Michelle Berenfeld
Visiting Assistant Professor of Archaeology:
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Phone: +1 401 863 2008
Michelle_Berenfeld@brown.edu
Biography
Michelle Berenfeld is a classical archaeologist who works on the material culture of cities in the Greco-Roman world. She is particularly interested in the intersection of public and private life in the ancient urban context, the social and political function of houses, and how transformations of civic and religious practice in late antiquity were reflected in the physical environment of cities. She came to Brown after four years at the World Monuments Fund (WMF), an international non-profit organization dedicated to preserving cultural heritage sites around the world. At WMF, she ran the organization's major thematic programs, including an initiative focused on protecting cultural heritage in Iraq, the World Monuments Watch, and a sustainable tourism program. She received her Ph.D. in classical archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, and since 1997 has been part of the excavation team at Aphrodisias, the Greco-Roman site in southwestern Turkey.
Interests
Berenfeld is currently writing a book on a late antique house at Aphrodisias and the transformation of the site of that house--located in the center of the ancient city--from the Hellenistic and Roman imperial periods through the middle ages. Having done much of her fieldwork in Asia Minor, Berenfeld is particularly interested in the intersection between different cultural traditions and identities, and how art, architecture, objects, and even whole cities were created, adapted, and altered to suit changing cultural interests and prevailing powers. One focus of her work is the exploration of how (and if) domestic space in late antiquity changed as those aspects of urban life that had been largely public in the classical world—pagan cult practice, education, legal activities, etc.—increasingly "came indoors," and how those changes impacted the larger urban experience. She is also interested in the parallel development of early Christian architecture and material culture as its followers and practice emerged from private houses and into the public sphere.
As an archaeologist also working in the field of cultural heritage preservation, Berenfeld is also interested in bridging the gap between archaeological research and the conservation, presentation, and interpretation of archaeological sites and material for the public. A major focus of her research in the cultural heritage field is the study of the impacts of global climate change on cultural heritage sites and the development of strategies to address them.
Degrees
Ph.D.
Teaching
Before coming to Brown, Berenfeld was a visiting professor at Pratt Institute in New York, where she taught graduate and undergraduate courses in the history of art and architecture and urbanism. She has also taught ancient art and architecture, art history surveys, and classical literature and mythology in translation at NYU and Hunter College in New York.
Courses for 2009-2010
Fall 2009:
Troy Rocks!: Archaeology of an Epic (ARCH 0270, first-year seminar)
Cultural Heritage: The Players and Politics of Protecting the Past (ARCH 1540)
Spring 2010:
Cult Archaeology: Fantastic Frauds and Meaningful Myths of the Past (ARCH 666)
Roman Asia Minor: The Empire Goes East (ARCH 2330, graduate seminar)
Courses taught in 2008-2009:
Archaeology of the Age of Augustus (ARCH 1100)
International Cultural Heritage: Creating a Future for the Past (ARCH 2040E, graduate seminar)
Archaeologies of the Greek Past (ARCH 0420)
Pompeii (ARCH 1120)
