Key Pages
Christopher Witmore |-- |
writing |
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teaching |
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projects |
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vitae |
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e-publication |
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The Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World |
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JIAAW Workplace |
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Multiple Fields |
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The Metamedia Lab |
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Symmetrical Archaeology
This was my webite from 2006-2009. My new website is now located at: http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/ChristopherWitmore/Home [link]
Archaeologist of Greece | Landscape Archaeologist | Material Culture Specialist
I am an Associate Professor with the Department of Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures at Texas Tech University. I am also a founding member and former Assistant Director of the Metamedia Laboratory at Stanford. In 2005, I co-founded archaeolog.org, a weblog for all archaeologists, and archaeography.com, a photoblog dealing in all things archaeological. After three years, both blogs have drawn regular contributions from over 70 international scholars and receive upwards of 50k hits per month.
Within archaeology, my research concentrates on landscape, material culture studies (I prefer things), emergent media in archaeology and the history of archaeology. These interests have three primary facets in my current postdoctoral research. First, my work articulates human and companion animal relations with the landscapes of Greece in general, and the Argolid in particular, over the very long term. From the development of agricultural practices in the Neolithic to pastoral economies and the dynamics of the Greek polis to contemporary land-use my work develops historical geographies of the Greek countryside. Second, my work explores the relationships of people and things, specifically in the context of ‘media’ (whether 2nd-century BCE inscriptions, 1st-century CE coins, or 18th-century maps) as developing modes of circulating actions and ideas. Third, my interests in archaeological practice have served as a springboard to revisiting core questions related to field methodologies in both excavation and survey. How do we produce an accurate portrayal of the material past? What constitutes a satisfactory interpretation? Such questions are the heart of my work in comparative histories of archaeology — with the Classical Topographer, William Martin Leake or the multi-disciplinary French Expédition Scientifique de Morée — and, perhaps not surprisingly, they have led me to address issues related to the reception of the Greco-Roman past in late 18th and early 19th century Europe whether in Greece or Sicily, London or Paris.
My current book projects include:
- Archaeology. The Discipline of Things
- Archaeology in the Making
- From Isthmus to Gulf: A Chorography of the Eastern Morea, Greece
- Open Pasts
http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/ChristopherWitmore/26 Writing (more here under Curriculum Vitae)
some recent work
- Archaeology and the speculative turn- a visual exploration of the movements behind two museum objects in light of two speculative realist principles
- The realities of the past- some preliminary thoughts on archaeology and pragmatology in light of the speculative turn
- Archaeology - risk society- with Michael Shanks - a statement about the place of archaeology in contemporary society - full title "Memory practices and the archaeological imagination in risk society: design and long term community"
- A politics of the past present: Four quandaries for archaeology- a piece on the realities of things in light of Shanks and Tilley 20 years on
- Symmetrical Archaeology: Two Clarifications - a response to common misconceptions about Symmetrical Archaeology
http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/ChristopherWitmore/34 Teaching
Current courses at Texas Tech University
- Ancient technology: Archaeology, science, and design 2011
- Archaeologies of the Classical World 2011
- 15 Cities: Urbanism, Archaeology, and the Long Term
- World of Egypt and the Near East: Archaeology, history, literature 2012
Summer Field School 2012: City & Province: Rome & Britannia 2012
Academic year 2010-2011
- Ancient technology: Archaeology, science, and design 2010
- Archaeologies of the Classical World 2010
- Material Culture/Things for Archaeologists, Historians and everyone else (Graduate Seminar)
- World of Egypt and the Near East: Archaeology, history, literature 2011
Academic year 2009-2010
- Ancient technology: Archaeology, science, and design 2009
- World of Greece: Archaeology, history, literature
- Classical Archaeology: History, method, theory (Seminar for Graduates and upper level Undergraduates)
- Archaeologies of the Classical World 2009
At Brown (here are some links to my course wikis at Brown University)
- Archaeology in the 'Information Age'(a seminar in archaeological media: from paperwork to pixalwork)
- Archaeologies of the Greek Past(an introduction to archaeology in Greece)
- The Archaeology of Democracy: Social transformations in Ancient Greece, ca. 900-323 BCE(a graduate seminar in society building)
- 13 Things: Archaeology, material culture, science studies and design(an introduction to the study of things)
- Things! The material worlds of humanity (a seminar in material culture studies)
Select Projects
- Anglo-American Antiquarians and Early Modern Science
- Symmetrical Archaeology
- Multiple Field Approaches in the Mediterranean: Revisiting the Argolid Exploration Project
- The MetaMedia Laboratory at Stanford
- Epic Memory
- Peripatetic Video
- A New Media Survey Transect(Flash project with full detail video)
- One Hour at the Lion Gate of Mycenae
- thirty-five hands & one paw
- Archaeography(a collective archaeological photoblog)
- Chaisme (softbooks through Metamedia)
- Archaeolog(a collective archaeological blog dealing with all things archaeological)
- Philolog (a collective archaeological blog of connections, commentary, and critique of Classical literature)
video production
- The Garbology of Uswith Bill Rathje
- other video work [link]
events
- "Archaeology and the second empiricism", a lecture as part of Archaeologies into the 2010s - yet another turn?, Uppsala University, Sweden. Rescheduled because of Eyjafjallajoekull volcano.
- THINGS 2, a dialogue with Janet Hoskins, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, Northwestern University. Rescheduled to Fall 2011 due to Eyjafjallajoekull volcano.
- Theoretical Archaeology Group 2010, Brown University
- Archaeology and the Speculative Turn my prezi from the TAG session Worlds Otherwise.
- The Center for Sustainability and the Long Term
Contact
no spam cwitmore(at)gmail.com or christopher.witmore(at)ttu.edu
