University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

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Lecturers (click names to view photos)

Steve Abrams
Mr. Abrams, a professional puppeteer for over 20 years, has given more than 3,000 performances all over the United States. He has presented "Folk Heroes of the Puppet Stage," program designed for the University of Pennsylvania Museum State Lecture Program, at museums, universities and 275 libraries throughout the state. Since 1979, Mr. Abrams has regularly presented shows in Philadelphia area schools. A family hobby started Steve in the direction of puppet shows for hundreds of children's birthdays. In addition, Steve has a B.A. in Communication and an M.A. in Dance Education from Temple University. He is a member of Puppeteers of America and has appeared as a guest artist with the Elm Seed Puppet Theater at the Rhode Island School of Design and executed special commissions for the Sun Oil Company and the Jenkintown Music School. In addition to his puppet shows, Mr. Abrams has created several slide programs on folk customs and ritual as applied to the performing arts.

Jean Adelman
Ms. Adelman, long-time Head Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, has a degree in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. She received her MLS from the University of Pittsburgh. She taught at the University of Pittsuburgh, Drexel University, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Washington, and Allegheny County Community College. Ms. Adelman has worked on archaeological excavations in the American Southwest (Anasazi and Hohokam) and in France (Neandertal). She participated in the University of Pennsylvania exchange with the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Jean Adelman was one of five U.S. Librarians to participate in the first Librarians’ exchange in the (then) Soviet Union in 1988, after which she traveled independently through Central Asia. Travel is one of her great joys and in the past fifteen years she has traveled by train in a dozen and a half countries and most recently spent six weeks in Australia visiting aboriginal settlements and rock art sites as well as nature preserves. Ms. Adelman has a special interest in textiles, folk arts, and personal adornment in traditional societies. She has served as the President of the Philadelphia Textile Arts Society.
Aubrey Baadsgaard
Aubrey Baadsgaard is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages of the Near East. She has worked extensively in the American Southwest and the Near East, and spent this past summer excavating Iron Age sites in Jordan. Her research interests include the archaeology of the domestic sphere, the construction of self-identity through body ornamentation, and issues of the building and protection of cultural heritage sites in the modern Near East. Her dissertation will examine adornment in Ancient Mesopotamia using information from written sources and jewelry and cosmetic containers from some of the museums collections.

Marshall Becker, Ph.D.
Dr. Becker, Professor of Anthropology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania received all of his degrees in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He had published extensively in physical anthropology and archaeology, as well as in cultural anthropology. Beginning with his participation in archaeological excavations in Tikal, a major Maya site in Honduras and at many sites in North America. He also has worked at nearly 100 archaeological sites throughout the Mediterranean.

Prof. Becker's studies of the Lenape and their many native neighbors in the Delaware Valley, and how they respond to contacts with European Colonists, have been published in a number of places. These publications document the success of the Lenape in preserving their traditional lifestyle during the long period from early contact until the major Lenape bands decided to move west.

Prof. Becker has received grants for his work from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Geographic Society. For many years he served as a traveling lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America, and since 1981 for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. Since 1989 he has been an Outreach Lecturer for the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, and more recently for the Delaware Humanities forum.

Judith Berman
Dr. Berman completed her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a B.A. in Russian, Comparative Literature, and Anthropology at Bennington College, Vermont. Ms. Berman's ethnohistorical research for her dissertation was on the oral literature, myths, and religion of the Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia. Dr. Berman recently served as Assistant Curator for the exhibition "Pomo Indian Basket Weavers: Their Baskets and the Art Market."

