Professor Jen Baird

Positions held:

Professor of Archaeology, School of Historical Studies

Email

Birkbeck: j.baird@bbk.ac.uk

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
- Academia.edu
Administrative responsibilities
- Director, Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies
- Director, MA Archaeology and Heritage
- University of Sanctuary Working Group
Professional memberships
- Roman Society
- Elected member of the Academia Europaea
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
- Palestine Exploration Fund
- Council for British Research in the Levant
- Association for Critical Heritage Studies
- Archaeological Institute of America
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
- Steering Committee Member, History and Theory of Photography Research Centre
- Director, Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies
- Steering Committee Member, Architecture Space and Society Centre
- , Centre for Museum Cultures
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:

5

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, Oct 2022
  
  Title of thesis:
  Childhood in the Roman Near East: the archaeology of children at Dura-Europos
- CLAIRE WALSH
  
  Nature of supervision:
  JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR, Oct 2021
  
  Title of thesis:
  Wasted London: Rubbish and Recycling from the Romans to the late Victorians
- JOHN CAMPBELL
  
  Nature of supervision:
  PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR, Oct 2020
  
  Title of thesis:
  The Thames on the eve of Londinium. Exploring a late Iron Age landscape
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
- BETH HODGETT
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2017
  
  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, Oct 2018
  
  Title of thesis:
  Scratching the Surface: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Graffiti from Hatra in Northern Iraq
  
