Program in Early Cultures

Past Grant Recipients

Funding for Events & Courses

RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Cicek BeebyClassicsConference/Workshop/EventPresenting Histories of Sexual Violence to Academic and Public Audiences
John BodelClassicsConference/Workshop/Event
The Gilded Collector Workshop
Jada KoIBESConference/Workshop/EventFrom Menageries, to Zoos, to Everything in Between: Can we envision a new breed of zoo?
Max PeersJIAAWConference/Workshop/EventLecture Series on People and Processes in Ancient Architecture
Peter van DommelenJIAAWConference/Workshop/EventFunerary Practices, Agency and Material Culture in the Roman World
RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Gretel RodriguezHIAAConference/Workshop/EventArchitectural Sculpture in the Ancient World: A Cross-cultural View
Margaret Graves & Felipe RojasHIAA and E&A / JIAAWConference/Workshop/Event
Fabricating Material Histories: From Artifact to Asset (c. 1870-1940)
Maggie Danaher & Sonja HansenClassicsConference/Workshop/EventAncient Language Pedagogy Workshop Series for Graduate Students
Mikail BergReligious StudiesConference/Workshop/EventThe Brown Late Antique Group (BLAG)
RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Amy RussellClassics & HistoryConference/Workshop/EventEthics, Exploitation, and Epistemic Reparations around the Classical Archive
Maggie Danaher & Sonja HansenClassicsConference/Workshop/EventAncient Language Pedagogy Workshop Series for Graduate Students

 

RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Graham Oliver & Candace RiceClassics and JIAAWConference/Workshop/EventSocial class, local economies, and Imperial rule in Anatolia: epigraphical insights
Ella Grunberger-KirshClassicsConference/Workshop/EventBLAG (Brown Late Antique Group)
Rachel KalisherJIAAWConference/Workshop/EventBioarchaeology reading group and speaker series

 

RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Amanda Gaggioli and R. Sandy HunterJIAAW/IBESConference/Workshop/EventEnvironmental Archaeology in the Anthropocene: a series of speaker events
Cicek BeebyJIAAWConference/Workshop/EventDisability in Antiquity: A Roundtable 
Felipe RojasJIAAW, Egyptology & AssyriologyConference/Workshop/EventTopographies of pre-Modern Dance- Comparative Perspectives: an International Workshop

 

RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Jeffrey MoserHistory of Art and ArchitectureConference/Workshop/EventEpigraphic Inscription in Tang-Song China
Felipe Rojas and Stephen HoustonJIAAW, Egyptology & Assyriology and History of Art and ArchitectureConference/Workshop/EventGuided Inventions
Felipe Rojas and Stephen HoustonJIAAW, Egyptology & Assyriology and History of Art and ArchitectureCourse ARCH 2117/HMAN2401V: Marking Meaning: Visual Signs, Language, and Graphic Invention (Spring 2024)

 

