Emily Anderson

Emily S. K. Anderson is an associate professor of Classics at Johns Hopkins University. She is also affiliated with the department of History of Art and serves as director of the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum. Her education includes a Ph.D. in Archaeology from Yale University (2009), an M.Phil. from Yale (2005), and a B.A. with honors in Old World Archaeology and Art from Brown University (2002). Career history at Johns Hopkins encompasses adjunct faculty at the Peabody Institute (2009), lecturer in Classics and archaeology (2010–2013), senior lecturer in Classics and History of Art (2013–2017), and assistant professor of Classics since 2017.

Her research specializations include the material and visual cultures of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, with interests in art and archaeology, material culture, craft production, glyptic, zoomorphic culture, ritual performance, community-making, and object agency. She has participated in fieldwork projects including the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey, Azoria Excavations, Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project, and Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project. Major publications are her books Seals, Craft and Community in Bronze Age Crete (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and Minoan Zoomorphic Culture: Between Bodies and Things (Cambridge University Press, 2024), as well as articles such as “The Poetics of the Cretan Lion: Glyptic and Oral Culture in the Bronze Age Aegean” (American Journal of Archaeology, 2020), “Intuitive Things: Helmets, Shields, Ikria and the Uniqueness of Aegean Composites” (2021), and “A Sense of Stone and Clay: The Inter-Corporeal Disposition of Minoan Glyptic” (2019). Awards and honors include the Johns Hopkins University Catalyst Award (2020–2023), P.E.O. Scholar Award (2007–2008), Yale University Dissertation Writing Fellowship (2007–2008), and election to the Scientific Committee of the Centro Internazionale di Ricerche Archeologiche, Antropologiche e Storiche (2020). She contributes to teaching through courses that utilize the Archaeological Museum collections.

Professional Email: emily.anderson@jhu.edu