Judith Bjorkman
Dr. Bjorkman completed her Ph.D. in Ancient History and an M.A. in Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bjorkman holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Iowa State University and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. She traveled extensively in the Middle East and excavated at Tell Hadidi in northern Syria. Her master’s thesis is on metals and metalworking of the ancient Near East, and her dissertation research focuses on hoards and deposits in Bronze Age Mesopotamia. Dr. Bjorkman published several articles in her field, taught at University College (Syracuse University) and has a part-time business as a metalworker. (Please note limited availibility)

Amanda Ciaccio
Amanda Ciaccio graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA with an A.B. in Art History and Anthropology.  In 1990, she earned a M.A. degree in Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology at University College, University of London. She excavated with the U.C. Berkeley team at Tel Dor, Israel and for Museum Lauriacum in Enns, Austria.  Amanda completed an M.Ed at Boston University and taught courses on archaeology, world history, and art history while living in Europe. Amanda has also participated in excavations on colonial sites in Massachusetts and New York. She is currently employed at the Penn Museum, working in Museum Education, developing curriculum, workshops, and educational materials.

Main interests:
Women and children in the ancient world, Roman Harbors and Harbor activity, Historical Archaeology
Craig Cipolla
Craig Cipolla is currently pursuing a PhD. in anthropological archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has a Bachelor’s degree in anthropology and a Master’s degree in historical archaeology—both from the University of Massachusetts Boston. His research predominantly focuses on colonialism in the Northeast and consists of work in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island. His interests include: colonialism, Native North America, foodways, and archaeological method and theory. In his master’s thesis, Negotiating Boundaries of Colonialism: Nineteenth-Century Lifeways on the Eastern Pequot Reservation, North Stonington, Connecticut, he explores the relation between food and social dynamics on a historic Native American reservation.

Dr. Elin Danien
Elin Danien earned her doctorate in 1998 and is currently a Research Associate in the American Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, where she is also a docent. She is responsible for the recent renovation of the Mesoamerican gallery, and is the author of the newly published "Guide to the Mesoamerican Gallery." Her research interests include Maya iconography, long distance trade, and the history of archaeology. She is currently working on a biography of Robert Burkitt, and archaeologist famous in Guatemalan circles as the man who came to tea and stayed for thirty years. In 1986 she established the Bread Upon the Waters scholarship for women over the age of thirty who can pursure an undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania only as part-time students. Thirty-eight "Bread" scholars have graduated: twenty-two with honors; another thirty are currently taking courses.

Prema Deshmukh
Prema Deshmukh is currently working as a program coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum’s the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Lecture and International Classroom programs. She attended the University of New Delhi, India and Nichols State University, Louisiana.  Prema earned a Masters Degree in Science. She  has experience teaching in primary and secondary schools in India and in the US.  Ms. Deshmukh is the recipient of a National Award for teaching multiculturalism to diverse student  populations.

Phoebe Eskenazi
Ms. Eskenazi is a native Delawarean whose heart is in the Southwest. An educator, she taught school for fourteen years and most recently worked as Educational Coordinator for the Pueblo of Laguna Head Start program in New Mexico. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Delaware. In 1989 Ms. Eskenazi was one of fifty pre-collegiate teachers awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities Teacher-Scholar Award. This grant enabled her spend her sabbatical year in New Mexico studying the pottery traditions of Pueblo Indians. Since 1990, Phoebe has worked for the University Museum Education Department presenting workshops and lectures for children and adults through the Outreach series. In addition to working for the Museum, she also gives presentations for educational organizations, bookstores, and private groups.
Kristen Fellows
Kristen Fellows is currently a PhD student in the Anthropology Department at the University of Pennsylvania. She has a BA in anthropology from the University of Florida and has previously worked in collections management and curation in Environmental Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. At the University of Pennsylvania Kristen is focusing on Historical Archaeology in the colonial United States. She has participated in fieldwork at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia, Payne’s’ Town Seminole Indian Site in Florida, and in Vineland, New Jersey. Her research interests include historical archaeology in the northeast, plantation systems, feminist and gender archaeologies, and social stratification.

