Susan Alcock

Susan Alcock
Name	Susan Alcock
Birth place	United States
Occupation	Archaeologist, Academic
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College
Institutions	University of Michigan, Bryn Mawr College, University of Cambridge, Brown University

Susan Alcock is an American classical archaeologist and academic known for her work on Roman archaeology, cultural heritage, and archaeological theory. She has held senior positions at multiple institutions, contributed to debates on antiquities policy, and published widely on Roman rural settlement, material culture, and the social life of objects. Her career bridges field archaeology, museum practice, and higher education administration.

Early life and education

Alcock completed undergraduate studies at an American liberal arts college before pursuing graduate training at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania, where she engaged with scholars associated with British School at Rome, American Academy in Rome, Institute for Advanced Study, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Chicago, Stanford University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, Oxford University, University of Cambridge, King's College London, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, National University of Ireland, Galway, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Ohio State University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, California Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Virginia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University.

Academic career and positions

Alcock has been a faculty member and administrator at institutions including University of Michigan, Bryn Mawr College, Brown University, University of Cambridge, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Stanford University, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, University of Chicago, Dartmouth College, King's College London, University College London, British School at Rome, American Academy in Rome, Getty Research Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, British Museum, National Museum of Ireland, Museo Nazionale Romano, Ashmolean Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Louvre Museum, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàssica, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, Trinity College Dublin, University of Oxford, All Souls College, Oxford, St John's College, Cambridge.

Research and contributions

Alcock's research centers on Roman provincial studies, landscape archaeology, and the social biographies of objects, engaging debates involving Roman Empire, Byzantium, Hellenistic period, Classical antiquity, Phoenicia, Etruria, Magna Graecia, Sicily, Crete, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Gallia Narbonensis, Britannia, Hispania Tarraconensis, Numidia, Moesia, Thrace, Macedonia, Peloponnese, Attica, Aegean Sea, Ionian Islands, Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Tiber River, Po River, Euphrates River, Nile River, Danube River, Rhine River, Alexandria, Rome, Athens, Corinth, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia Antica. She has advanced methodological frameworks combining field survey, ceramic analysis, spatial modeling, and museum contexts, dialoguing with work from Lewis Binford, Ian Hodder, Colin Renfrew, Marija Gimbutas, Graham Connah, David A. Potts, Roger Matthews, Paul Reilly, Michael Shanks, John F. Cherry, Kenneth D. Matthews, Richard Hodges, Marta Díaz-Guardamino, Hester Chaplin, Christopher Smith, Anthony Snodgrass, Nicholas Purcell, Ian Morris, Peter S. Wells, Simon Keay, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Tim Cornell, Mary Beard, Paul Veyne.

Alcock has contributed to cultural heritage policy debates, addressing issues connected to illicit antiquities, museum acquisition, and repatriation, engaging with institutions such as the UNESCO, ICOM, ICOMOS, UNIDROIT, Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, United Nations, European Commission, Council of Europe, US Department of State, Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum of Art, British Museum, National Gallery, London, National Portrait Gallery, Getty Conservation Institute, J. Paul Getty Museum, Princeton University Art Museum, Bryn Mawr College Art and Artifact Collections.

Selected publications

Alcock's publications include monographs, edited volumes, and articles in journals associated with American Journal of Archaeology, Journal of Roman Studies, Britannia, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Archaeological Review from Cambridge, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Antiquity (journal), Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, Classical Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, Brill Publishers, Palgrave Macmillan, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, World Archaeology, European Journal of Archaeology, Journal of Field Archaeology, Transactions of the American Philological Association, Proceedings of the British Academy.

Representative titles include works on Roman rural economies, landscape change, and object biographies, dialoguing with scholarship from Kenneth Hudson, John Boardman, Bruno Gentili, Francesca Ghedini, Kristina Killgrove, Natalie Maynor, George Bass, Colin Renfrew, John Bodel, Lauren Talalay, Alison Futrell, Sara Champion, Mark Pearce, Timothy Earle, Ian Hodder.

Awards and honors

Alcock's recognition includes fellowships and awards from bodies such as the British Academy, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Society for American Archaeology, the Archaeological Institute of America, the Council for British Research in the Levant, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Drapers' Company, and honorary fellowships at colleges associated with University of Cambridge and University of Oxford.

Category:Classical archaeologists