Profile

Lynn Dodd is a Professor of the Practice of Religion and Spatial Sciences in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Her research centers on archaeology and society (why the past matters) and ancient innovation and social change (material reflections of new ideas). She is particularly interested in the ways that beliefs about places and things make a difference, whether in Ancient Egypt and the Near East or in Native American landscapes in coastal California. As Curator of USC’s Archaeology Research Center, she is engaged in technical material studies, excavation publication projects, and the integration of extended reality in research, conservation, and public communication.

Her research specialties include:

  • Amuq Valley Research Project Survey (Turkey)
  • Kenan Tepe Excavations (Tigris River, Turkey)
  • Native American Cultural Landscape Project (California)
  • Tell al-Judaidah Publication Project (Turkey)
  • Israeli Palestinian Archaeology Working Group (Co-organizer)

She has served as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Archaeology Undergraduate Major (2017-2018) and as a USC Dornsife Distinguished Faculty Fellow (2011-2013).

She is the recipient of the ASOR Charles Harris Award (2018), the ASOR Membership Service Award (2015), the Open Archaeology Prize 2009, and the USC/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Mentoring Award (2007).

Education

Ph.D., Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles
M.A., Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles
B.A., Art History, Smith College

Selected publications

Lynn Dodd and Ran Boytner. “Archaeology and Bodies of Knowledge in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” In Archaeology in Palestine, Politics, and Peace: Essays in Memory of Adel Yahya. To be published by Ex Oriente E.V.G., Berlin. 2018.

Lynn Dodd. “Sustainable Management of Archaeology and Heritage in Jerusalem’s Old City.” In Contested Sites in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Old City Initiative, edited by T. Najem, M. J. Molloy, M. D. Bell, J. Bell, Routledge, 2017.

Lynn Dodd. “Monuments of Resistance: Gurgum and the Assyrian Conquest.” Domination, Resistance and Adaptation: Archaeology of Imperialism, G. Areshian, ed., UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, pp. 57-83, 2013.