Fall 2024 Courses

CLAS 102- Intro to History of Art I

HART 201- Art and Arch of Ancient Rome

HART 504- Independent Study

Classical Archaeology; Art and Architecture of Roman and Pre-Roman Italy

Sophie Crawford-Brown’s research centers on the art and archaeology of Republican and Early Imperial Italy, using material culture as a lens for addressing broader historical problems such as colonization processes, cross-cultural interaction, and the transition from Republic to Empire. Her current book project examines temple architecture and sacred landscapes in central Italy between the 3^rd century BCE and 1^st century CE. Focusing on the brightly painted architectural terracottas that dominated Italic temple decoration before the discovery of the Carrara marble quarries, it asks what these objects can tell us about interactions between colonists and indigenous populations, and how they were used to promote communal identity in the face of Roman military expansion.

Dr. Crawford-Brown has excavated at a range of archaeological sites in Cyprus and Italy, and has worked on museum projects at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She is the recipient of the Archaeological Institute of America’s John R. Coleman Fellowship, and was a teaching fellow at the University of Tübingen’s Institut für Klassische Archäologie in 2016. Dr. Crawford-Brown received the Irene Rosenzweig/Lily Auchincloss/Samuel H. Kress Foundation Rome Prize for 2016-2018, and lived in Rome for three years before coming to Rice in 2020.