Dr. William Fitts
Dr Fitts is a post-doctoral fellow at the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology (MASCA)at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. His research focuses on medieval England and the use of information technology in archaeology. He has done field work through out Europe and in Syria and Kenya.
Dr. Jill Furst
Dr. Jill L. Furst received her Ph.D. in Precolumbian Art from the University of New Mexico. She has taught at Illinois State University, State University of New York at Albany, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, and Moore College of Art and Design. Dr. Furst is co-author of Precolumbian Art of Mexico (Abbeville Press) and North American Indian Art (Rizzoli). She is the author of The Natural History of the Soul in Ancient Mexico (Yale), Mojave Pottery / Mojave People (School of American Reasearch), and numerous articles on Precolumbian Art and native North American Art. In addition to teaching global and multicultural art courses at Moore College of Art and Design, Dr. Furst has taught courses on food history at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and currently teaches an intensive seminar for dental and medical students on the human body in Africa, Asia, Europe and
the Americas. She is also a painter.

Elaine Garfinkel
Elaine Garfinkel has a degree in Education. She has been a Docent in the Education Department of The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for seventeen years. Ms. Garfinkel was Chairperson of the Museum’s Volunteer Guides for two years. She is also a member of The University of Pennsylvania Museum’s Women’s Committee. Mrs. Garfinkel owns an Art Gallery. In addition, she is an Art Consultant and Curator for major shows of art of the American West and Kentucky Folk Art.
Ann Guinan
 Ann Guinan is a specialist in Ancient Near Eastern cultures and languages, and a Research Associate at the Babylonian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She conducts research in the British Museum, London and publishes and lectures both here and abroad on a variety of anthropological subjects. Her reconstruction of a rare Assyrian omen text related to ancient psychology and sexual behavior has led to a study of divination, magic, and sexuality in a variety of world cultures. She is an editor of the series, MAGIC AND DIVINATION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD which is published by Brill/Styx in Leiden, NL. She is also on the board of editors of NIN-Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity.

She has been an enrichment lecturer aboard cruise ships in the Amazon, Alaska, Indonesia, Turkey, and the Mediterranean. She lived in Iran for two years with her husband and son and taught at Pahlavi (now Shiraz) University.

Chad Henneberry
Chad Henneberry has completed his M.A. in Classical Art and Archaeology from Florida State University. He earned his B.A. in Classics at Dickinson College and has excavated for several seasons in the Athenian Agora and has served as field staff architect at Roman Carthage. His past work with museum collections has included management of the University of Pennsylvania Museum’s collections from Phoenician Sarepta, exhibition installation, and the creation of educational guides to the museum's galleries.

Jane Hill
Ms. Jane A. Hill is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania with a specialization in Egyptian Archaeology. She received her B.A. in journalism from the University of Mississippi. She received an M.A. in Anthropology with a concentration in Archaeology from the University of Memphis in 1998. She received an M.A. in Egyptology/Art History from the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis in 2001. Ms. Hill has worked on numerous archaeological projects in the American Southeast and in Egypt and has published on the late prehistory of ancient Egypt as well as edited books on the history of archaeology in the Southeast and on Maya archaeology. Her most recent work in Egypt includes projects undertaken by the Penn-Yale-IFA Expedition to Abydos and the Penn-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition to Saqqara. Her research interests focus on the formation of the Egyptian state in early 3rd millennium B.C.

Omomola Iyabunmi
Omomola Iyabunmi is a musician, educator, composer and performer in the African tradition. Born in Philadelphia, Omomola has been performing and teaching sekere for 18 years. Her studies in African culture began in New York City in 1970 while attending classes at the Yoruba Temple. She then studied sekere with Philadelphia professional percussionists; Leonard “Dr. Gibbs” Baba Ibikunle Crowder and Gregg “Peachie” Jarman. From 1975 to 1980, she began a holistic curriculum that included music, dance, philosophy, herbology, religion and art at the Institute of African Science under Baba Ishangi Razak. During this period of study, Ms. Iyabunmi travelled to Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa where she researched African music and folklore. Since then, as a lecturer and performer she has established .and directs a group of female percussionists called “Women’s Sekere Ensemble” dedicated to promoting the secular and .sacred percussion music found in Africa and other locales throughout the African diaspora as well as Brazil, Haiti, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Christopher Jones
Dr. Jones is a Research Specialist in the American section of The University of Pennsylvania Museum. He earned a B.A. in English Literature from Harvard University in 1959, and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963 and 1969. With field experience in the United States and France, Dr. Jones excavated for four seasons at Tikal, Guatemala with a team from The University of Pennsylvania Museum (1962-1965). After completing his dissertation on the Twin-Pyramid Groups of Tikal, Dr. Jones directed the Acropolis excavations at Quirigua for The University of Pennsylvania Museum. Dr. Jones publishes articles on both Tikal and Quirigua and authored a popular workbook on deciphering Maya hieroglyphs.

