ROME—Archaeologist and educator Kimberly Bowes has been appointed the 22^nd Director of the American Academy in Rome to start her tenure on July 1.

 Having served as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in Charge of the School of Classical Studies at the Academy since 2012, Dr Bowes takes over the reins after Professor Christopher S. Celenza after four years in the position. The new director’s academic background includes a BA from Williams College and an MA from the Courtauld Institute, followed by a PhD from Princeton. Dr Bowes has since worked as a visiting fellow at Harvard and a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at Yale, Assistant Professor of Art History at Fordham University, and Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cornell University.

 Dr Bowes’s main area of expertise is the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean, with a focus on domestic and religious architecture, and the archaeology of Roman poverty. At the moment she is co-directing an international project in Tuscany, funded by the National Science Foundation, excavating and analysing the lives of the Roman poor. Her publications have appeared in a wide range of journals, addressing a broad spectrum of issues from Roman history of Spain to Christian architecture, while her most recent book, “Houses and Society in the Later Roman Empire”, explores the relationship between domestic architecture and social history.

 Academy President Mark Robins, who announced the decision, commented: “Kim brings a remarkable mix of intellectual rigor and enthusiasm to the Director’s position. I’m very much looking forward to working with her in this new capacity.” Upon her appointment, Dr Bowes said: “The American Academy in Rome is without peer as a laboratory for cutting-edge work in the arts and humanities. (…) I am hugely honoured to be a part of it, and look forward to making its community and activities ever more energetic, diverse and pioneering.”