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Professor Jen Baird

Positions held:
  • Professor of Archaeology, School of Historical Studies
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  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Jen Baird came to Birkbeck in 2008 after holding a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Leicester. Her main interest is in the archaeology of Rome’s Eastern provinces and the archaeology of everyday life, but she has also published on topics such as ancient graffiti, ancient urbanism, archaeological photography, archaeological archives, and the history of Classical archaeology. Many of these publications have focussed on the site of Dura-Europos in Syria, where she has worked both in the field and in the archives, now held at Yale University Art Gallery. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Member of the Academia Europaea.

    Her most recent monograph is Dura-Europos, published in Bloomsbury's Archaeological Histories series in 2018. Her book on the housing of Dura, The Inner Lives of Ancient Houses, was published by Oxford University Press in 2014. She has co-edited a number of collections including Ancient Graffiti in Context (2011), Remembering Roman Syria (2019), and Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Material and Textual Approaches (2022) Cambridge University Press.

    Her current work focusses on archaeological archives, both as sources for previously ignored data, and as subjects which can allow the study of the history of archaeology and the formation of archaeological knowledge. She is on the editorial board of Archive Archaeology, and has recently published on archival topics in the Journal of Social Archaeology and the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies.

    She also supports displaced Syrian archaeologists through the Council for At-Risk Academics, and the Threatened Scholars Initiative of the Open Societies University Network. 

    Web profiles

    Professional activities

    Member of AHRC Peer Review College

    Specialist Assessor, Cultural Protection Fund, British Council

    Member of editorial committee, Britannia (Journal of Romano-British and Kindred Studies, published for the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies)

    Institute for Historical Research/Institute for Classical Studies/Warburg Institute Joint Research Degrees Committee

    Mentor for Syrian academics in exile with the Council for at-Risk Academics (Cara)

    Member of Roman Archaeology Committee, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

    Member of the Board of Trustees, Palestine Exploration Fund

    Member of Yale Digital Dura-Europos Archive Advisory Board

    Professional memberships

    Honours and awards

    • Keynote Lecture, The Shadows of the Discipline: Time in Archaeological Photographs, University of British Columbia, Department of Anthropology/Department of Classics Near Eastern and Religious Studies, November 2019
    • Keynote Lecture, The Ruins of Local Memory, Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, April 2023
    • Keynote Lecture, Imperial Debris, Global and Local Cultures in the Roman East: From Domination to Interaction, University of Helsinki, November 2018
    • Keynote Lecture, In Small Scratches Forgotten: Perspectives on Graffiti from Ancient Dura-Europos, Amsterdam Centre of Urban Studies, UVA, November 2016
    • Margo Tytus Research Fellowship, Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati, November 2008
    • Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, Leverhulme Trust, November 2007

    ORCID

    0000-0002-4705-0289
  • Research

    Research

    Research Centres and Institutes

    Research clusters and groups

    • Materialities and material cultures
    • Difference, race and inequality
    • Environment: urban, rural, global

    Research projects

    Lives in Ruins: Assessing and Addressing the Needs of Syrian Heritage Workers

    Abstract

    How can we collaborate across borders in times of conflict and crisis? Can digital humanities methodologies underpin more equitable exchange, and even disrupt entrenched hierarchies of knowledge? The proposed project seeks to understand key challenges in the Middle Eastern heritage sector, particularly in Syria, through a series of action-oriented workshops.

    When Syria's most acclaimed and recognisable archaeological site, Palmyra, suffered catastrophic and deliberate damage, voices within and outside Syria decried the violence. Almost a decade on, Syria's heritage, like its people, are often forgotten, replaced by more recent conflicts and seemingly more urgent problems, although the conflict in Syria is no less urgent now for many people than it was a decade ago. The training needs of Syrian heritage workers are acute, and despite very difficult conditions they continue to do their utmost to protect and run museums and monitor archaeological sites.

    Working directly with a small group of heritage workers in eastern Syria, we aim to assess current needs with regard to the digital documentation of endangered heritage and community relationships to that heritage, and then address those needs through bespoke training workshops. The project will lead to new specialized skills for engaged heritage workers, enhanced community engagement, and novel research.

    Funded by
    Open Society University Network
  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within Birkbeck:
    6

    I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest, including the Roman Near East, archaeological photography, and archaeological archives.

    My current PhD students include AHRC-funded campus-based and distance learning students working on PhDs topics including:

    • Scratching the Surface: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Graffiti from Hatra in Northern Iraq
    • The Thames on the Eve of Londinium: Exploring the Late Iron Age Landscape of the Tidal river
    • Life in Photographs: Movement and Materiality in the Archives of OGS Crawford (AHRC-CDP with Pitt Rivers Museum)
    • Everyday Food Tasks in Classical Greek Houses: Ceramic vessels and equipment for preparing and cooking food within the house
    • Wasted London: Rubbish and Recycling from the Romans to the Present (AHRC-CDP with Museum of London Archaeology)

    Current doctoral researchers

    • CLAIRE WALSH
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor, onwards
      Title of thesis:
      Wasted London: Rubbish and Recycling from the Romans to the late Victorians
    • IRENE LIESK
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor, onwards
      Title of thesis:
      Everyday food tasks and foodways in the Late Classical Greek house, based on the 'plain' ceramics from House Bix6 at Olynthos. Everyday food tasks in the Classical Greek House: The Plain Ceramics in the Context of the House.
    • JOHN CAMPBELL
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor, onwards
      Title of thesis:
      The Thames on the eve of Londinium. Exploring a late Iron Age landscape
      Description:

      London’s Iron Age record is difficult to discover, distributed amongst hundreds of small reports and discoveries. Synthesis of Iron Age evidence has not been significantly updated in almost two decades and the Roman period attracts far more attention, with most surveys suffering a narrow central-Londinium focus.
      This research aims to explore the gaps in the literature and question whether the creation of London on Cornhill was inevitable, or whether pre-existing Thameside settlements could have competed for development.

    • JULIET SAMSON-CONLON
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor, onwards
      Title of thesis:
      Childhood in the Roman Near East: the archaeology of children at Dura-Europos

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • ILARIA BUCCI
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Scratching the Surface: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Graffiti from Hatra in Northern Iraq
      Awarded:
      2024
    • BETH HODGETT
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Life in Photographs: Archaeology, Assemblage and Temporality in the Archive of O.G.S. Crawford
      Awarded:
      2022

    Teaching

    I teach a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules on Roman archaeology and archaeological theory, including Palmyra and Dura Europos: The Archaeology of Syria from Ancient Cities to Modern Destruction (UG, Level 5), and The Archaeology of Roman Slavery (MA), as well as contributing to team-taught modules on material culture, heritage, and the ancient world.

    Teaching modules

    • Museum and Heritage Work Placement (ARVC054S7)
    • Public History and Heritage: Theories, Issues and Practice (SC03003S7)
    • Material Worlds (SSHC353S7)
    • Critical Approaches to Archaeology and Heritage (SSHC358S7)
    • The Archaeology of the Roman Empire (SSHC522S5)
    • Palmyra and Dura-Europos: The Archaeology of Syria from Ancient Cities to Modern Destruction (Level 6) (SSHC563S6)
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    Book

    Book Review

    Book Section