John Kuehne
John has a MS in Archaeological Material Science from the University of Sheffield, England; a Post-Baccalaureate in Classical Language from University of Pennsylvania; and a BA in Classical and Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology from Penn State University.  He has excavated for three field seasons in Mendes, Egypt and has been the petrographic analyst for two British archaeological programs.  He has travelled extensively around the Mediterranean rim, including: France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Morocco.  He is versed in ancient languages such as Greek, Latin, and Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs.  His expertise is in the petrographic analysis of pottery fabrics in determining trade routes and technologies implemented in their production.
Matt Liebmann
Matt Liebmann is a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. He has conducted archaeological research in Israel, Guatemala, Montana, Arizona, and New Mexico. He was educated at Boston College, where he studied Near Eastern archaeology. After college, Matt taught high school on the Pine Ridge (Oglala Sioux) Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In addition to his graduate studies at Penn, he worked as Tribal Archaeologist for the Pueblo of Jemez (New Mexico) from 2003-2005. His dissertation research, which was funded by the University of Pennsylvania Museum, National Science Foundation, and Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, focuses on Native American resistance to Spanish colonization in the American Southwest. It is entitled “Burn the Churches, Break up the Bells”: The Archaeology of Pueblo Revolt Revitalization in New Mexico, A.D. 1680-1696. He has published articles in The Journal of Field Archaeology, Plains Anthropologist, and in the edited volume Archaeologies of the Pueblo Revolt (University of New Mexico Press). He is currently co-authoring an edited volume with Uzma Rizvi on postcolonial theory and archaeology.

Kate Liszka
Miss Kate Liszka is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, with a specialization in Egyptian Archaeology. She received her B.A. in Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and International Studies at The Pennsylvania State University in 2001. Miss Liszka has worked with several archaeological projects in Egypt and Tunisia. Her most recent work in Egypt includes projects undertaken by the Penn-Yale-IFA Expedition to Abydos.   She has also worked closely with the Theban Mapping Project in Egypt. Her research interests focus on 2nd and 3rd millennium B.C. Egypt.

Tracy Musacchio
Tracy Musacchio is a Ph.D. candidate in Egyptian language at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her bachelor's degree, with honors in Egyptology, from Brown University in 1999. Her dissertation focuses on the understudied funerary stelae, dating from the First Intermediate Period, from the Middle Egyptian site of Dendera (these stelae were excavated by the University of Pennsylvania). Ms. Musacchio has done epigraphic work in Egypt at the sites of Abydos and Saqqara; has undertaken research at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo; and has participated in an archaeological survey at Abydos. She has also worked as an intern at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and as a fellow at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Currently she is teaching an undergraduate seminar on travel writing at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kevin McGeough
Mr. McGeough is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He has a specialization in the archaeology, history, and languages of the ancient Near East. He received his B.A. in European history and Syro-Palestinian archaeology from the University of Lethbridge, Canada. He taught classes in Egyptian and European archaeology at the University of Lethbridge. From Harvard he received his MTS. in ancient religions and reformation studies. He has participated in numerous archaeological excavations at sites in Israel, Turkey, and Jordan.

Marc Meyer
Mr. Marc Meyer is a William Penn Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Physical Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the human fossil record and the origins of human behavior. He holds a B.A. in anthropology from the City University of New York, Queens College. Mr. Meyer has been involved in excavations at Paleolithic sites in France, Israel, the Republic of Georgia, and several sites in the Americas. He has enjoyed teaching human origins to a range of groups, from workshops in the Johns Hopkins gifted child program to college students of all ages at the University of Pennsylvania.

