Dr. Andrew Goldman has been selected to be the 2015-2016 Kershaw Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and will give a series of lectures across the country. A trained archaeologist who received his PhD in Classical Archaeology from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Dr. Goldman is currently the chair of the Classical Civilizations Department here at GU and teaches courses on ancient history and archaeology.
The AIA draws from a large pool of potential lecturers and Goldman believes that it was, in part, his prior successful lectures with the Association in Austin, TX and Charleston, SC in 2015 that played a role in his Lecture Program selection. Goldman began lecturing for this series in 2009, having taken part in the well established event across the U.S. and Canada and giving two to six lectures per year. He is looking forward to participating again this year. The lecture series, he says, “has been running for over a century, and archaeologists from all over the country are recruited to take part.”
As the AIA states, this Lecture Program is an invaluable part of the Association’s mission, as it spreads knowledge of recent archaeological developments to the general public, provides an opportunity for colleagues to discuss work and share research results, and fulfills a commitment to public education.
His lectures cover the excavations he has worked on with his team in Turkey at the site of ancient Gordion from 2004 – 2006, where they discovered a small Roman fort. Along with the University of Pennsylvania Museum’s excavation team, Goldman has worked there since 1992. His lecture series will also encompass Roman gemstones and their early Christian symbolism, showing Goldman’s expertise in Roman archaeology. Aside from the lecture series material, Goldman has also worked at excavations in Turkey, Cyprus, and Sardinia, and has written about the Roman army, ancient cemeteries, Latin inscriptions and ancient Roman signet rings.
Before Dr. Goldman became a professor and lecturer, he studied at Wesleyan University earning his B.A. in Classical Civilizations. During his junior year studying abroad in Rome, he fell in love with the Mediterranean, a region he says is “bursting with history and monuments.”
After studying ancient history and archaeology, he decided he wanted a career that allowed him to work with ancient civilizations and their artifacts.
“Second,” Goldman says, “I love puzzles, and that is essentially what archaeology is about. You assemble and analyze artifacts as you attempt to understand human activity in the past. Like a very poor jigsaw puzzle, though, lots of the pieces are missing, so that a great deal of study and interpretation is always necessary.”
Despite the challenge and frustration these issues present in archaeology, Goldman says the field is tremendously rewarding as new insight about the past is gained. Ultimately, this “helps us understand the development of human behavior and the genesis of our own society.”
GU also named Dr. Goldman the Arnold Professor of Humanities this year.