. In the Odyssey’s various subplots, Odysseus himself carries out activities that are that highly reminiscent of the Sea Peoples, as he engages in raids and skirmishes while circuitously making his way back from Troy. Though it is presented as a falsehood within Homer’s master narrative, one such subplot, the “Second Cretan Lie” (Odyssey xiv 191–359) is striking in its similarity to the experience of one specific Sea Peoples group, whom Egyptian pharaohs referred to as the ‘Sherden of the Sea’, and whose seaborne attacks they claimed that “none could withstand.”

This book marshals documentary, pictorial, and material evidence to examine Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie in the context of the Late Bronze–Iron Age transition, with particular emphasis on changes in the iconography of warriors and warfare, social and economic upheaval, and remarkable innovation in maritime technology and tactics. Particular focus is given the hero’s description of his frequent raiding activities, including an ill–fated attempt on the Nile Delta, and on his description of seven subsequent years spent in the land of the pharaohs, during which he claims to have gathered great wealth. Setting the evidence for the Sherden of the Sea against this Homeric narrative demonstrates not only that Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie fits into the temporal framework of the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age transition, but that there were historical people who actually lived that which Odysseus falsely claims as his own experience.

Emanuel, Jeffrey P. 2017. Black Ships and Sea Raiders: The Late Bronze–Early Iron Age Context of Odysseus' Second Cretan Lie (monograph). Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Articles & Book Chapters

Emanuel, J. P. (2020). Sea Raiders in the Amarna Letters? The Men of Arwad and the Miši in Context. Altorientalische Forschungen , 47 (1), 1-14.Abstract

The Amarna corpus contains several references to maritime conflict and related activities in the 14th century BCE, including blockades, the movement of troops, the capturing of ships at sea, and seaborne evacuation. While most of these are encountered in the context of conflicts between Levantine polities, there are clear references to what might on the one hand be called piracy, but on the other hand either acts of naval warfare or naval elements of a larger war effort, on both land and sea. This paper considers the martial maritime activities discussed in the Amarna letters, with particular emphasis on two uniquely controversial groups mentioned in this corpus in the context of maritime violence: the ‘ships of the men of the city of Arwad’ and the ‘miši-men.’ While the men of Arwad are identified with a polity on the Phoenician coast, they are referred to only by this collective term, even when mentioned in lists that otherwise contain only rulers. The miši, on the other hand, are not associated with any specific name or toponym. The purpose of this study is to identify just what can be determined about the roles and affiliations of these two groups in their Amarna context in this period.

Emanuel, J. P. (2019). Seafaring and Shipwreck Archaeology . In C. López-Ruiz & B. Doak (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean (pp. 423-433) . Oxford University Press. Click Here to Download Abstract

Perhaps no civilization in history is as associated with the sea as the Phoenicians, whose ships and seafaring ability allowed them to travel, trade, and establish colonies across the Mediterranean. Search and survey operations in the Mediterranean have resulted in the discovery of a limited number of Canaanite, Phoenician, and Punic shipwrecks, which have been found in both deep and shallow water. These assemblages provide valuable evidence of this culture’s critical maritime component, improving our knowledge and understanding of Phoenician and Punic seafaring, while also helping us better understand the written accounts we do possess about these mariners and their activities. Within the last decade in particular, the excavation of the shipwreck at Bajo de la Campana (Spain) has shed new light on Phoenician seafaring and ship construction, while the discovery of the Xlendi Gozo wreck (Malta) has provided new evidence for Phoenician activity in the central Mediterranean. Survey and excavation off the northwest coast of Sicily, in turn, has provided a remarkable material counterpart to the textual evidence for the events at the end of the First Punic War. When combined with the deep-water wrecks off the coast of Ashkelon and the smaller, locally oriented wrecks off the coast of Mazarrón (Spain), a more coherent — albeit still very incomplete — picture of Phoenician and Punic activity begins to take shape.

Emanuel, Jeffrey P. 2019. "Seafaring and Shipwreck Archaeology." In C. López-Ruiz and B. Doak, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean. London: Oxford University Press, 423-433.

Emanuel, J. P. (2018). Differentiating Naval Warfare and Piracy in the Late Bronze – Early Iron Age Mediterranean: Possibility or Pipe Dream? In L. Niesiolowski-Spano & M. Węcowski (Ed.), Change, Continuity, and Connectivity: North-Eastern Mediterranean at the Turn of the Bronze Age and in the Early Iron Age (pp. 68-80) . Harrassowitz Verlag. Click Here to Download Abstract

The difference between warfare and piracy, particularly when it comes to naval conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean, has been in need of theoretical attention for some time. While both terms are frequently used, the acts themselves remain imprecisely delineated. This paper endeavors to begin the process of exploring to just what degree that is possible.

