John Cherry
Joukowsky Family Professor in Archaeology and Professor of Classics:
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Phone: +1 401 863 6412
John_Cherry@brown.edu
John Cherry's teaching and research interests, and thus also his publications, are eclectic, and reflect his "mixed" background in Classics, Anthropology, and Archaeology, as well as educational training on both sides of the Atlantic, and archaeological fieldwork experience in Great Britain, the United States, Yugoslavia, Albania, Italy, and (especially) Greece and (currently) Armenia.
Biography
Brown is the fourth university at which John Cherry has taught. After a brief stint in the late 1970s in the (now defunct) Dept. of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, he was appointed to a University Lectureship in Aegean Prehistory in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge, which he held from 1980 until 1993. Throughout that period, he was a Fellow and Tutor at Fitzwilliam College, where he directed studies in Classics and in Archaeology & Anthropology. In 1993 he moved to the University of Michigan as Professor of Classical Archaeology and Greek, serving there for 11 years as Director of the renowned Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology. At Michigan he was also a Curator in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, where he was in charge of the prehistoric collections, as well as initiating a renewed program of Kelsey Museum Publications.
Interests
His teaching and research interests, and thus also his publications, are eclectic, and reflect his "mixed" background in Classics, Anthropology, and Archaeology, as well as educational training on both sides of the Atlantic, and archaeological fieldwork experience in Great Britain, the United States, Yugoslavia, Albania, Italy, and (especially) Greece and (currently) Armenia, where he co-directs the Vorotan project in Armenia with Susan Alcock (Brown), Armen Tonikyan, and Mkrtch Zardaryan (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan). He is principally a specialist in Aegean Prehistory, tempered by much wider interests in Mediterranean and European prehistory and archaeology. His fieldwork has almost exclusively revolved around regional survey and landscape studies, which inevitably implies an interest in the archeology of many periods. He has special interests in the emergence of complex societies, in the archaeology of islands, in archaeological theory, in the archaeology of the southern Caucasus, and in Alexander the Great and (particularly) his Nachleben.
The courses he has taught over the past 35 years have tended to be thematic, theoretical, or comparative, and they fall very broadly within Mediterranean or Classical archaeology, Classical Civilization, or Archaeological Theory. Aside from teaching in areas in which he is specialized, He wants to encourage an interest in the ancient world by offering appealing undergraduate courses in areas such as Greek Sport, Alexander the Great, and the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. At the upper division undergraduate and graduate level, he is particularly concerned that students are exposed to ethical and professional issues in archaeology, as well as gaining a sound understanding of historical and theoretical issues in archaeology.
An important aspect of his scholarly activities throughout his career has been editorial work. He co-edited the journal World Archaeology from 1988 until 1997, served as joint Book Reviews Editor for the American Journal of Archaeology between 1995 and 1999, and has been co-editor of the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology since 1990. He sits on the editorial boards of several journals and monograph series, at the University of Michigan created the Kelsey Museum Publications series, and is now charged with establishing a new publication series under the auspices of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.
Degrees
M.A. (Statutory), University of Cambridge, 1983; Ph.D., Archaelogy, Southampton University, 1981; M.A., Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, 1973; B.A., Latin and Greek, Bristol University, 1969
Teaching
The courses he has taught fall very broadly within Mediterranean or Classical archaeology, Classical Civilization, or Archaeological Theory. Aside from teaching in areas in which he is specialized, he wants to encourage an interest in the ancient world by offering appealing undergraduate courses in areas such as Greek Sport, Alexander the Great, and the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. At the upper division undergraduate and graduate level, he is particularly concerned that students are exposed to ethical and professional issues in archaeology, as well as gaining a sound understanding of historical and theoretical issues in archaeology.