Type of GrantDescription
Conference/Workshop/Event"Violence in Early Cultures: Questions, Comparisons, and Ethical Considerations"
Conference/Workshop/Event"At the Margins: Interconnections of Power and Identity in the Ancient Near East"
Conference/Workshop/EventThe New England Medieval Conference 2019, "Rethinking the Body: Humanity and Its Discontents in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages"
Conference/Workshop/EventNortheast Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory
Conference/Workshop/EventArtist Talk by Michael Rakowitz
Conference/Workshop/EventA discussion on comparison with Joanne Pillsbury and James Doyle
Conference/Workshop/EventAwarded to Christopher Yang (Religious Studies) to support Religious Studies Graduate Students' Conference on Death
Conference/Workshop/EventAwarded to Ella Grunberger-Kirsh (Classics) To create a Brown Late Antique Group focusing on the late and post-classical period in the larger Mediterranean world
Type of GrantDescription
Conference/Workshop/EventA lecture by Professor Daniel Selden (UC Santa Cruz), "World Literature and its Discontents: The Life of Ahiqar"
Conference/Workshop/EventA seminar with Professor Renaud Gagné (University of Cambridge) on the topic "The Practice of Comparison in the Study of the Ancient World"
Conference/Workshop/EventThe Mediterranean Seminar Spring 2019 Workshop: Captivity and Ransom
Conference/Workshop/EventThe Eighth North American Syriac Symposium, "Syriac Worlds: Interactions, Exchanges, Contributions"
Type of GrantDescription
Conference/Workshop/EventProf. Houston ANTH course museum trip
Conference/Workshop/EventThe Brown Classical Journal
Conference/Workshop/EventA publication edited by John Bodel and Steve Houston on "Hidden Writing" and "Making a Mark"
Conference/Workshop/EventSophocles study day (Trachiniae Study Day)
Conference/Workshop/EventThe reenactment of an ancient Egyptian battle
Conference/Workshop/EventJIAAW Islands conference
Conference/Workshop/EventAndreas Stauder dinner
Conference/Workshop/EventGraduate student summer grants
Conference/Workshop/EventEgyptology and Assyriology workshop on Afro-Asiatic languages

