Noteworthy

Cotsen affiliates share research at AIA Annual Meeting 2022

Students, faculty, and recent alumni from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology shared their research at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, which was held online January 5-8, 2022.
  • "Shifting Landscapes: Mosaics in Late Antique North Africa" by Taylor Carr-Howard, graduate student in archaeology.
  • "Archaeological Materials and Ancient Technologies Inspire the Design of Novel Materials Applications" by Ioanna Kakoulli, professor, Materials Science and Engineering Department and Co-Director Molecular and Nano Archaeology Laboratory.
  • "Urban Appropriations: The Villa in the Late Antiquity" by Sarah Beckmann, assistant professor of classics and core faculty at Cotsen Institute.
  • "Decorated Pottery and the Intercommunity Intra-actions in the Late Neolithic Balkans: A Perspective from Southeastern Albania" by Gazmend Elezi, 2021 alum and postdoctoral researcher in the Pasarow Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at UCLA.
  • "The Creation of Worked Animal Objects at Ancient Methone" by Adam DiBattista, 2021 alum and visiting scholar at The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University.
  • "An Experiment in Design: An Archaic Cross-draft Kiln at Ancient Methone (Pieria)" by Debby Sneed, 2018 graduate of the Cotsen Institute and lecturer in classics at California State University, Long Beach.

ELAINE A. SULLIVAN recognized with the AIA Award for Outstanding Work in Digital Archaeology

Elaine A. Sullivan, associate professor at University of California, Santa Cruz and former postdoctoral scholar at UCLA, has been recognized for her scholarship and innovative use of digital technology in her publication, Constructing the Sacred: Visibility and Ritual Landscape at the Egyptian Necropolis of Saqqara, by the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). Sullivan will formally receive the Award for Outstanding Work in Digital Archaeology during the AIA Awards Ceremony on Thursday, January 6, 2022 during the 123rd Annual Meeting. 

JUSTIN DUNNAVANT named to National Marine Sanctuary Foundation Board

Justin Dunnavant, assistant professor of anthropology and core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, has been named to the Board of Trustees of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Read the announcement here. 


Dunnavant will be the inaugural speaker in our new lecture series Breaking Ground on February 8 at 6pm. The lecture will be live-streamed. Learn more about Dunnavant here.

STEPHEN ACABADO featured on Philippine online news website

Stephen Acabado, associate professor of anthropology and core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute, wrote an opinion piece in the November 22 edition of “Rappler,” a Philippine online news website. The article, “Beyond Indiana Jones: An inclusive Philippine archaeology,” is part of the Thought Leaders section of the website. Acabado was recently appointed director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA.

JUSTIN DUNNAVANT featured in UC Newsroom article

Justin Dunnavant, assistant professor of anthropology and core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute, was featured in the UCLA Newsroom for his research on shipwrecks and the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. The article by Jonathan Riggs of UCLA was also picked up by the UC-wide news agency. Read the piece here.

Dunnavant will be the inaugural speaker in our new lecture series Breaking Ground on February 8 at 6pm. The lecture will be live-streamed. Learn more about Dunnavant here.

STEPHEN ACABADO’s research profiled by UCLA International Institute

The extensive work and research of Stephen Acabado was featured in an October 22 article of the UCLA International Institute. Acabado, who is the new director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, is associate professor of anthropology and core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA.

Read the article here.

Remembering alumnus TOM PARKER

S. Thomas (Tom) Parker, one of the first alumni of the UCLA Archaeology Program (before it became the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology) passed away on September 12. He received his PhD in history from UCLA in 1979, under supervision of Ron Mellor and Susan Downey, to develop into a well-known archaeologist of Roman Jordan. Since 1980, Tom was a faculty member of the Department of History at North Carolina State University, where he became an Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor and a member of the Research Leadership Academy. In 2021 he received the Michael Dickey Outstanding Research Mentor Award for his excellence in mentoring and supporting undergraduate researchers. More details on his many contributions to the fields of history and archaeology can be found on the websites of the American Society of Overseas Research and North Carolina State University.

COTSEN affiliates co-author Current Anthropology article

Several current and former Cotsen Institute affiliates were part of a group to publish an article in Current Anthropology that has been cited by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Phys.org. Among the co-authors are Hans Barnard and Brian Damiata, both of whom are associate researchers at the Cotsen Institute; Alan Farahani, former postdoctoral fellow at the Cotsen Institute; and Brett Kaufman, who graduated from the institute in 2014 and now is assistant professor in classics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Also among the co-authors is Rayed Khedher, who received his PhD in anthropology from UCLA and is currently visiting assistant professor in the Arabic Language Program at Wake Forest University.

JUSTIN DUNNAVANT featured in Hulu Initiative 29

Justin Dunnavant, assistant professor of anthropology and core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute, narrates an episode of Hulu’s Initiative 29, released September 29. In this he explores his research into Afro-Puerto Rican history and culture in the town of Loiza, Puerto Rico. Initiative 29 aims to present socially-conscious content of six to eight minutes.

JUSTIN DUNNAVANT quoted in New Yorker article

Justin Dunnavant, assistant professor of anthropology and core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute, has been quoted in the October 4 issue of The New Yorker magazine, where he discusses African American skeletal remains in university collections.
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