  Awarded:
  2024
Publications
Publications
Article
- Baird, Jennifer and Bobou, O. and Kamash, Z. and Raja, R. (2026) Collecting Palmyra: the global dispersal of Palmyrene funerary reliefs. American Journal of Archaeology 103 (3), ISSN 0002-9114. (In Press)
- Baird, Jennifer and Alkhalaf, Hiba and Chen, A.H. and Almohamad, Adnan (2026) A FAIR-er digital archaeological ecosystem? Experiments in decolonial intervention. DSH: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities ISSN 2055-768X. (In Press)
- Alkhalaf, Hiba and Baird, Jennifer and Chen, A. and Cradic, M.S. and Sabrine, I. and Vitale, V. (2026) Pathways to inclusive digital archaeological archives. Advances in Archaeological Practice ISSN 2326-3768.
- Baird, Jennifer and Almohamad, Adnan (2026) Looted communities: the local contexts of illicit excavations at Dura-Europos in Syria. Antiquity: A Review of World Archaeology ISSN 0003-598X.
- Baird, Jennifer (2024) Reading field diaries against the grain: the notable and the absent in Syrian archaeology. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 12 (1), pp. 20-34. ISSN 21663548.
- Baird, Jennifer (2024) The gods of Dura-Europos. Minerva 2023, pp. 13-19. ISSN 0957-7718.
- Baird, Jennifer and Rothe, U. (2024) Beneath the headdress: dress and the women of Dura-Europos. Eastern Christian Art ISSN 1781-0930.
- Baird, J. A. and Kamash, Zena and Raja, Rubina (2023) Knowing Palmyra: mandatory production of archaeological knowledge. Journal of Social Archaeology 23 (1), pp. 76-98. ISSN 1469-6053.
- Baird, Jennifer (2020) The ruination of Dura-Europos. Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 3 (1), pp. 2. ISSN 2515-2289.
- Baird, Jennifer and Kamash, Z. (2019) Remembering Roman Syria: valuing Tadmor-Palmyra from ‘Discovery’ to destruction. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 62 (1), pp. 1-29. ISSN 0076-0730.
- Baird, Jennifer (2018) In small scratches forgotten: perspectives on graffiti from Dura-Europos. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 131 (1), pp. 17-33. ISSN 0040-7518.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2017) Framing the past: situating the archaeological in photographs. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 26 (2), pp. 165-186. ISSN 1356-9325.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2015) On reading the material culture of ancient sexual labour. Helios 42 (1), pp. 163-175. ISSN 0160-0923.
- Baird, Jennifer A. and McFadyen, Lesley (2014) Towards an archaeology of archaeological archives. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 29 (2), ISSN 0261-4332.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2013) Re-excavating the houses of Dura-Europos. Journal of Roman Archaeology 25, pp. 146-170. ISSN 1047-7594.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2011) Photographing Dura-Europos, 1928–1937: an archaeology of the archive. American Journal of Archaeology 115 (3), pp. 427-446. ISSN 0002-9114.
Book
- Baird, Jennifer and Pudsey, April, eds. (2022) Housing in the ancient Mediterranean world: material and textual approaches. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108845267. (In Press)
- Baird, Jennifer (2018) Dura-Europos. Archaeological Histories. London, UK: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781472530875.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2014) The inner lives of ancient houses: an archaeology of Dura-Europos. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199687657.
- Baird, Jennifer A. and Taylor, C., eds. (2010) Ancient graffiti in context. Routledge Studies in Ancient History. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415878890.
Book review
- Baird, Jennifer (2025) Syrian Marbles. Review of Koçak (M.), Kreikenbom (D.) (edd.) Sculptures from Roman Syria II. The Greek, Roman and Byzantine Marble Statuary. In two volumes. Pp. xvi + 708, ills, maps, pls. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2023. Cased, £154.50, €169.95, US$195.99. ISBN: 978-3-11-071149-3.. (In Press)
- Baird, Jennifer (2022) Palmyra: city of churches and mosques. (In Press)
- Baird, J.A. (2022) Danish diaries of Palmyra.
Book section
- Baird, Jennifer (2026) Found then lost: excavating archaeology’s past. In: Bobou, O. and Kühn, M. and Raja, R. (eds.) Excavating Cities and Archiving Knowledge. Archive Archaeology. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. ISBN 9782503625188. (In Press)
- Baird, Jennifer and Almohamad, Adnan and Alsaleh, A. (2025) The ruins that remain: remembering Dura-Europos in Salhiyeh. In: Brody, L. and Hunnell Chen, A. (eds.) Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. ISBN 97825036160491. (In Press)
- Baird, Jennifer (2025) Sheltering from crisis: living the Third Century in Roman Syria. In: Raja, R. and Seland, E.H. (eds.) Palmyra, the Roman Empire, and the Third Century Crisis - Zooming in and Scaling up from the Evidence. Oriens et Occidens. Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag. pp. 135-148. ISBN 9783515140218.
- Baird, Jennifer (2025) The Roman military on the Syrian Euphrates: small finds in Roman global worlds. In: Birley, A. and Walas, A. (eds.) Relativism and the Frontiers of Empire: Critical Perspectives on Roman Soldiers, Communities and Military Landscapes. Oxford, UK: Archaeopress. pp. 161-169. ISBN 9781805830689.
- Baird, Jennifer and Kamash, Z. and Raja, R. (2024) The Sanctuary of Bel in perspective: selective destructions, selective memories, selective realities. In: Raja, R. (ed.) Palmyra in Perspective. Studies in Palmyrene Archaeology and History. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. pp. 231-248. ISBN 9782503610320.
- Baird, Jennifer (2023) The significance of household cisterns at Roman Dura-Europos. In: Bonnie, R. and Klingborg, P. (eds.) Water in Ancient Mediterranean Households. Global Perspectives in Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology. Routledge. ISBN 9781032213972.
- Baird, Jennifer and von Reden, Sitta (2023) A caravan city at the edge of empire? The economy of Dura-Europos in the Syrian desert. In: von Reden, S. (ed.) Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies. De Gruyter. pp. 535-558. ISBN 9783110604641.
- Baird, Jennifer (2023) Unclassified: structured silences in the archaeological archive. In: Raja, R. (ed.) Shaping Archaeological Archives: Dialogues between Fieldwork, Museum Collection, and Private Archives. Archaeological Archives. Brepols. pp. 19-32. ISBN 9782503605647.