Janet Monge
Dr. Monge is Keeper of the Skeletal Collections of The University of Pennsylvania Museum. She holds a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University and received her Ph.D. in Physical Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation was on a methodology for using fossil casts in paleoanthropological research. Dr. Monge has worked with the Museum’s fossil casting program since 1977 and has been a teaching assistant since 1978 in the Anthropology Department, where in 1985 she earned the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. She also taught at Rutgers University, Princeton University, Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College. Dr. Monge’s work is published in a variety of books and journals.

Stacie Olson
Dr. Olson completed her Ph.D. in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her B.A. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Olson’s field experience includes a summer field school in Arizona as well as work on excavations at the site of Lachish, Israel and at the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Abydos, Egypt.

Dori Panzer
Dori Panzer is the Docent Coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She earned a BA in Cultural Anthropology and an MLA with a focus on Public Culture from the University of Pennsylvania and now is a doctoral candidate in the Anthropology Department at Penn. Among her research interests are issues relating to migration between the Irish American community of the Delaware Valley and their "home" communities in Ireland, plus the tensions between heritage tourism and the desire for modernity in Ireland. Her professional experience includes working as a Museum Educator for the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Wagner Free Institute of Science, The Children's Museum of Philadelphia, and Awbury Arboretum. In addition Dori has been involved with program development, training, and presentation for the Mutter Museum, Morris Arboretum, and Girl Scouts.

Nick Picardo
Nick Picardo is a Ph.D. candidate in the Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations Dept. of the University of Pennsylvania, concentrating in Egyptology. A native of Erie, PA, he received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. Mr. Picardo has spent considerable time in Egypt on archaeological projects: assisting in the excavation of some of the world's oldest built boats at Abydos, investigating a poorly understood pyramid at Saqqara, studying tombs next to the Great Pyramid at Giza, and excavating a large house in an ancient Egyptian town that is the focus of his doctoral thesis. He has also spent a great deal of time in Boston assisting with work on the ancient Egyptian collection of the Museum of Fine Arts as a research intern. Mr. Picardo has spoken on topics in Egyptology and Archaeology throughout Pennsylvania since 1995.

Eli Pringle
Mr. Pringle is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, where he specialized in the study of Africa. He also earned his B.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Pringle has field experience in Nigeria and Brazil. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, and the University of Minnesota.

Benjamin C. Pykles
Mr. Pykles, currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Historical Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He earned his B.A. in Anthropology from Brigham Young University. Before graduate school, Mr. Pykles worked as a curator for the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City and has participated in various archaeological investigations of sites significant to the Mormon Church.

Patricia Reid-Merrit
Dr. Reid-Merrit obtained her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and is Professor of Social Work, as well as Lecturer/Coordinator of African American Studies, at Stockton State College in Pomona, New Jersey. Dr. Reid-Merrit’s dance training is extensive and began in 1962, at the Sidney King School of Dance in Philadelphia, followed by five years study at the Brandywine Center, Philadelphia. In 1973 she founded the Afro-One Dance, Drama and Drum Theater. Since then, Dr. Reid-Merrit has been the group’s Artistic Director, with over thirty choreographic works to her credit, and has traveled widely in parts of East and West Africa researching dance.
Uzma Z. Rizvi
Uzma is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania.  Her dissertation research was conducted in Rajasthan and explores the political economy of the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura Cultural Complex.  She has traveled extensively, and conducted archaeological investigations at many sites around the world.  Uzma is the reciepient of numerous awards and grants, including the Fulbright-Hayes DDRA, and the George Dales Fellowship.

Mitchell S. Rothman
Dr. Rothman is currently a full Professor at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania and a Consulting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, a Masters from Hunter College, City University of New York, and his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Rothman has been visiting the Middle East since 1974. As an archaeologist, he has worked in Iran and Turkey. His dissertation was on a site in northern Iraq. As Administrative Director of the American School of Oriental Research in the 1980's he has responsibility for centers in Jerusalem; Amman, Jordan; Nicosia, Cyprus; and a former center in Baghdad, Iraq.

