Valerie Higgins (Program Director)
Valerie Higgins has an honours degree in ‘Ancient and Mediaeval History and Archaeology’ from the University of Liverpool and a Master’s in ‘Economic Archaeology’ from the University of Sheffield. She then worked as a professional archaeologist in local government before returning to the University of Sheffield to complete a Ph.D. on human remains from an Italian monastery site. After periods of research in the United States and New Zealand she came to live in Rome where she has been teaching and researching Italian archaeology.
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Samer Abdel Ghafour
Dr. Abdel Ghafour guides students to rethink the interface between art and antiquity and its publics, not simply from an interpretive or curatorial point of view. His students are encouraged to explore the links and overlapping layers between art, antiquity, aesthetics, politics, and cultural diplomacy. His wealth of experience teaching, researching, and working in the cultural heritage sector gives him a profound insight into quantitative and qualitative research methodology, UNESCO WHL Inscription procedures, and the archaeological heritage of Ancient Rome, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Near East.
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Pier Matteo Barone
Dr. Pier Matteo Barone is an adjunct faculty member of the American University of Rome teaching courses on archaeological methodology, geophysical techniques (GPR, in particular) and forensic archaeology, as well as courses on the archaeology and heritage of Rome and the eastern Mediterranean.
His research is centered on different remote sensing applications to better understand the archaeological landscape. He is also a recognized expert in forensic archaeology employed to testify in criminal and civil cases. He was a co-investigator in a three-year research project (FIRB 2012) with the geological institute of CNR (IGAG) investigating marble quarries of the Greco-Roman world in Turkey.
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Brian Daniels
Dr. Daniels is the director of research and programs for the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. He is also a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, and holds an appointment as a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Daniels has worked with indigenous communities in western North America on issues surrounding heritage rights, repatriation, and recognition for over fifteen years.
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Carlotta Ferarra
Professor Ferrara is currently participating in different fields of Physics and Geophysics in interdisciplinary projects focused on geology, landscape evaluation and hydrology, archaeology, forensic science and cultural heritage. This has involved collaborating with Italian and foreign academics, in particular, with the Università degli Studi di Roma TRE, CRA (Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura – Council for Research and experimentation in Agriculture), the University of Waterloo, and with Sensors & Software, Inc. Canada, for electromagnetic signal analysis, soil study, land evaluation, and territorial assessments.
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Peter Gould
Peter Gould began his career in economics, initially at the Brookings Institution, then as a financial editor for a national magazine, and subsequently at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and the US Department of Commerce. He has taught in cultural heritage programs at AUR and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a consulting scholar at Penn’s Cultural Heritage Center. He also is a founding director of the Sustainable Preservation Initiative, an NGO dedicated to preserving cultural heritage by providing sustainable economic opportunities to communities that are home to archaeological sites.
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Francesca Guiducci
David Pollon
Professor Pollon has been teaching courses in finance, economics and the entertainment industry at AUR since 2003. He also teaches graduate seminars for the MBA program of the Institut Superieur de Gestion in Paris, France. Prior to entering the academic world, Professor Pollon made his career in the international financial arena working for The Walt Disney Company. After serving as Finance Director at the company's headquarters in Los Angeles, he became Finance Director in the UK and then Italy, where he was in charge of all cinema, video, and DVD financial operations.
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Laurie Rush
Dr. Laurie Rush is an Anthropologist and Archaeologist who has served as a US Army civilian for sixteen years managing Cultural Resources at Fort Drum, NY. She has a BA from Indiana University Bloomington, an MA and PhD from Northwestern University, and is a Fellow of the National Science Foundation and of the American Academy in Rome. Dr. Rush’s research specialty is Native Americans of northeastern North America, and she serves as Native American Affairs Liaison for the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum.
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Barbara Stansicia
With a major in Economics, Dr. Staniscia specialized in Local Development and Economic Geography. Her main interests include human mobility - tourism and migration - and their spatial impacts and implications in terms of regional development. She has been active in the international academic environment for many years, being involved in several international research projects and is currently serving as the Scientific Secretary of the IGU (International Geographical Union) Commission on ‘Global Change and Human Mobility’.
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