Emily S. K. Anderson

Emily S. K. Anderson is an Associate Professor of Classics and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts & Sciences. She specializes in Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age material culture, with a focus on craft production, glyptic art, and human-object interactions. Her research integrates archaeological fieldwork, artifact analysis, and interdisciplinary approaches to explore sociocultural dynamics.

Education:

• PhD in Archaeology, Yale University (2009)
• MPhil, Yale University
• BA with honors in Old World Archaeology and Art, Brown University

Research Interests:

• Material biographies and non-human agency in Bronze Age Crete
• Zoomorphic representations and object-animal relations
• Receptions of antiquity in modern American urban contexts

Her work bridges fine-scale craft analysis (e.g., Minoan seals) with broader spatial and social networks, emphasizing how objects mediate human experience.

Books:

• Seals, Craft and Community in Bronze Age Crete (Cambridge, 2016)
• Minoan Zoomorphic Culture: Between Bodies and Things (Cambridge, 2024)
• Ongoing project: Syncopated Ancient: The Early Mediterranean ReCreated in the Fiber of a Modern American City

Field Projects: Collaborations include the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey, Azoria Excavations, and Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project. Current work with Greece’s Corinthian Ephorate focuses on multi-scalar site biographies.