EDUCATION
Ph.D. Anthropology The University of Chicago 2006
M.A. Anthropology The University of Chicago 2000
A.B. Anthropology Stanford University 1997
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS:
- Assoc. Professor of Teaching (LSOE) (tenured) 2023-present
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine
- Asst. Professor of Teaching (LPSOE) (tenure-track) 2017-2023
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine
- Adjunct Asst. Professor 2012-2016
Department of Anthropology, Brown University
- Postdoctoral Fellow 2009-2011
The Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies, Brown University
- Postdoctoral Fellow 2007-2009
Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University
- Visiting Assistant Professor 2006-2007
The Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University
- Lecturer 2005
International Studies Program, The University of Chicago
UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENTS:
- Joukowsky Family Librarian for Middle East Studies 2009-2010; Brown University Library, Research and Outreach Services
HONORS:
- Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford University
- A.B. with honors and distinction, Stanford University
FELLOWSHIPS
- UCI Faculty Academy for Teaching Excellence (FATE) Fellow, 2024-5
- Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University (2007-2009)
- Watkins Dissertation Fellowship, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago (2005-2006)
- Century Fellowship, Division of Social Sciences, The University of Chicago (1997-1998, 1999-2001, 2004-2005)
- Martin Marty Center Dissertation Fellowship, Divinity School, The University of Chicago (2004-2005)
- Fulbright-Hays DDRA Dissertation Fellowship, Syria (2002-2004)
- Social Science Research Council, International Dissertation Research Fellowship, Syria (2002-2004)
- Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fellowship (awarded 2002, declined)
- Fulbright Islamic Civilizations Fellowship (awarded 2002, declined)
- Fulbright IIE (awarded 2002, declined)
- Mellon Foundation Fellowship, Center for Arabic Study Abroad, Cairo Egypt (2001-2002)
GRANTS
- UC Online Project award for: “Anthropology 2C: Introduction to Archaeology Online” Role: Co-PI (20% effort) with Dr. C. Lowman, Lead PI ($19,000)
- Generative AI to Improve Student Success grant, for the project “AI in the Social Science Classroom: Pedagogy, Prompt Engineering, and Project Based Learning” through OVPTL/OIT ($10,000). Role: Project Lead, with Dr. A. Jenks, and Dr. C. Lowman
- Endangered Archives Program, Grant #913, (2016), British Library, ($14000)
- Undergraduate Research and Training Award (UTRA), Brown University, for Timbuktu Manuscript project (Student: Katherine Lamb $3500)
- Center for Digital Scholarship Grant, Brown University, for BUPAP archaeological database (with S. Alcock and M. Berenfeld)
- Undergraduate Research and Training Award (UTRA), Brown University, for Quranic Manuscript Digitization Project (Student: Evelyn Ansell, $3000)
- Excellence At Brown, Research Stipend, Writing Program ($2000), Brown University (2008-9)
- Cogut Center for the Humanities, Faculty Research Group Grant, ($3300), Brown University (2008-9)
- Cogut Center for the Humanities, Faculty Research Group Grant, ($5000), Brown University (2007-8)
- Leiffer Fund Grant, Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago (2001)
PUBLICATIONS
Articles:
ER1 2024 Jenks, Angela, Christopher Lowman, and Ian Straughn.. “AI for Learning: Experiments from Three Anthropology Classrooms.” Anthropology News website, June 27, 2024. https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/ai-for-learning-experiments-from-three-anthropology-classrooms/
BC6 2023 “Flecks of Timbuktu on the Skin: Excavating the unbound aspects of a manuscript collection” in Timbuktu Unbound: Critical Heritage, Islamic Practice, and the Manuscript Traditions of West Africa Heritage Studies in the Muslim World series, Palgrave Macmillan.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34824-2_6
BC5 reprint of JA2 July 2020 “Heritage Crusades: Saving the Past from the Commons” in Imagining Antiquity in Islamic Societies. Ed. Stephennie Mulder, University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9781789385489
JA5 2021 Preservationist doctrines as theological propositions in secular clothes. Archaeological Dialogues, 28(2), 121–123. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1380203821000155;
JA4 2019 A Tale of Two Façades: Archaeology and the Secularization of an Islamic Past. Material Religion, 15:2, 185-204, doi: 10.1080/17432200.2019.1590005
JA3 2017 Spirits of Heritage, Specters of Ruins: Partnering with the Jinn in the Preservation of the Past. Review of Middle East Studies, 51(2), 196-202. doi:10.1017/rms.2017.98
JA2 2017 “Heritage Crusades: Saving the Past from the Commons,” International Journal of Islamic Architecture 6: 2, 367-386. doi:10.1386/ijia.6.2.367_1
BC4 2014 “Other Monumental Lessons” for Drawing on Rocks, Gathering by the Water: Archaeological Fieldwork at Rock Reliefs, Sacred Springs, and Other Places, ed. by Ömür Harmansah. Oxbow.
BC3 2013 “The Aptitude for Sacred Space” for Locating the Sacred: Theoretical Approaches to the Emplacement of Religion. ed. Claudia Moser and Cecelia Feldman-Weiss. Oxbow. 165-179
JA1 2012 Susan Alcock, Michelle Berenfeld and Christopher Tuttle. “The Brown University Petra “Upper Market” Archaeology (PUMA) Project: Report on the 2009 Exploration Season.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities, Jordan.
BC2 2012 “The Contemplation of Ruins: Heritage Practice and the Cosmopolitanism of Cairo’s Islamic Past.” In On Location: Heritage Cities and Sites, ed. D. Fairchild Ruggles, Springer. 193-212
BC1 2007 “Beyond Territorial Sovereignty: Archaeology and the spiritual dimension of the Arab-Byzantine frontier” in Social Orders and Social Landscapes. eds. Laura Popova, Charles Hartley and Adam Smith. Cambridge Scholars Press. Pp. 168-180.