Rachel Scott
Ms. Scott is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology and a Kolb Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in European archaeology and human skeletal analysis. After completing a B.A. in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, she received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the University College Dublin in Ireland where she earned an H.Dip. in Celtic Archaeology. Ms. Scott has participated in archaeological excavations in Ireland, Iceland, France, and Spain. She is currently engaged in dissertation research in Ireland, using archaeological and human skeletal evidence from the cemetery on Omey Island, Co. Galway, to discuss social identity in the early medieval period.
Gloria Shaner
Ms. Shaner received her M.A. in Museum Education and her A.B. in anthropology from Bryn Mawr College where she studied both cultural and physical anthropology. She worked on the repatriation of Native American skeletal materials for the University Museum and has been a volunteer docent in the American Section galleries for 25 years. In addition, she has expertise in medical history/human pathology as well as anthropology. During the past six years Ms. Shaner developed educational programs and wrote educational materials for students and teachers for the Mutter Museum. She will create special programs to meet your needs as requested.

Klare Scarborough
Dr. Scarborough specializes in contemporary performance and ritual studies.  Her current research focuses on body modification practices in relation to personal belief systems and social change.  In 2005, she completed a Ph.D. in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College, with a dissertation on American body artists of the 1990s associated with the Modern Primitivism.  She works as a Project Manager at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, where she oversees preparations for the upcoming Amarna exhibit along with other special projects.  She also teaches as an Adjunct Instructor at various colleges.
Barbara Siegel, “Habiba”
Ms. Siegel’s dance background includes training in ballet, modern dance at the Martha Graham School in New York, and courses in Middle Eastern dance with some of America’s foremost teachers. On her numerous trips to Egypt and Tunisia she has also studied with the Tunisian National Folklore Troupe and at the School of the Reda Troupe, Egypt’s most famous dance ensemble. As a performer Ms. Siegel has mastered a wide variety of dance styles from North Africa and teaches regularly at her Philadelphia studio. As a dance researcher she has documented village folk festivals in both Egypt and Tunisia, is a staff writer for “Arabesque Magazine”, has presented papers before the Mid-Atlantic Region Society for Ethnomusicology and has lectured at the University of Pennsylvania.

Yvette Smalls
Yvette Smalls is the director of the video, Hair Stories (a series of candid, funny, and poignant interviews with Sonia Sanchez, Erykah Badu, and Joe Lewis among others, which chronicles the historical and cultural issues of beauty and "good hair/bad hair" standards in the African-American community). Ms. Smalls is also a lecturer, folk artist, and hair sculptor, and has served as a hair historian and cultural consultant to various TV programs and videos including the AM/PM Show, Making a Difference, Saturday Tribune Program, and River Momma, as well as various news publications (The Philadlephia Daily News and The Philadelphia Tribune). Additionally, she has presented lectures and demonstrations on hair and culture for the Commonwealth Lecture Series of University of Pennsylvania, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology; Free Library of Philadelphia; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Odunde Festival; Marian Anderson Community Center; and various public schools. She has been teaching a course on African hair braiding and sculpting for over 8 years for the PASCEP program at Temple University, is a Roster Artist for the PA Council on the Arts, and is the current president of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the National Braider's Guild.

Vanessa Smith
Vanessa Smith is a PhD candidate in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania.  She received her B.A. with honors in Anthropology with a minor in Egyptology from the University of Chicago in 1995.  Vanessa spent 2004 living in Egypt as an ARCE fellow where she directed an excavation of a temple bakery and beer brewery at the mortuary temple of king Senwosret III in Abydos.  Her work concentrates on the non-ritual aspects of the ancient Egyptian temple, temple administration, the economy, daily life activities, and the interaction between temples and the local community and the state.  Ms. Smith is the co-founder and a board-member-at-large of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt, which sponsors monthly scholarly lectures about Egypt.

