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. (2021). Naval Warfare and Maritime Conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mediterranean . Ancient Warfare. Leiden: Brill. Link to publisher's page 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.

Review Excerpt

All in all, the author has presented a truly profound study that examines the source material in an almost encyclopedic manner and interprets it lucidly with the question of the role and consequences of maritime conflicts. ...[E]ven what is known gains new nuances and aspects that are of interest not only to Bronze Age specialists through its confident classification in power-political contexts, the cross-epoch overview and the always carefully considered discussion of research.

– R. J. Schulz, Ancient West & East 22 (2023), 353

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.

Singhal, R., Schreiner, M., Crawford, C., & Emanuel, J. P. (2019). First Annual Boston-Area Digital Scholarship Symposium. [Organizer] . Cambridge, MA. Click Here for More Information About the Symposium Abstract

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The First Annual Boston Area Digital Scholarship Symposium brings together scholars from the greater Boston area to share their work in digital scholarship in the form of talks, panel discussions, and poster presentations. The focus of the 2019 symposium is "Institutional Models of Collaborative Support."

Emanuel, J. P. (2018). Practice, Publication, and Pedagogy: Exploring Digital Approaches to all Phases of Archaeology. [Session Organizer and Chair] . Joint Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies, Boston, MA, January 4-7.

Emanuel, J. P. (2018). Digital Tools and Techniques for Teaching Archaeology. [Session Organizer and Chair] . 'Human History and Digital Future,' the 46th Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (CAA 2018), University of Tübingen, Germany, March 19-23.Abstract

The goal of this session is to convene practitioners in a dialogue that is focused on examples of digitally-informed approaches to archaeological instruction in any setting. This can include field schools, workshops, seminars, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and more. Contributions to this session can consist of successful approaches to integrating digital methods into the instruction of archaeology and cultural heritage, either in the classroom, online, or via hybrid methods, as well as lessons learned from approaches that were not as successful as desired.

This session is partly planned as a follow-up to the CAA 2017 session Archaeology In and Out of the Classroom." We envision it as being interactive in nature: paper presentations may be supplemented by demonstrations of digital tools and approaches, and projects that are in the planning or pilot stage, or that are in need of reworking to improve results, can be discussed or workshopped by session participants. The ultimate goals for presenters and attendees alike are to gain better understanding of pedagogical approaches to archaeology, to leave better equipped to intelligently apply digital methods and tools to teaching, and to have made contacts within a community of practice to whom they can go with future ideas, questions, and challenges.

Emanuel, J. P. (2018). Immersive Techniques in Archaeological Practice and Publication. [Session Organizer and Chair] . 'Human History and Digital Future,' the 46th Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (CAA 2018), University of Tübingen, Germany, March 19–23.Abstract

This session focuses on the thoughtful integration of digital methods into the processes of gathering, recording, interrogating, and publishing archaeological data. Digital publications, geospatial datasets, and three-dimensional presentation are examples of interactive approaches to what has been called “digital archaeology.” This interactivity can be taken a step further, as approaches like Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality (AR, VR, and MR) allow for the fostering of immersive experiences around the reconstruction, visualization, and presentation of archaeological data.

This session highlights all aspects of digital innovation in the survey, excavation, interrogation, and publication process, with particular emphasis on 3D modeling and printing, data interoperability, and VR, AR, and MR. It is intended both to serve as a follow-up to the CAA 2017 session on 3D modeling, AR/VR, and immersion (chaired by the session proposer), and to foster further discussion about the uses of interactive and immersive technologies both in the field, and in the presentation and analysis of objects and datasets.

The format of this session will be a combination of interactive presentation and discussion, with a specific emphasis on demonstrations of 3D reconstruction, Virtual/Augmented and Mixed Reality experiences, online presentation, and other interactive and immersive approaches to excavation, recording, and dissemination. Our goal is to cultivate a needed community of practice and shared knowledge around these techniques and approaches, while working together to support the highest quality of digital methods and processes in archaeological practice.

Emanuel, J. P. (2017). Archaeology In and Out of the Classroom: Digital Approaches to Archaeological Instruction. [Session Organizer and Chair] . 'Digital Archaeologies, Material Worlds (Past and Present),' the 45th Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (CAA 2017), Georgia State University, March 14-16.Abstract

The continuous development and adoption digital methods, tools, and technologies is having an impact on virtually every field. In archaeology, these developments affect the way we carry out excavations, conservation, publication, and all of the steps in between. Similarly, technology has become such an ingrained part of teaching and learning that what used to be referred to separately as “teaching with technology” has now simply become a part of teaching writ large.

