Jeffrey Alan Becker

Education

• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ph.D., Classical archaeology, 2007. Dissertation: The Building Blocks of Empire: Civic Architecture, Central Italy, and the Roman Middle Republic. Advisor, Nicola Terrenato.
• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.A., Classical archaeology, 2003. Thesis: An Architectural Reappraisal of the Roman Villa at Grottarossa (Monte delle Grotte). Advisor, Nicola Terrenato.
• Franklin & Marshall College, A.B., Classical archaeology and Latin, departmental honors, 1999. Thesis: Dynastic Imagery and Power: the Flavian Triumph of AD 71. Advisor, Harriet I. Flower
• Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies. Rome, Italy. Spring 1998.
  

Teaching and Research Interests

Roman archaeology; Roman architecture and topography; Italic and Roman art; Greek architecture; Mediterranean urbanism; Roman history

Current Professional Appointments

• Visiting Assistant Professor. Department of Classics, McMaster University. July 2009-present.
• Managing Director, The Gabii Project. 2007-present.
• Assistant Director, Summer Program in Archaeology. American Academy in Rome. Summer 2009-present.

Publications (* denotes a peer-reviewed item; ** denotes invited contribution)

Books

Roman Republican Villas: Architecture, Context, and Ideology. Books and monographs of the American Academy in Rome. University of Michigan Press. (co-edited volume with N. Terrenato; Forthcoming).*

Studies in Italian Urbanism: the first millennium BCE (co-edited volume with E.C. Robinson; in preparation).

Translation of M. Torelli and P. Gros, Storia dell’urbanistica: il mondo romano 3^rd ed. (Laterza). Funded by a grant from the Loeb Classical Library Foundation. (In progress).

The Building Blocks of Empire: Architecture and Urbanism in Middle Republican Italy (Book ms. in preparation).

Articles and Chapters

“Villas and agriculture in Republican Italy.” In The Blackwell Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Republican Period, edited by J. DeRose Evans. (8,000 words; under contract [due January 2011]).**

“Rome’s encroachment upon Italy.” In The Blackwell Companion to Roman Italy, edited by A. Cooley.  (10,000 words; under contract [due December 2010]).**

“Italic principles and Roman architectural design.” In The Blackwell Companion to Roman Architecture, edited by R. Ulrich and C. Quenemoen. (6,000 words; [due June 2010]).**

“Domestic architecture in town and country in Republican Italy.” In Beyond Hellenization: Roman Italy in the Making, edited by R. E. Roth. Cambridge University Press. (In preparation; due Fall 2009).**

“Urbanistica Ortogonale a Gabii: Risultati delle nuove prospezioni geofisiche.” (with N. Terrenato, A. Gallone, and S. Kay). Lazio e Sabina 7, edited by G. Ghini. (due September 2009).

“Liguria.” In Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, section editor D. S. Potter. Oxford University Press. (500 words; In press).**

 “A new plan for an ancient Italian city: Gabii revealed.” (with M. Mogetta and N. Terrenato). American Journal of Archaeology 113.4 (October 2009) 629-42.

 “Il sito di Monte delle Grotte sulla via Flaminia e lo sviluppo della villa nel suburbio di Roma.” (with N. Terrenato). In Suburbium II: il Suburbio di Roma dalla fine dell’età monarchica alla nascita del sistema delle ville (V-II sec. a.C.), edited by R. Volpe and V. Jolivet, 393-401. Rome: École française de Rome, 2009.

“The rediscovery of the Villa delle Grotte at Grottarossa and the prehistory of Roman villas.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 19 (2006) 213-20.*

“Investigating early villas: the case of Grottarossa.” In Papers in Italian archaeology VI: Communities and Settlements from the Neolithic to the Early Medieval Period. Proceedings of the 6^th Conference of Italian Archaeology held at the University of Groningen, Groningen Institute of Archaeology, The Netherlands, April 15-17, 2003 2 v. (BAR Int. Ser. S1452), edited by P.A.J. Attema, A.J. Nijboer, and A. Zifferero, 813-21. Oxford: ArchaeoPress, 2005.

Book Reviews

Review of O. De Cazanove, Civita Di Tricarico I: Le Quartier de la Maison du Monolithe et L’enceinte Intermédiaire (Collection de L’école Française de Rome; 409). Rome: École française de Rome, 2008. American Journal of Archaeology 114.1 (2010). (Forthcoming).

Review of R. E. Roth, Styling Romanisation: pottery and society in central Italy. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Journal of Roman Studies 99 (2009) 280-1

Review of G. Pucci and C. Mascione, Manifattura ceramica etrusco-romana a Chiusi: il complesso produttivo di Marcianella. Bari: Edipuglia, 2003. Journal of Roman Studies 95 (2005) 310-11.

Review of W. Regter, Imitation and creation: development of early bucchero design at Cerveteri in the seventh century B.C. Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Museum, 2003. Journal of Roman Studies 94 (2004) 223-4.

Fieldwork

The Gabii Project. Managing director. 2007-present.

Università di Roma “La Sapienza” Meta Sudans / Palatine NE excavations. Field archaeologist, 2004; trench supervisor: 2005, 2006. Director, Clementina Panella.

Field research, Villa delle Grotte (Grottarossa). 2002, 2003. Director, Nicola Terrenato.

Cecina Valley Survey excavations at Podere Cosciano (Pomarance). Field archaeologist: 1999, 2001. Director, Nicola Terrenato.