Michael Speirs
Michael Speirs is studying the dental remains of the early peoples of the Levant for his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania (1982), and worked as a photojournalist for the Associated Press before returning to continue graduate work. He currently teaches anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Mr. Speirs is a Research Associate in the Near East Section of The University of Pennsylvania Museum. In addition, he is a Lecturer in Anthropology at Swarthmore College. Finally, Mr. Speirs’ field experience includes four seasons of excavation at Kebara Cave, a Mousterian site on Mt. Carmel in Israel (1987&endash;1990), as well as single seasons at La Quina in France and Salibiya on the West Bank. He is Co-Director of excavations at the Upper Paleolithic Site Nahal Ein Gev I in Northern Israel.

Elizabeth Neaves Straw
Ms. Straw completed a B.A. in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1988. She is working on her MLA at the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Straw is Coordinator of Outreach for the Education Department of The University of Pennsylvania Museum. In addition, she teaches special workshops for children in anthropology and archaeology. Since 1984, Ms. Straw’s work with museum collections has included collections care, research, exhibition planning, and gallery tours for museum visitors.
Dr. Jean MacIntosh Turfa 
Dr. Jean MacIntosh Turfa, Curatorial Consultant for the Etruscan Collections and Exhibition, teaches Etruscan art and archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. She received her Ph.D. in 1974 from Bryn Mawr College and has participated in archaeological field research in the U.S., U.K., Greece, and Italy. Dr. Turfa has also taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, at Loyola University of Chicago, the University of Liverpool, and at the University of Manchester. She has published numerous articles on Etruscan art and archaeology, on the relationships between the Etruscans and their neighbors, and on Etruscan trade.

Richard Veit
Dr. Veit completed his Ph.D. in Historical Archaeology in the Anthropology Department of the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his B.A. in Anthropology at DrewUniversity and his M.A. in Historical Archaeology at the College of William and Mary. He has directed several archaeological excavations in eastern North America. Additionally, he is the author of several articles on topics in historical archaeology and material culture.

John H. Walker
Mr. Walker is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. John has received his B.S. in Anthropology and his B.A. in History from the University of Illinois and has taught Anthropology at Penn State University. John has participated in excavations in Bolivia, Equador, Italy and the United States.

Leslie Warden
Leslie Warden is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. in Anthropology with a concentration in Archaeology, with highest honors, from the University of California, Davis. She has worked on archaeological projects throughout Egypt and in California. In addition, Leslie lived for in Cairo for several years, working (at different times) as the Archaeological Coordinator for the Egyptian Antiquities Information System (EAIS), intern for the Theban Mapping Project, and teaching assistant for Dr. Zahi Hawass. Her research interests focus on Old Kingdom (3rd millennium) Egypts administration, provincial urbanism, regional variation, and ceramics.

Jennifer Houser Wegner
Dr. Wegner is an adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a Keeper of the Egyptian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.   She received her B.A. in Egyptology from the University of Pennsylvania and Ph.D. in Egyptology in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Yale University. She has participated in epigraphical and archaeological field seasons in Egypt at the sites of Saqqara, Bersheh, and Abydos. She has been a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania since 1998.  Dr. Wegner is the co-curator of  the new exhibition “ Amarna, Ancient Egypt’s Place in the Sun. ” 

Lucy Fowler Williams
Ms. Williams is the Keeper of the American Section Collections at The University of Pennsylvania Museum. She has received an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico and has been involved in the care, research and exhibition of Native American collections for 10 years.

William G. Zimmerle
William G. Zimmerle is a Ph.D. candidate and Lecturer in ancient Near Eastern Civilizations in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations of the University of Pennsylvania. His current research interests focus on Assyriology and Biblical Studies, ancient Egyptian and Semitic languages, ritual studies, and the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. Bill is currently an adjunct Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Fairleigh Dickinson University and he holds a Master of Divinity degree in Biblical Studies from Harvard University. He has excavated extensively at Iron Age archaeological sites in Jordan and Israel.

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