Institute for the Study of the Ancient World HDR 2022 jeh

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) is a center for advanced scholarly research and graduate education at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. ISAW's mission is to cultivate comparative, connective investigations of the

ancient world Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

from the

western Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the eas ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Areas of specialty among ISAW's faculty include the

Greco-Roman world The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were dir ...

, the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, Central Asia and the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and rel ...

, East Asian art and archaeology,

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English h ...

and the

early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

ancient science The history of science in early cultures covers protoscience in ancient history to Islamic Science. In these times, advice and knowledge was passed from generation to generation in an oral tradition. The development of writing enabled knowledge to ...

, and

digital humanities Digital humanities (DH) is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or Information technology, digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanitie ...

. ISAW was founded in 2006 with funding from the Leon Levy Foundation, established to continue the philanthropic legacy of

Leon Levy Leon Levy (September 13, 1925 – April 6, 2003)
April 8, 2003. was an American investor, East 84th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Governance, faculty, and staff

The director of ISAW is Alexander Jones (classicist). He succeeded the founding director Roger Bagnall in September, 2016. Jennifer Chi was the founding exhibitions director and chief curator, who guided the visual arts program until 2018. As of September 1, 2021, the following individuals served as ISAW faculty: * Lorenzo d'Alfonso * Claire Bubb * Roderick B. Campbell * Sebastian Heath * Robert G. Hoyland * Alexander Jones * Antonis Kotsonas * Beate Pongratz-Leisten * Daniel T. Potts * Sören Stark * Lillian Lan-ying Tseng As of September 1, 2021, Senior Staff Members included: * Diane Bennett (associate director for administration) * Tom Elliott (associate director for digital programs and senior research scholar) * Clare Fitzgerald (associate director for exhibitions and gallery curator) * Marc LeBlanc (associate director for academic affairs) * David M. Ratzan (head, ISAW Library) ISAW's website describes its governance structure as follows: Appointments and academic programs of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World are under the jurisdiction of its faculty, which achieved independent status in fall, 2010, and which is led by the director. The director reports to the provost and president of New York University. In addition, the institute has its ow
Director's Council
Its chair is the institute's founder, Shelby White. The council plays a crucial role in ensuring that ISAW fulfills its mission and has the means necessary to do so. It provides essential advice to the director on strategic directions and public programming, and its members are vital ambassadors for ISAW in enlarging the public reached by its work.

Academic programs

ISAW's graduate program offers a PhD in the Study of the Ancient World. ISAW offers hosts visiting research scholars conducting postdoctoral research. There are three types of appointment for visiting scholars: * Visiting assistant professors, appointed for two years, during which they are expected to teach two undergraduate courses and one graduate seminar. * Visiting research scholars, appointed for one year of research, funded in part or in whole by ISAW. These scholars may be at any point in their career from postdoctoral to retired. * Externally funded scholars, who have the same responsibilities and privileges as the categories above, but do not receive financial support from ISAW. Scholars in all three categories are expected to be in residence at ISAW for the duration of their appointment and to participate in the intellectual life of the community, including presenting a public lecture.

Exhibitions

In order to support its mission of communicating information about antiquity to the public, ISAW organizes public exhibitions. Past exhibitions include:
Wine, Worship and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani
(March 12 – June 1, 2008)
The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 BC
(November 11, 2009 – April 25, 2010)
Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics
(November 12, 2010 – January 23, 2011)
Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms of Africa
(March 11 – June 12, 2011)
Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos
(September 23, 2011 – January 8, 2012)
Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan
(March 7 – June 3, 2012)
Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan
(September 11, 2012 – January 6, 2013)
Temple and Tomb: Prehistoric Malta, 3600–2500 BCE
(March 21 – July 7, 2013)
Measuring and Mapping Space: Geographic Knowledge in Greco-Roman Antiquity
(October 4, 2013 – January 5, 2014)
Masters of Fire: Copper Age Art from Israel
(February 13, 2014 – June 8, 2014)
When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra
(October 8, 2014 – January 4, 2015)
From Ancient to Modern: Archaeology and Aesthetics
(February 12, 2015 – June 7, 2015)
The Eye of the Shah: Qajar Court Photography and the Persian Past
(October 22, 2015 – January 17, 2016)
Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity
(February 25 – May 22, 2016)
Time and Cosmos in Greco-Roman Antiquity
(October 19, 2016 – April 23, 2017)
...circle through New York
(March 1 – August 31, 2017)
Restoring the Minoans: Elizabeth Price and Sir Arthur Evans
(October 5, 2017 – January 7, 2018)
Romance and Reason: Islamic Transformations of the Classical Past
(February 14, 2018 – May 13, 2018)
Devotion and Decadence: The Berthouville Treausure and Roman Luxury
(October 17, 2018 – January 6, 2019)

History books pdf
Most exhibitions have been accompanied b
illustrated catalogs
many of which are co-published by ISAW and Princeton University Press.

Library

ISAW houses a research library of approximately 40,000 non-circulating print volumes. The ISAW Library is a branch library of the NYU Division of Libraries, with facilities located on four floors of ISAW's facilities on East 84th Street. The library is open to members of the ISAW and NYU communities, as well as to scholars from other institutions who can demonstrate a need to access materials in the collection for their research. Particular areas of strength in the ISAW Library's print collection include Greek and Roman material culture and history,

Papyrology Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native relig ...

Mesopotamian Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

Archaeology and

Assyriology Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , '' -logia'') is the archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic study of Assyria and the rest of ancient Mesopotamia (a region that encompassed what is now modern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southe ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...

and Iran, and Early China. The library is engaged in providing access and support for new and emerging forms of

digital scholarship Digital scholarship is the use of digital evidence, methods of inquiry, research, publication and preservation to achieve scholarly and research goals. Digital scholarship can encompass both scholarly communication using digital media and research o ...

, scholarly communication, and pedagogy in

ancient studies Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...

. The library's digital initiatives include the Ancient World Digital Library (AWDL) and a joint project with ISAW Digital Programs to help catalog the online and open access resources.

Publications

ISAW has produced or sponsored both print and electronic publications related to the ancient world. These include: * Jonathan Ben-Dov and Seth Sanders, eds. ''Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature.'' NYU Press, 2014. * George Hatke. ''Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa.'' NYU Press, 2013. * David Wengrow. ''The Origins of Monsters: Image and Cognition in the First Age of Mechanical Reproduction.'' Princeton University Press, 2013. Based on the author's Rostovtzeff Lectures delivered at ISAW in 2011. * Roger S. Bagnall and Giovanni R. Ruffini. ''Amheida I: Ostraka from Trimithis 1.'' NYU Press, 2012. Also published in an open-access online version. * ''ISAW At Five'', a book produced for ISAW's Five Year Celebration in May 2012. * ''ISAW Papers'', an open-content scholarly journal that publishes article-length works on any topic within the scope of ISAW's scholarly research. * ''The Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology'' * ''ISAW Newsletter''

References

External links

official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Institute For The Study Of The Ancient World New York University 2006 establishments in New York City Research institutes in New York (state) Archaeological research institutes Art museums and galleries in Manhattan University art museums and galleries in New York City