Top-Up Grants for Graduate Student & Postdocs

RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Paul AsteHistoryTop-up GrantReligious experience, community, and identity in the late antique and early medieval Pyrenees
Ambra MarzocchiClassicsTop-up GrantPrinted Paratexts and the Intellectual Networks of Humanism
RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Matthew BallanceAnthropologyTop-up GrantResearch / fieldwork travel to Boliva related to project titled, "Infrastructures of Mobility: Caravans in the Southern Andes over the Longue Durée"
Erynn BentleyJIAAWTop-up GrantDissertation research travel to France focused on the socio-economics of bone working in the Roman northwest
Alyssa BolsterAnthropologyTop-up GrantConference travel to the European Association for Archaeologists Conference, Rome
Joseph CarrinoJIAAWTop-up GrantResearch travel to Falerii Novi Archaeological Project, in Central Italy
Liza DavisJIAAWTop-up GrantDissertation-related research travel to Antiochia ad Cragum Archaeological Research Project (ACARP) in Gazipaşa, Türkiy
Jada KoIBESTop-up GrantResearch travel to China related to project titled, "The Untold Tales of Turtles in Ancient China"
Zhujun MaReligious StudiesTop-up GrantResearch travel to China to visit rare collections in Beijing and Shanghai libraries
Ambra MarzocchiClassics & CogutTop-up GrantCourse on pre-Columbian Mesoamerican languages at Princeton
Max MeyerHIAATop-up GrantResearch travel to the Carolina Project in Pompeii, Italy
Mina NikolovieniJIAAWTop-up GrantResearch travel to Greece related to project titled, "Fashioning Neolithic Aegean: Cloth Production and Ideas on the Body and Dress”
Max PeersJIAAWTop-up GrantDissertation-related research travel to Sicily and Sardinia, and to attend the European Association of Archaeologists
Jonathan PriceE&ATop-up GrantDissertation-related research travel to the British Museum, “Historical Memory and the Uses of the Past in the Neo-Assyrian Empire”
Daiana Rivas-TelloAnthropologyTop-up GrantSummer course in ceramic petrography at the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology (CMRAE) at MIT
Rafa SaadeE&ATop-up GrantConference travel to present at the ARCE Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh
RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Josiah BisbeeReligious StudiesTop-up GrantThe 2023 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature
Max PeersJIAAWTop-up GrantStone carving workshop
Harper DineAnthropologyTop-up GrantClassic Maya Botanical Foodscapes at Yaxuna and Joya, Yucatán, Mexico
Leah NeimanJIAAWTop-up GrantAncient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) Excavations at Giza
Jonathan PriceEgyptology & AssyriologyTop-up GrantHistorical Memory and the Uses of the Past in the Neo-Assyrian Empire
R. Sandy HunterIBESTop-up Grant Five Centuries of Terrace Construction and Use at Ollantaytambo, Peru
RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Alyssa BolsterAnthropologyTop-up GrantHealth, Violence, and Resilience: The Bioarchaeology of Late Horizon and Early Colonial Peru
Christopher YangReligious StudiesTop-up GrantInstitute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy (Academia Sinica)
Daiana Rivas-TelloAnthropologyTop-up GrantCraft Production, Community Identity, and Collective Memory in Huancas, Peru
Itamar LevinClassics, HistoryTop-up GrantThe Return of the Living-Dead: Erroneous Declarations of Death in Absentia in Ancient Greece and Jewish Law
Joseph CarrinoJIAAWTop-up GrantUpper Sabina Tiberina Project; Progetto S’Urachi; Sinis Archaeological Project
Leah NeimanJIAAWTop-up GrantAmerican Excavations Samothrace (AES) 2023 Field Season
Liza DavisJIAAWTop-up GrantFieldwork and dissertation research in Greece and Turkey
Max PeersJIAAWTop-up GrantDissertation Research/Excavation in Italy for Summer 2023
Mina NikolovieniJIAAWTop-up GrantLinear B Course
Noah TetenbaumReligious StudiesTop-up GrantThe Sacrificial Cult in Medieval Karaite Jewish Thought
Qizhen XieHistory, ClassicsTop-up GrantLand Institutions and Epigraphic Sources
Yanxiang LiPhilosophyTop-up GrantCUNY Intensive Summer Program in Greek
Zhujun MaReligious StudiesTop-up GrantExtended Textual Communities (From the Ground Up: Buddhism and East Asian Religions)
Amanda GaggioliJIAAWTop-up GrantGeoarchaeology of Aegean (Greece) Burial and Ritual
R. Sandy HunterIBESTop-up GrantOllantaytambo Before the Inka: Evaluating Agricultural Intensification in the Andean Past
RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Josiah BisbeeReligious StudiesTop-up GrantSupport to deliver two papers at the Society for Biblical Literature annual conference
Leah NeimanJIAAWTop-up GrantSupport to participate in the Uronarti Regional Archaeological Project
Liza DavisJIAAWTop-up GrantSupport to participate in the Uronarti Regional Archaeological Project
Zhujun MaReligious StudiesTop-up GrantSupport to deliver a paper at the Western Branch of the American Oriental Society annual conference
R. Sandy HunterIBESTop-up GrantPurchased software to help with research on Visualizing Ollantaytambo's Fields
RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Rafa SaadEgyptology and AssyriologyTop-up GrantSupport to attend special Harvard course on Ancient Egypt and the Hebrew Bible.
Stephanie WongHistoryTop-up GrantSupport for attending historical weaving course at the Chicago Weaving School.
Morgan ClarkAnthropologyTop-up GrantPurchased photogrammetry equipment for photographing classical Maya vases.
Paul Aste and Isabella Grunberger-KirshClassics and HistoryTop-up GrantSupport for the Brown Late Antiquity Group.
Max PeersJIAAWTop-up GrantSupport for dissertation research in Italy and Sicily.
Sherry PanReligious StudiesTop-up GrantSupport dissertation research and writing in winter 2022.
Daiana Rivas-TelloAnthropologyTop-up GrantSupport for research trip to Huancas, Peru.
Josiah BisbeeReligious StudiesTop-up GrantSupport to deliver paper at the Society for Biblical Literature annual conference.
Soyoung YouReligious StudiesTop-up GrantSupport to deliver paper at the Korean Studies Festival Conference.
Tanner WalkerReligious StudiesTop-up GrantSupport to deliver paper at the Society for Biblical Literature annual conference.
Sarah MohrEgyptology and AssyriologyTop-up GrantSupport for indexing and copyediting the volume of conference papers from At the Margins: Interconnections of Power and Identity in the Ancient Near East.
RecipientsDepartmentType of GrantDescription
Christopher YangReligious StudiesTop-up GrantPurchased texts for preliminary exams
Kuan-hung LiuHistory of Art and ArchitectureTop-up GrantPurchased Japanese books and references for dissertation research.
Michaela Leah ProstakReligious StudiesTop-up GrantPurchased books for current research and preliminary exams.
Sarah ChristensenHistoryTop-up GrantPurchased books for preliminary exams.
Bethany WhitlockAnthropologyTop-up GrantPaid for oral/written Spanish classes
Mikhail BergReligious StudiesTop-up GrantParticipated in intermediate Syriac language study through Beth Mardutho: the Syriac Studies Institute.
Rachel KalisherJIAAWTop-up GrantPurchased camera equipment for high-quality photos of research samples.
Isabel Far as VelascoComparative LiteratureTop-up GrantAttended intensive Nahuatl language course taught by the University of Utah (Language and Culture Program) and the Instituto de Docencia e Investigaci n Entol gica de Zacatecas (IDIEZ).
Joshua SchnellAnthropologyTop-up GrantTravel assistance for data collection during the month of August at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL.
Paul AsteHistoryTop-up GrantAttended the June 2021 Mediterranean Seminar summer course, "Introduction to the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (documents in Latin to ca. 1350)."
Sarah MohrEgyptology and AssyriologyTop-up GrantPaid for the images of cuneiform tablets from the British Museum.
RecipientsDepartment/
Concentration
Type of GrantDescription
Mina NikolovieniJIAAWTop-up GrantTo document a large pottery assemblage, stored in the Archaeological Museum of Marathon
Federico ZanganiEgyptology and AssyriologyTop-up GrantTo present doctoral research at the International Congress of Egyptologists in Cairo, Egypt
Josiah S. BisbeeReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo present a paper at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in San Diego, California
Oliver CoulsonHistory of Art and ArchitectureTop-up GrantTo travel to the UK over the winter break to research early Saxon depictions of angels in situ at the cathedrals of Lichfield and Durham
Robert KashowReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo attend and participate in the American Schools of Oriental Research and Society of Biblical Literature conferences in San Diego, CA
RecipientsDepartment/
Concentration
Type of GrantDescription
Baoli YangComparative LiteratureTop-up GrantTo carry out a summer project participating in two programs on the cultural history of the Silk Road in the Chinese medieval period.
Daiana Rivas-TelloAnthropologyTop-up GrantTo conduct typological and compositional analysis on late Prehispanic and Early Colonial period ceramics from Purun Llaqta del Maino, to examine how resettlement of indigenous potters impacted craft production.
Harper DineAnthropologyTop-up GrantTo investigate the agriculture and foodways within the ancient Maya kingdom of Piedras Negras.
Julia HurleyJIAAWTop-up GrantTo study changing culinary traditions in the transformation of Iron Age Gaulish societies in North and Central France, following the Roman conquests.
Laurel Darcy HackleyJIAAWTop-up GrantTo investigate the desert landscapes of ancient Egypt as social spaces, counter to a long tradition of scholarship that treats them as culturally sterile.
Soyoung YouReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo research the concept of sage (shengren) in the Confucian tradition, by tracing the changes and comparing the diverse interpretations of this concept in East Asian intellectual history.
Christopher EllAncient HistoryTop-up GrantTo participate in the British School at Athens' Summer Epigraphy source, which offers an unparalleled opportunity to study ancient Greek inscriptions in their original context.
