Meet Our Lecturers - Archaeological Institute of America

Meet Our Lecturers

John Pohl

John Pohl is an authority on American Indian civilizations, and is currently the Curator of the Arts of the Americas at U.C.L.A.’s Fowler Museum. He received his degrees from UCLA (Ph.D.) and Hampshire College, and is co-curator of “Children of the Plumed Serpent: the Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico”. Dr. Pohl is an authority on American Indian civilizations, and his expertise is in American Indian art and writing systems as primary sources for reconstructing indigenous history. He has directed numerous archaeological projects in Central and North America, as well as Europe, and is noted for bringing the ancient past to life through innovative museum techniques. He served as a writer and producer for the eight hour CBS mini-series "500 Nations" on American Indian history as well as writing and designing a number of museums on North and Central American Indian peoples, including the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee North Carolina and the Moundville Archaeological Center, Moundville, Alabama. His books include Exploring Mesoamerica, The Politics of Symbolism in the Mixtec Codices, and Aztecs and Conquistadores: The Spanish Invasion and the Collapse of the Aztec Empire.

John Pollini

John Pollini is Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology in the Department of Art History at the University of Southern California. He received both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in the interdepartmental program in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. After completing his doctoral work in 1978, he taught as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Case Western Reserve University before being appointed an assistant professor in the Department of Classics at Johns Hopkins University, where he also served as Curator of the University's Archaeological Museum. At the University of Southern California, where he has taught since 1987, he has served as Chair of the Department and as Dean of the School of Fine Arts. In the past he has participated in excavations at Aphrodisias in Turkey and in Italy at Ghiaccio Forte (Scansano), the port of Tarquinia (Gravisca), and most recently at Ostia Antica and the Area Sacra of Saint Omobono (Rome).

Professor Pollini has received numerous fellowships and awards, including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, two American Council of Learned Societies Fellowships, two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, and a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy. In 2005 he was also the recipient of a Mellon Foundation Award for Excellence in Mentoring Students and in 2006-2007 was appointed the Whitehead Professor of Archaeology at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Among his other honors, he is an elected life-member of the German Archaeological Institute.

Professor Pollini has lectured widely in both the United States and Europe, and is an AIA Joukowsky Lecturer for 2012/2013. In addition to numerous articles and reviews, he has authored four books and edited another, all dealing with various aspects of Greek and Roman art, considered in an interdisciplinary context. To be published this year is his latest book, From Republic to Empire: Rhetoric, Religion, and Power in the Visual Culture of Ancient Rome. His current book project is titled Christian Destruction and Desecration of Images of Classical Antiquity: A Study in Religious Intolerance and Violence in the Ancient World.

Christopher Roosevelt

Christopher Roosevelt is with the Department of Archaeology at Boston University, and holds his degrees from Cornell University (Ph.D.) and Colby College. His areas of specialization are Bronze and Iron Age Anatolian and Eastern Mediterranean archaeology, Classical archaeology, Lydian, Persian and Greek interaction in Western Anatolia, landscape archaeology, geographic information systems (GIS), and heritage management. Professor Roosevelt is the 2012/2013 AIA Hanfmann Lecturer.

See Christopher Roosevelt's work in the American Journal of Archaeology:

Symbolic Door Stelae and Graveside Monuments in Western Anatolia

C. Brian Rose

Professor Brian Rose is the James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, and is Past President of the AIA. He holds his degrees from Columbia University (Ph.D.) and Haverford College, and his specialties include Roman art and archaeology, and the archaeology of Anatolia. He has conducted field work at Aphrodisias, is Co-Director of the excavations at Gordion in Turkey, and is head of the post-Bronze Age excavations at Troy. Professor Rose is the AIA’s 2012/2013 Joukowsky Lecturer, and has previously held the Norton Lectureship.

See Brian Rose's work in the American Journal of Archaeology:

The Parthians in Augustan Rome

Susan Rotroff

Ever since a 6th-grade ancient history class, Susan Rotroff has been fascinated by the Greeks and Romans. Latin was a favorite subject, and Rotroff's early efforts included composing a soulful folk ballad on the wanderings of Aeneas. She first put spade to earth (actually, it was a trowel) at the medieval site of Wharram Percy, in Yorkshire. After graduating from Bryn Mawr, a year at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens gave her a hands-on introduction to Greek archaeology. As a Princeton graduate student, she began in 1970 to work at the Agora excavations. In three seasons, she dug Turkish and Byzantine houses, a classical building, and the garbage dump of Athens' chief magistrates. She has published three volumes on the Agora's Hellenistic ceramics. Recently, Rotroff has worked in Turkey on an underwater survey at Kaledran and the excavation of a Roman ship at Kizilburun. Since 1995 she has been on the Classics Department faculty at Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Rotroff was the AIA's 2011/2012 Norton Lecturer.

Featured Lecturer

Joshua Trampier is Project Director with Statistical Research, Inc., and is Associate Director of the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes (CAMEL). He holds his degrees from... Read More