Conference papers and sessions (* denotes refereed paper)

“City walls and civic identity in Middle Republican Italy.”  9^th Roman Archaeology Conference, University of Oxford. March 25-28, 2010.

Session co-organizer (with M. Mogetta) “The Archaeology of Middle Republican Rome and Italy,” (Contributors: J. A. Becker, T. J. Cornell, M. J. Johnson, F. Marcattili, F.-H. Massa-Pairault). 9^th Roman Archaeology Conference, University of Oxford. March 25-28, 2010.

Invited Session Chair for “Republican and Augustan Rome,” Archaeological Institute of America 111^th meeting, Anaheim, Ca. January 7, 2010.

 “Infant burials and emerging social hierarchy in Orientalizing Latium,” (with J. Nowlin). Archaeological Institute of America 111^th meeting, Anaheim, Ca. January 6-9, 2010.

Session co-organizer (with E. C. Robinson) “Current approaches to the archaeology of first millennium BC Italian urbanism,” (Contributors: P. A. J. Attema, J. Becker, G. Cifani, M. Mogetta, P. Perkins, E. Robinson). 8^th Roman Archaeology Conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. April 3-5, 2009.*

 “Cities, settlements, and architecture in Republican Latium,” 8^th Roman Archaeology Conference, University of Michigan. April 3-5, 2009.*

(with N. Terrenato, A. Gallone, and S. Kay) “Urbanistica Ortogonale a Gabii: Risultati delle nuove prospezioni geofisiche,” Convegno Lazio e Sabina 2009. Rome, Italy. March 4-5, 2009.

(with M. Mogetta and N. Terrenato) “A new plan of an ancient Italian city: Gabii revealed,” 110^th Archaeological Institute of America meeting, Philadelphia, Pa. January 10, 2009.*

Invited Session Chair for “Current Work in Pre-Roman and Roman Italy,” Archaeological Institute of America 110^th meeting, Philadelphia, Pa. January 10, 2009.

(with N. Terrenato) “The Gabii Project: a Report on the First Season,” Poster presentation, Archaeological Institute of America 109^th meeting, Chicago, Il. January 4, 2008.*

Joint AIA/APA Colloquium co-organizer, “Roman Republican villas: architecture, context, and ideology,” (Contributors: J. Becker, J. Bodel, C.M.C. Green, B. Reay, N. Terrenato, M. Torelli, R. Volpe, A. Wallace-Hadrill). Archaeological Institute of America 108^th meeting, San Diego, Ca. January 5, 2007.*

 “Polygonal masonry and Republican villas: the problem of the basis villae,” Archaeological Institute of America 108^th meeting, San Diego, Ca. January 5, 2007.*

 (with N. Terrenato) “Il sito di Monte delle Grotte sulla via Flaminia e lo sviluppo della villa nel suburbio di Roma,” Convegno Suburbium II, École française de Rome. February 17-18, 2005.

“The topography of public markets at Rome and the problem of the Macellum Liviae,” CAMWS Southern Section 84^th meeting, Winston-Salem, NC. November 5, 2004.*

 (with N. Terrenato) “The rediscovery of the Villa delle Grotte at Grottarossa and the prehistory of Roman villas,” Archaeological Institute of America 105^th meeting, San Francisco, Ca. January 3, 2004.*

 “Investigating early villas: the case of Grottarossa,” 6^th International Conference of Italian Archaeology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. April 15-17, 2003.*

 “Flanking the Forum: the quadriporticus in Roman architecture,” CAMWS, Austin, Tx. April 4, 2002.*

“Roman perspectives of urban landscape,” at “Space and Locale in Classical Antiquity,” University of Virginia. February 24, 2001.

Invited presentations

“The Gabii Project: 2007-2010,” lecture for McMaster University Department of Classics, Faculty-Graduate Student Symposium. March 18, 2010.

“Villas and their culture in Republican Italy,” Reno, NV., chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America. February 3, 2010.

“Cities and cultural identity in Republican Italy,” Fr. Bader Lecture, Central Pennsylvania chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America, University Park, Pa. October 7, 2009.

 “Urbanism, architecture, and the Roman conquest of Italy,” Classical Association of Virginia. Williamsburg, Va. May 3, 2008.

“Architecture and identity in Republican Italy,” Williamsburg, Va. Society of the AIA. November 8, 2007.

 “City walls and Roman urbanism,” Scholarly Communication Working Group, UNC-Chapel Hill. March 21, 2007.

Awards

General dissertation completion fellowship.  The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2005-2006.

Professional Service

Member, local organizing committee, 8^th Roman Archaeology Conference (RAC). University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. April 3-5, 2009.

Departmental Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Classics, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2004-2005.

North Carolina Society of the Archaeological Institute of America: Publicity coordinator 2001-2004; Program Coordinator 2004-2006; delegate to AIA council 2005, 2006.

Conference assistant, “Current Issues in State Formation: the Mediterranean and Beyond.” UNC-Chapel Hill, October 17-18, 2003.

Member, Student Affairs Interest Group (SAIG) of the Archaeological Institute of America. 2002-2005.

Conference organizer, UNC-Duke Graduate Colloquium in Classics, “Imago mundi: Travel and Foreigners in Classical Antiquity.” March 23, 2003.

Conference organizer, UNC-Duke Graduate Colloquium in Classics, “Gods and Monsters: Divinization and Demonization in the Ancient World.” March 23, 2002.

Newsletter editor, North Carolina Classical Association, 2000-2002.

Languages

Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, French, German.