Lea Cline, Ph.D
Co-director | lkcline@ilstu.edu | 309-438-5261
Dr. Cline is Professor of Art History at Illinois State University. From 2020-22, she was the inaugural Ken Holder Endowed Professor of Art.
She is currently the area coordinator for Art History in the School of Art and the Student Program Advisor for the U.S. Fulbright Program. Dr. Cline is also the co-founder and co-director of the ISU in Italy: Orvieto study abroad program.
Cline earned her doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin in Roman Art and Architecture in 2013. Cline was a Fulbright scholar to Italy in 2007 and has taught American students in Italy with the University of Georgia, the University of Texas, and Southern Methodist University. Before coming to ISU, Dr. Cline worked at Yale University Art Gallery (Coins and Medals) and the University of Florida (Art History). Her background in archaeology includes participation in projects at Ostia Antica (near Rome), Monte Polizzo (Sicily), Chersonesos (Crimea), and Oplontis (near Pompeii).
Kathryn Jasper, Ph.D
Co-director | kljaspe@ilstu.edu |309-438-5920
Kathryn Jasper is Associate Professor of History at Illinois State University. She also oversees the Latin program and Classical Studies minor in the Department of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures. Jasper earned a BA in archaeology and an MA in medieval history from the University of Arizona. She holds a doctoral degree from the University of California at Berkeley in history and medieval studies. Jasper is broadly trained in ancient and medieval history and her research and publications reflect that range. Her first monograph (to be submitted to publishers in fall 2021), entitled Bounded Wilderness: Landscape and Land Management within the Congregation of Fonte Avellana, 1035-1393, studies monastic communities and how individuals relied on Late Antique models to build new institutions – relating to one another and to their physical environment in new ways – to pursue both ideological and political ends. The book’s inherent interdisciplinarity combines the fields of history, economic geography, archaeology, and environmental studies. Consequently, the project utilizes different tools to address its research questions, such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to map property acquisitions over time, and data from archaeological survey that shows the physical characteristics of specific landscapes and places. As the Co-Director of the Valle Gianni Archaeological Project, this is Jasper’s second experience leading an archaeological project. Her record of fieldwork in both CRM and academic contexts goes back nearly two decades
Collaborators
Katie Rask, Ph.D
Field Supervisor | rask.4@osu.edu
Dr. Rask is Assistant Professor of Classics at The Ohio State University. She specializes in the religion and archaeology of Etruria and Greece. Her manuscript, entitled Personal Experience and Material Devotion in Ancient Greek Religion, is near completion. Interdisciplinary in nature, this study visits a variety of topics related to the personal lives of Greek practitioners, such as votives in the kitchen and at the loom, children’s religious histories, dealing with ghosts in daily life, and taking the gods with you by land and sea. Her previous publications addressed a variety of religious topics, including animal sacrifice, votive activity, and sacred images. Dr. Rask has undertaken archaeological fieldwork in Italy (Poggio Colla) and Greece (Corinth, Argive Heraion, Despotiko). She has led several study abroad trips in Greece and served as an instructor at the Poggio Colla Field School. Dr. Rask earned graduate degrees from The Ohio State University and Florida State University.
Jonathan Thayn, Ph.D
Geographer | jthayn@ilstu.edu | 309-438-8112
Dr. Thayn, a professor in the Department of Geography, Geology and the Environment at Illinois State, is a specialist in remote sensing, GIS, and statistical spatial analysis. He earned his doctorate in geography from the University of Kansas. His fieldwork focuses on understanding landscape-scale ecosystems, their response to perturbation, and their seasonal variations. He focuses on characterizing and modeling landscape-scale ecosystem function and response to perturbation using time-series’ of satellite imagery. His research interests include applications associated with agriculture, grassland and forest ecosystems, and archaeology.
John Kostelnick, Ph.D
Geographer | jckoste@ilstu.edu | 309-438-7679
Dr. Kostelnick is a professor in the Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment, and Director of the Institute for Geospatial Analysis and Mapping (GEOMAP) at Illinois State University. He holds a Ph.D in geography from the University of Kansas. His primary research interests include multiple facets of GIScience, including crisis mapping, geovisualization, GIS integration into science and society, and cultural mapping.
Abigail Chipps Stone, Ph.D
Zooarchaeologist | acston1@ilstu.edu | 309-438-3827
Dr. Stone is an assistant professor of archaeology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Illinois State University. She holds a doctorate from Washington University in anthropology. Dr. Stone specializes in the archaeology of Africa, and she is currently involved in projects in Mali, Cameroon, and Zambia, in addition to projects in Illinois and Ohio. Her research focuses primarily on questions of movement and mobility in the archaeological record, using excavation, zooarchaeology, and isotopic analysis.
Ryan C. Lange, M.A.
Research Archaeologist | rclang3@ilstu.edu | 309-438-3795
Ryan Lange is a GIS and drone specialist and instructor for the Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment at Illinois State University. He teaches the GEO 324: Drones for Mapping and Remote Sensing and GEO 325: Python Scripting for GIS courses in the department. Ryan has worked for the University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist since 2016, primarily on contract-funded field surveys and excavations in Iowa as well as GIS projects. Ryan also has previous archaeological field experience with the Sanford Museum in Cherokee, Iowa and Maya Research Program in Blue Creek, Belize. Lange earned a B.A. in Anthropology (2016) and M.A. in Geography (2021) from the University of Northern Iowa. His research interests include structure from motion photogrammetry, low-altitude remote sensing, and change detection in archaeological sites for historic preservation.
Anna Serotta, M.A.
Conservator |
Anna Serotta is an objects conservator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she is primarily responsible for the conservation of the Egyptian Art collection. In addition to her role at The Met, Anna has worked as an archaeological field conservator on sites in Turkey, Greece, Italy and Egypt, including at The Met’s excavation at Dahshur. Anna is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome as well as a guest lecturer at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Anna received her BA from Dartmouth College and her MA in art history and advanced certificate in art conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts Conservation Center at New York University.
Nathan Elkins, Ph.D
Numismatic consultant | nelkins@numismatics.org
Dr. Nathan T. Elkins is the Deputy Director of the American Numismatic Society. Formerly, he was Associate Professor of Art History (Greek and Roman) and Director of the Allbritton Art Institute at Baylor University. Other former posts include the directorship of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Achievement (URSA) at Baylor University, a postdoctoral appointment in the Department of Coins and Medals at the Yale University Art Gallery, and Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften at the Goethe Universität Frankfurt and with the Fundmünzen der Antike Projekt of the Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften.
At the late-Roman period excavations at Yotvata and Huqoq in Israel and at ‘Ayn Gharandal in Jordan, he has worked as the field numismatist. He was elected a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society in 2015 (associate member since 2003) and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2020. He is also an active member of the Archaeological Institute of America, having served on its Cultural Heritage Policy Committee, its Publications Subventions Committee, chairing its Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award Committee, and twice went on the AIA’s lecture circuit. Dr. Elkins has also served the ANS as co-editor of the American Journal of Numismatics, responsible for contributions on the ancient world, since 2018.