Emanuel. Jeffrey P. 2018. "Differentiating Naval Warfare and Piracy in the Late Bronze – Early Iron Age Mediterranean: Possibility or Pipe Dream?" In L. Niesiolowski-Spano & M. Węcowski, eds. Change, Continuity, and Connectivity: North-Eastern Mediterranean at the Turn of the Bronze Age and in the Early Iron Age. Contributions to the Study of Ancient World Cultures 118. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 68-80.

Emanuel, J. P. (2018). Stitching Together Technology for the Digital Humanities with the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF). In K. Joranson & R. Kear (Ed.), Digital Humanities, Libraries, and Partnerships (pp. 125-135) . Chandos Elsevier. Click Here to Download Abstract

The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) is a set of common APIs developed to provide access to digital visual material from libraries, museums, and other repositories without the all-too-frequent need for a common viewing application. By using a common framework to collaborate across institutional silos, Harvard has leveraged the promise of IIIF in multiple functional areas, supporting the adoption of a new Harvard Library Viewer, walls of images in the Harvard Art Museums, and image collections embedded in Canvas and in massive open online courses from HarvardX—all in high resolution, and with unprecedented interactivity.

Emanuel, Jeffrey P. 2018. "Stitching Together Technology for the Digital Humanities with the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)." In K. Joranson and R. Kear, eds. Digital Humanities, Libraries, and Partnerships (Vol. 1) . Oxford: Chandos Elsevier, 125–135.

Emanuel, J. P. (2018). Tunç Çağı Sonunda ilk Deniz Savaşları (The Beginning of Naval Warfare and the End of the Bronze Age). Aktüel Arkeoloji (Actual Archaeology Magazine) , 61, 28-39. Click Here to Download Abstract

Throughout human history, the sea has served as a means of subsistence, transportation, and communication, as well as a place of danger and death. From the time ships first set out with cargo on board, there have probably been pirates lying in ambush either to seize the ships at sea or to attack coastal settlements in search of plunder. This was certainly the case in the Late Bronze Age, even before the chaotic end of this period and beginning of the succeeding Iron Age, around 1200 BC.

Emanuel, J. P. (2020). Augmented Reality and the Harvard Yard Archaeology Project. In Revolution: 2020 Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, Boston, MA, January 8-11 . Presenter in "Harvard Yard Archaeology Forum" session.Abstract

Harvard Yard Archaeology Project is a university museum, academic and community focused effort with special attention to the 17th-century educational institution. Years of investigation in the Yard highlight remarkable artifacts, features, public archaeology, and more recently, digital methods. Project stories contribute to local archaeology and broader significance in the archaeology of colonial institutions, health, and indigenous education. Recent field findings and demonstrations of digital archaeology come together from student contributors and study partners. Examples include GIS data visualization and analysis, 3D imaging, a web-based interpretative and data access platform, and an augmented reality application. The theme of heritage issues on campus and within community archaeology anchors discussion.

Panelists: Patricia Capone (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University), Diana Loren (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University), Wade Campbell (Dept of Anthropology, Harvard University), Jeff Emanuel (Academic Technology, Harvard University), Diana Gerberich (Harvard University), Jeremy Guillette (Academic Technology, Harvard University), Christina Hodge (Stanford University), Sarah Johnson (Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University), Nam Kim (Dept of Anthropology, Harvard University), John Stubbs (The Paideia School; and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University), Paul Tamburro (Dept of Anthropology, Harvard University), Alex McQuilling (Harvard University)

Emanuel, J. P. (2020). Seafaring. In Joint Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the Society for Classical Studies (SCS), Washington, DC, January 3-5 . Respondent in session "Imagining Islands, Meditating on Mainlands".Abstract

This workshop will adopt a forum format to explore the construction of island identities in relation to mainland identities in the Iron Age Mediterranean. This topic is the focus of a major new project based at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. The project involves the archaeological investigation of island identities on Cyprus, Crete, and Sardinia during the period ca. 1100–600 B.C.E., and will culminate in a large-scale exhibition in September 2021.

The aim of this workshop session is to kick-start the project with a radical and open exchange of ideas, adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective to develop new approaches to the topic. It will begin with the presentation of a case study—that of Cyprus and Cilicia. Subsequent speakers will respond to this, and workshop participants will be encouraged to use the example case as a jumping off point to explore other instances and broader implications.

The workshop will be moderated by project’s P.I. and Lead Curator.

