Classical Studies Faculty Directory
Gail Hoffman
Associate Professor and Chair
Associate Professor by courtesy, Art, Art History and Film Department
Gail Hoffman
Ph.D.
Contact
Stokes Hall S241
Telephone: 617-552-2236
Email: gail.hoffman@bc.edu
Education
- University of Michigan
Research Interests
I am a classical archaeologist whose primary focus is the cultural interactions between the Near East and Greece during the Early Iron Age (ca. 1050-700 BCE). My first book examined the archaeological evidence for Near Eastern immigrants living in the Greek world. And I am now studying iconographic and cultural borrowings by Greek elite as they sought to define their own distinctive identities. I have excavated at Paestum, Italy and Corinth, Greece.
Biography
At Boston College, I teach ancient civilization, fine arts, and history courses such as Art and Myth in Ancient Greece, the Culture of Athenian Democracy, and Greek Civilization. I also teach elementary ancient Greek (and sometimes Latin) and I have co-curated two exhibits of ancient art at BC’s McMullen Museum. In my teaching I seek to show students how artistic and archaeological evidence can be used in conjunction with written material to provide a more vivid understanding of past cultures.
Publications
Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire (McMullen Museum, 2014) co-editor with Lisa Brody.
Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity (McMullen Museum, 2011) co-editor with Lisa Brody.
"Defining Identities: Greek Artistic Interaction with the Near East" in Crafts and Images in Contact: Studies on Eastern Mediterranean Art of the First Millennium BCE, eds.C.E. Suter and C. Uehlinger in Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis v.210 (Fribourg: Academic Press 2005) 351-89.
"Painted Ladies: Early Cycladic II Mourning Figures?" American Journal of Archaeology 106 (2002) 525-50.
Imports and Immigrants: Near Eastern Contacts with Iron Age Greece. (University of Michigan Press, 1997).