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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 is founding Director of the Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies. Jen came to Birkbeck in 2008 after holding a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Leicester. She has published extensively on the archaeology of everyday life, archaeological archives, and the history of 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. 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 (Bloomsbury). Her earlier book on the housing of Dura, The Inner Lives of Ancient Houses, was published by Oxford. 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 (2022). Much of Jen's current work focusses on archaeological archives. She is on the editorial board of Archive Archaeology, and has published on archival topics in the Journal of Social Archaeology and the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies. Archival work also underpins her collaborative work on the global dispersal of Syrian heritage, published in American Journal of Archaeology.

    Jen uses archaeological ethnographies to think about the occlusions of the archives, and their long-term impacts, for example in the a recent article in Antiquity. The omissions and occlusions of archives are also addressed in the exhibit and community project Faces of Dura-Europos.

    Highlights

    • Founding member of The Dura-Europos Rehabilitation Archaeological Taskforce. Formed urgently as the Assad regime fell, and bringing together an international team of world-leading experts on the site, the project aims to protect the site of Dura-Europos at this crucial time.

    • Leader of the Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaologies projects in Syria including collaborations with the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM).

    Web profiles

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Director, Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies
    • Director, MA Archaeology and Heritage
    • University of Sanctuary Working Group

    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 projects

    International (Digital) Dura-Europos Archive

    Abstract

    IDEA is a major Digital Humanities initiative funded by the US’s National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. Our work is aimed at digitally re-integrating dispersed collections and discipline-specific knowledge related to the important cultural heritage site of Dura-Europos (Syria).

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

    Abstract

    Lives in Ruins (OSUN)

    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? Our 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.

    Archaeological Archives as Inclusive Learning Labratories.

    Abstract

    (ACLS) American excavations at iconic sites, like Dura-Europos in Syria, have shaped museums, textbooks, and academic fields in the West, but local communities whose labor made these digs possible have long been reduced to nameless figures in photographs or line-items in budget records. This project aims to insert and amplify local Syrian voices, giving communities a platform to share their stories alongside traditional archaeological narratives. By introducing local perspectives and affordances, it seeks to rebalance a one- sided history and make digital archives more accessible to a wider range of users. Deliverables include oral histories, an enriched dataset, digital training for students and marginalized professionals, and an optimized browsing interface.

    The Ruins of Local Memory: Archaeological Archives and Post-Conflict Planning

    Abstract

    (CBRL)

    This project seeks to support the post-conflict rebuilding of community relationships with archaeological sites in Syria. It aims to do so through a pilot project, using existing archival photographs as a prompt for archaeological ethnographies, to be conducted in the community adjacent to the archaeological site of Dura-Europos. The site, now devastated by looting, has been the subject of investigation by American and European institutions for more than a century, but local, Syrian, relationships to local heritage have never been documented. Our international team aims to address this gap, with outcomes including research and policy-supporting work.

    Co-Is: Adnan Almohamad; Hiba Alkhalaf; Asaad Alsaleh; Anne Chen; Melissa Cradic; Asmaa Shehadah; Isber Sabrine; Valeria Vitale

  • 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.

    Current doctoral researchers

    • JULIET SAMSON-CONLON
      Nature of supervision:
      PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      Childhood in the Roman Near East: the archaeology of children at Dura-Europos
    • CLAIRE WALSH
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      Wasted London: Rubbish and Recycling from the Romans to the late Victorians
    • JOHN CAMPBELL
      Nature of supervision:
      PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      The Thames on the eve of Londinium. Exploring a late Iron Age landscape
    • IRENE LIESK
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      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.

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • BETH HODGETT
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      Life in Photographs: Movement, Materiality and Temporality in the Archives of O.G.S. Crawford
      Awarded:
      2022
    • 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
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    Book

    Book section