Fiona SappenfieldClassicsTop-up GrantTo attend the Greece from the Sea summer seminar hosted by the American School in Athens, which will be of use for her research concerning ancient views of the sea in literature.
Joshua T. SchnellAnthropologyTop-up GrantTo conduct archaeological fieldwork with the Proyecto Arqueológico Budsilha-Chocolja in Chiapas, Mexico.
Kelly Nguyen SutherlandClassicsTop-up GrantTo present her paper entitled "What's in a Natio: Rethinking Ethnic Identity in the Roman Empire," at the Celtic Conference in Classics at Coimbra University, Portugal
Leland Renato GrigoliHistoryTop-up GrantTo complete coursework towards the Diploma in Manuscript Studies from the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies at Toronto.
Mariajosé Rodriguez-PliegoComparative LiteratureTop-up GrantTo continue her research on indigeneity and migration by attending the Nahuatl Language and Culture Program at the University of Utah.
Miriam RothenbergJIAAWTop-up GrantTo visit and make observations at several Mediterranean sites of devastating volcanism in the past, concluding with a trip to volcanic field sites in Greece.
Oliver CoulsonHistory of Art and ArchitectureTop-up GrantTo complete an intensive Serbian language course in Belgrade, in order to pursue future research on the art and architecture of early Serbian monasteries.
Patrick R. MagoffinReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo enroll in an immersive, eight-week Japanese language program at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan.
Robert KashowReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo present a paper entitled, "Theorizing the Agency of Apocalyptic Images of Violence," at the annual meeting of the Center for the Critical Study of the Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements at the University of Bedfordshire.
Silvia StubnovaEgyptology and AssyriologyTop-up GrantTo present her paper entitled "Where Syntax and Semantics Meet: A Typological Analysis of Old Egyptian Causatives," at the 47th Annual Meeting of the North Atlantic Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics (NACAL) in Paris, France.
Tali HershkovitzReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo participate in a weeklong seminar, "Women and Nuns in Chinese Buddhism," at Ghent University.
Sherry PanReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo prepare for exams in classical Chinese philosophy (early Confucianism and Daoism) and East Asian religious thought (Chinese and Japanese).
RecipientsDepartment/
Concentration
Type of GrantDescription
Adrien StoloffReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo present a paper at the 12th International Conference on Daoist Studies at Beijing Normal University, as well as To attend the workshop at Renmin University and To work with scholars at Peking University, in Beijing
Avichai KapachClassicsTop-up GrantTo attend the Thouria Excavation conducted by the Hellenic Education and Research Center in Greece
Christopher EllClassicsTop-up GrantTo work in major European museums on the material evidence for Greek, Etruscan, and Levantine symposia
Daniel PlekhovJIAAWTop-up GrantFor archaeological work in the Chachapoyas region of northeastern Peru
Ella Grunberger-KirshClassicsTop-up GrantTo attend the papyrology course at the University of Oslo
Julia HurleyJIAAWTop-up GrantFor archaeological work in England, France, and Sardini
Mark AgostiniAnthropologyTop-up GrantTo work on ancestral Tewa ceramics at the Archaeological Research Center at UC-Santa Cruz
Michael PayneReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo work in the Arabic, Persian, and Syriac materials at the UC-Berkeley library for dissertation on discourses of race, heresy, and empire in the formation of Twelver Shi'ism
Robert KashowReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo work in the archives at the British Museum in London, to assist at the archaeological dig at Tel Azekah in Israel, and To present a paper at the International SBL meeting in Helsinki
Sam GoldsteinReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo work at Fudan University’s Excavated Text and Paleography Research Center in Shanghai, China
Sherry PanReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo attend the Japanese course at the International Christian University in Tokyo, and To present a paper at the International Conference on Daoist Studies at Beijing Normal University in Beijing
Soyoung YouReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo present a paper at the international conference on “Zhu Xi and Zhu Xi Studies” at Trier University in Germany
Tanner WalkerReligious StudiesTop-up GrantTo prepare for preliminary exams in ancient Israelite and Mesopotamian religions (Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian and others), with a view towards a dissertation providing a cross-cultural study of human-animal relations
Vicky Almansa VillatoroEgyptology and AssyriologyTop-up GrantTo work on Old Kingdom papyri at the Brooklyn Museum