- Meyer, Caspar (2022) Domesticating the ancient house: the archaeology of a false analogy. In: Baird, Jennifer and Pudsey, April (eds.) Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Material and Textual Approaches. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108845267. (In Press)
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2022) The site of the archive: responsibility and rhetoric in archival archaeology of the Middle East. In: Boubou, O. and Miranda, A.C. and Raja, R. (eds.) Archival Historiographies - The Impact of Twentieth-Century Legacy Data on Archaeological Investigations. Archive Archaeology. Brepols Publishers. ISBN https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503600185-1.
- Baird, Jennifer (2021) Dura-Europos. In: Kaizer, T. (ed.) A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Wiley. pp. 295-304. ISBN 9781444339826.
- Baird, Jennifer (2019) Exposing archaeology: time in archaeological photographs. In: McFadyen, Lesley and Hicks, D. (eds.) Archaeology and Photography: Time, Objectivity and Archive. London, UK: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781350029682.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2017) Everyday life in Roman Dura-Europos: the evidence of dress practices. In: Kaizer, T. (ed.) Religion, Society and Culture at Dura-Europos. Yale Classical Studies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107123793.
- Baird, Jennifer A. and Taylor, C. (2016) Ancient graffiti. In: Ross, J. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 17-26. ISBN 9781138792937.
- Baird, Jennifer and Taylor, C. (2016) Ancient Graffiti. In: Ross, J.I. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art. New York, U.S.: Routledge. pp. 17-26. ISBN 9780367335977.
- Baird, Jennifer (2015) Private graffiti? Scratching the walls of houses at Dura-Europos. In: Benefiel, R. and Keegan, P. (eds.) Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World. Brill Studies in Greek and Roman Epigraphy. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 11-31. ISBN 9789004307124.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2013) Religion in early cities. In: Clark, P. (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199589531.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2013) Religion and ritual. In: Clark, P. (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 181-196. ISBN 9780199589531.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2012) Constructing Dura-Europos, ancient and modern. In: Lafrenz Samuels, K. and Totten, D. (eds.) Making Roman Places, Past and Present. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplemental Series. Rhode Island, U.S.: Journal of Roman Archaeology. pp. 34-49. ISBN 9781887829892.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2012) Dura deserta: the death and afterlife of Dura-Europos. In: Christie, N. and Augenti, A. (eds.) Vrbes Extinctae: Archaeologies of Abandoned Classical Towns. Farnham, UK: Ashgate. pp. 307-330. ISBN 9780754665625.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2012) Graffiti at Dura-Europos: a contextual approach. In: Baird, Jennifer A. and Taylor, C. (eds.) Ancient Graffiti in Context. New York, USA: Routledge. pp. 49-68. ISBN 9780415653527.
- James, S. and Baird, Jennifer A. and Strutt, K. (2012) Magnetometry survey of Dura’s Roman military base and vicinity. In: Leriche, P. and Coqueugniot, G. and De Pontbriand, S. (eds.) Europos-Doura Varia 1. Bibliothèque archéologique et historique. Beyrouth: Institut français du Proche-Orient. pp. 111-116. ISBN 9782351593752.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2012) L’habitat d’époque romaine à Europos-Doura: replacer les artéfacts en contexte. In: Leriche, P. and Coqueugniot, G. and De Pontbriand, S. (eds.) Europos-Doura Varia 1. Bibliothèque archéologique et historique. Beyrouth: Institut français du Proche-Orient. pp. 231-240. ISBN 9782351593752.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2011) The Houses of Dura-Europos: Archaeology, Archive, and Assemblage. In: Hoffman, G. and Brody, L. (eds.) Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity. Boston, U.S.: McMullan Museum. pp. 235-250.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2010) The graffiti of Dura-Europos: a contextual approach. In: Baird, Jennifer A. and Taylor, C. (eds.) Ancient Graffiti in Context. Routledge Studies in Ancient History. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415878890.
- Baird, Jennifer A. and Taylor, C. (2010) Ancient graffiti in context: introduction. In: Baird, Jennifer A. and Taylor, C. (eds.) Ancient Graffiti In Context. Routledge Studies in Ancient History. New York: Routledge. pp. 1-19. ISBN 9780415878890.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2010) City: Roman urbanism. In: Gagarin, M. (ed.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 161-165. ISBN 9780195170726.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2007) Shopping, eating and drinking at Dura-Europos: reconstructing contexts. In: Lavan, L. and Swift, E. and Putzeys, T. (eds.) Objects In Context, Objects In Use: Material Spatiality In Late Antiquity. Late Antique Archaeology. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 413-437. ISBN 9789004165502.
- Baird, Jennifer A. (2007) The bizarre bazaar: early excavations in the Roman East and problems of nomenclature. In: Croxford, B. and Ray, N. and Roth, R. and White, N. (eds.) TRAC '06: Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference Proceedings. Oxford, UK: Oxbow Books. pp. 34-42. ISBN 9781842172643.

Professor Jen Baird

Overview

Biography

Highlights

Web profiles

Administrative responsibilities

Professional memberships

Honours and awards

ORCID

Research

Research Centres and Institutes

Research projects

International (Digital) Dura-Europos Archive

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

Archaeological Archives as Inclusive Learning Labratories.

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

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Current doctoral researchers

JULIET SAMSON-CONLON

CLAIRE WALSH

JOHN CAMPBELL

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

BETH HODGETT

ILARIA BUCCI

Publications

Article

Book

Book review

Book section