The convergence between technologically-informed teaching and the practice of archaeology takes place on multiple levels, from introductory instruction to higher-order skills needed for fieldwork and data analysis. Similarly, it is realized through multiple modalities, including in person – in the field and in the classroom – and online, as well as in a hybrid form consisting of classroom/field and classroom/online combinations.

The goal of this session is to convene practitioners in a dialogue that is focused on examples of digitally-informed approaches to archaeological instruction in any setting, from seminars to massive open online courses (MOOCs) to field workshops, etc. To that end, we invite contributions that speak to the application of digital methods to the teaching of archaeology as a subject and as a practice. These contributions can consist of successful approaches to integrating digital methods into the instruction of archaeology and cultural heritage, either in the classroom, online, or via hybrid methods, as well as lessons learned from less successful approaches.

We envision this as an interactive session: paper presentations may be supplemented by demonstrations of digital tools and approaches, and projects that are in the planning or pilot stage, or that are in need of reworking to improve results, can be discussed or ‘workshopped’ by session participants, with the ultimate goal of gaining a better understanding of, and becoming better equipped to intelligently apply, digital methods and tools to the teaching of archaeology.

Emanuel, J. P. (2017). From Physical to Digital, from Interactive to Immersive: Uses of Three-Dimensional Representation, Mixed Reality, and More in the Sharing and Exploration of Archaeological Data. [Session Organizer and Chair] . 'Digital Archaeologies, Material Worlds (Past and Present),' the 45th Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (CAA 2017), Georgia State University, March 14-16.Abstract

Innovations in digital recording have caused the amount of data collected during modern archaeological excavations to dwarf that collected only a few years ago – let alone in the excavations of the previous century. The thoughtful integration of digital methods into the process (from excavation to publication) can assist in more complete recording and, just as importantly, meaningful presentation and dissemination of these data. The integration into the digital picture of data from prior excavations and campaign seasons, which may have been recorded in different formats and following different methodologies, is also important.

Digital publications, geospatial datasets, and 3D printed objects are examples of interactive approaches to this problem. This is can be taken a step further with immersion, as modern approaches like Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality allow us to create truly immersive experiences around the reconstruction, visualization, and presentation of data.

In archaeology, interaction and immersion can serve at least two purposes: (1) exhibition and display, which can include the digital supplements to publications and exhibits, physical reconstruction and replication, and virtual reconstruction of sites and artifacts, including those that no longer physically exist; and (2) the close examination of live datasets, which can run the gamut from database queries to the 3D rendering of archaeological data in situ for the purpose of discovery, analysis, and information sharing. Archaeological data in particular are well–suited to Augmented and Virtual Reality for both presentation and dataset exploration, as GIS points and associated finds, which are inherently three–dimensional, connote possible shapes, models, and textures.

This session is intended to foster discussion about the uses of interactive and immersive technologies both in the field, and in the presentation and analysis of objects and datasets. Its format will be a combination of interactive presentation and discussion, with a specific emphasis on demonstrations of 3D reconstruction, Virtual/Augmented and Mixed Reality experiences, online presentation, and other interactive and immersive approaches to excavation, recording, and dissemination. Our goal is to cultivate the community of practice and shared knowledge around these techniques and approaches, while working together to support the highest quality of research and dissemination of archaeological data in this digital age.

Lopez, J., Engels, R., Berstler, S., Steward, J., Emanuel, J. P., Schreiner, M., & Harward, V. J. (2014). Thinking with your Eyes: Visualizing the Arts, Humanities & Sciences, a symposium presented by the Digital Futures Consortium at Harvard University, Feb 27-28. [Organizer] . Cambridge, MA.

Emanuel, J. P. (2013). Art, Artefacts, and Archaeology. [Session Chair] . International Ancient Warfare Conference 2013, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Jeffrey P. Emanuel

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

Jeffrey P. Emanuel

Organizations

Books

Review Excerpt

Articles & Book Chapters

Conferences and Conference Sessions Organized & Chaired