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Documentary Archaeology as Methodology, at DALME Virtual Symposium, Johns Hopkins University (remote), Friday, February 19, 2021

Abstract: We call our approach a documentary archaeology because it is wholly aligned with the intellectual goals, general methodologies, and objects of study characteristic of the discipline of archaeology. The only difference is that DALME does not rely, for its primary source of evidence, on descriptions of artifacts and objects generated by archaeologists and museum curators. Instead, we rely on descriptions of things generated by... Read more about Documentary Archaeology as Methodology

Identity, Personhood, and Material Culture: Personal Effects Confiscated from Prisoners at Dachau Concentration Camp, at Discovery Series, Harvard University, Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Abstract: Concentration camps were much more than a corollary to National Socialism: they represented the most fully articulated manifestation of its ideology. From the very beginning, they formed the backbone of the Third Reich’s repressive apparatus and, through mass detention, deprivation, terror, and genocide they enacted its system of domination. The ethos of the camps was embodied in the admissions process... Read more about Identity, Personhood, and Material Culture: Personal Effects Confiscated from Prisoners at Dachau Concentration Camp

Digitizing Material Culture from Late Medieval Europe, at Digital Humanities Afternoon Symposium, Harvard University, Friday, April 6, 2018

Abstract: This presentation showcases the system being employed by the DALME project to transform household inventories in European archives into computer actionable data available online. This consists of a four-step workflow that relies on sophisticated digital tools, including a Digital Asset Management system for storing and serving the images of the documents (IIIF), a custom-built visual editor for transcribing and annotating their contents (TEI),... Read more about Digitizing Material Culture from Late Medieval Europe

Material Culture from Textual Sources: Documentary Archaeology in Medieval Marseille and Beyond, at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Abstract: This presentation articulates the basics of a methodology that allows material culture described in textual sources to be approached as one would museum or archaeological objects. Using advanced digital tools, this methodology enables researchers to interrogate substantial datasets of material culture—combining tangible and textual objects—making sophisticated, large-scale computational analyses feasible. The approach... Read more about Material Culture from Textual Sources: Documentary Archaeology in Medieval Marseille and Beyond
Integrating Omeka in the Classroom, at Making it Digital, Northeastern University, Friday, October 20, 2017
Abstract: Rather than focusing on single assignments, this talk presents an example of the entire assignment structure of a course been made digital without adding a significant training component to the workload of the students taking the class. The course in question, titled “First Empires: Power and Propaganda in the Ancient World”, was offered twice, in the spring of 2016 and again in 2017, in the History Department at Harvard University.... Read more about Integrating Omeka in the Classroom
Classroom Design: Creating Flexible, Technology-Rich Learning Spaces to Support Digital Scholarship, at Multimedia In Academia: Tales From The Frontier, Harvard University, Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Abstract: This presentation showcases three state-of-the-art digital classrooms now available in the Department of History. Three existing classrooms were completely rebuilt as flexible, technology-rich learning spaces, following the principle of thoughtful integration that underpins the department’s digital strategy. The classrooms were the culmination of a design process that started in March of 2014 and that involved... Read more about Classroom Design: Creating Flexible, Technology-Rich Learning Spaces to Support Digital Scholarship

Beyond Mapping: Reconstructing Archaeological Cartography From Archival Data, at Geography Colloquium, Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University, Thursday, February 26, 2015

Abstract: Archaeological excavation is by nature a destructive process, because to investigate earlier underlying material one must first remove the later overlying evidence. It is therefore critical that each discovery is accurately documented before it is removed. But what happens when this process is not properly executed? Over fifty years of excavations at the monumental site of Gordion, in central Turkey, generated a haphazard... Read more about Beyond Mapping: Reconstructing Archaeological Cartography From Archival Data

Dinkha Tepe Revisited, at Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research, San Diego, Saturday, November 22, 2014

Abstract: Dinkha Tepe is a major archaeological site in the Ushnu plain of northwestern Iran. Excavations in the 1960s by the University of Pennsylvania’s Hasanlu Project revealed a long occupation sequence, which extended from the second millennium BCE to the present. Although Dinkha has figured prominently in some of the most important debates in Iranian archaeology, the bulk of the excavated material has never been published,... Read more about Dinkha Tepe Revisited

Building Digital Research Environments for Archaeology, at Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives in a Digital Age, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, Friday, December 3, 2010

Abstract: For over a century the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has carried out excavations in many parts of the world. Some of its most celebrated projects have continued for decades, generating massive paper archives comprised of hundreds of thousands of photographs, object cards, catalogues, field notebooks, plans and drawings. Many of these excavations remain largely unpublished, as scholars have... Read more about Building Digital Research Environments for Archaeology