IAP Welcomes Adria LaViolette as New Director

The Interdisciplinary Archaeology Program is happy to welcome Adria LaViolette, professor of Anthropology, as its new director!

Dr. LaViolette is an archaeologist with active research in eastern Africa, and a particular interest in indigenous medium-range and large-scale societies over the last two millennia. Her early research in West Africa focused on the ethnoarchaeological study of craft production in Jenne, Mali, with implications for early Iron Age urbanism in the Inland Niger Delta. Since 1987 she has been doing research along the East African coast. She has conducted survey and excavation in several coastal regions on the Tanzanian mainland and on the offshore islands of Pemba and Zanzibar (Unguja), on interconnected topics related to the archaeology of the Swahili from the 7th-15th centuries CE: emergent urban landscapes, household organization, craft production, the practice of Islam and other Swahili spiritualities, and political economy including the interface of local, regional, and long-distance trade and exchange. You can read more about Dr. LaViolette's curent and past projects here.

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We would also like to thank Dr. Tyler Jo Smith for her time as director of the IAP from 2011-2025. Under her dauntless leadership we saw a massive expansion of the archaeology program, as well as robust support for both undergraduate and graduates in their research and fieldwork. Thank you, Dr. Smith!

We greatly look forward to what Dr. LaViolette has in store for the IAP! Here's to another wonderful program director