Strata: Milestones

Boston University professor James Wiseman has been appointed to a newly endowed professorship, the Founder’s Chair of Archaeology. Wiseman is director and founder of the Center for Archaeological Studies and co-founder of the university’s department of archaeology, the first and only one of its kind in the country since its establishment in 1981.

Wiseman received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and he began teaching at Boston University in 1973 as a classics professor. He specializes in the archaeology of the Roman provinces. In founding the Center, Wiseman says he wanted to develop the university’s archaeology courses into a program with a more comprehensive approach to archaeological disciplines and methods, as well as opportunities for field research. The department now includes programs in prehistoric and historic world archaeology and trains students in materials recovery, analysis and interpretation. The Center has field schools in Menorca, Spain and Belize, and the faculty and students conduct research on five continents.

Wiseman is also the founding editor of several publications, including the Journal of Field Archaeology. The new endowed chair is funded by the Joukowsky Family Foundation and will be named for Wiseman upon his retirement.—D.D.R.