Moderators: Anastasia Christofilopoulou, University of Cambridge, and Naoíse Mac Sweeney, University of Leicester

Panelists: Jo Quinn, University of Oxford, Marian Feldman, Johns Hopkins University, Evi Margaritis, The Cyprus Institute, Jana Mokrisova, Birkbeck College, University of London, Louise Hitchcock, The University of Melbourne, and Jeffrey P. Emanuel, Harvard University

Emanuel, J. P. (2019). The Harvard Yard Archaeology Project: From Analog Past to Digital (AR) Future. In Digitorium 2019, Tuscaloosa, AL, Oct. 10-12.Abstract

Since the turn of the millennium, students in the Harvard College course Anthropology 1130 “The Archaeology of Harvard Yard” have participated in a biennial excavation of a portion of Harvard Yard, the center of America's oldest college. The course includes excavation, conservation, analysis, and cataloguing of material finds, many of which are displayed by the Peabody Museum for Archaeology and Ethnology in an exhibit called “Digging Veritas.”

In the 2016 field season, the Peabody Museum and Harvard’s Academic Technology group partnered to integrate digital methods into the excavation process and the course. This began by gathering geospatial and photogrammetric data from the excavation, by building 3D models of the excavation trenches, and by developing and supporting an Omeka site for images and “object biographies” of key finds. This partnership has since focused on the development of an Augmented Reality (AR) application that will help accomplish the public archaeology and cultural heritage missions of the excavation and exhibit by enabling the public – physically at Harvard Yard or around the world – to interact with the excavation and its results, and to learn about the early history of American higher education, including its multicultural nature and the experiences of the students who lived it.

This presentation discusses the purpose of the excavations and the integration of digital methods, lessons learned, and future prospects, and offers a hands-on demonstration of the AR application for use and feedback.

Emanuel, J. P. (2019). Advancing Digital Methodology in Teaching, Learning, and Research: A Networked Approach. In Digitorium 2019, Tuscaloosa, AL, Oct. 10-12.Abstract

Recent years have seen an increase in digital scholarship, in digital methods-related courses, and in the integration of digital components into courses and assignments. At Harvard, the latter has been encouraged through the Digital Teaching Fellow, or DiTF, program, an initiative to support the thoughtful redesigning of courses to support the integration of digital methods and tools into learning objectives and curricula. With no formal “digital scholarship center,” “digital humanities center,” or other formal support structure, the challenge of providing necessary support for these increases in digital methods and tools was met by a group of key role players from around the university.

Beginning as an informal gathering, this supporting cast has developed into the Digital Scholarship Support Group, or DSSG, a decentralized network that strives to foster the acquisition of digital literacy and the use of digital methods and tools in teaching, learning, and research. Its members, which represent multiple disparate departments, centers, and organizations across Harvard, take a “no wrong door” approach to supporting and furthering digital scholarship, working together to provide the University community with a single point of entry to the resources available to them.

A core focus of the DSSG is providing greatly-in-demand training to students, teaching fellows, faculty, and staff. The DSSG’s training seminars focus on the fundamentals of digital scholarship, on the integration of digital tools and methods into pedagogy, and on specific genres of tools and methods (for example, Visualization), and each is re-thought and redesigned based on the feedback of previous participants.

A key DSSG offering is the Digital Teaching Methods seminar. Initially created to train the aforementioned DiTFs, this workshop focuses on the learning goal–based integration of digital tools and methods into pedagogical approaches, providing hands-on introductions in the context of specific pedagogical examples and use cases. Unlike many ‘teaching with technology’–related efforts that focus on specific tools or on the digital genre in general, the DSSG’s approach emphasizes using technology to enhance learning, addressing both the practical mechanics of employing these tools and approaches and the pedagogical needs that they serve.

This presentation focuses on the impetus for the DSSG’s formation and persistence, the iteratively-developed and user-focused nature of its activities, and future prospects in the digital scholarship space, with an emphasis on the pedagogical advances and support made available by the group’s efforts.

Emanuel, J. P. (2019). Entangled Sea(faring): Reconsidering the Connection between the Ships of the Sea Peoples, the Aegean, and 'Urnfield' Europe. In The Entangled Sea: The Mediterranean Sea in Ancient History and Prehistory . University of Manchester, June 12–13.Abstract

The naval battle representation on the walls of Ramesses III’s ‘mansion of a million years’ at Medinet Habu (ca. 1175 BCE) stands as one of the earliest, and certainly most detailed, depictions of ship–to–ship combat. It also depicts the only known vessels of Helladic galley type to be depicted with stem–and–stern avian decoration. As such, they have been called upon as evidence for the inclusion of Central Europeans (‘Urnfielders’) in the Sea Peoples coalition(s), and – more recursively – to bolster the view that the highly schematic designs on the stemposts of Helladic galleys were avian in nature. This paper addresses these conclusions and evaluates the evidence that has been presented for an ‘Urnfield’ connection to the Sea Peoples’ ships, along with some notes on the ostensibly avian nature of Helladic galleys’ finial decorations.

Jeffrey P. Emanuel

Associate Director of Academic Technology, CHS Fellow in Aegean Archaeology & Prehistory, Harvard University

Organizations

Books

Articles & Book Chapters

Conference Papers & Presentations