Position  
Academic Background   
Sample Courses    
Teaching Philosophy
Research & Interests   
Notable Academic Appointments & Awards
Publication Highlights     
Selected Scholarly Presentations  
                                                                          
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Position          

• Associate Professor of Art History

  Academic Background           

• Indiana University, Bloomington, IN - Ph.D. in  Classical Archaeology, 1992    
• Indiana University, Bloomington, IN - M.A. in Classical Archaeology, 1987
• Loyola University, Chicago, IL - M.A. in Classical Languages, 1985
• Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA - B.A. in Latin, 1983

  Sample Courses Taught at Providence College            

• Art of the Ancient Classical World
• Art History Survey

Teaching Philosophy

Teaching is a mixture of passion and humility.  Lectures should be so visceral as to infect the class with excitement.  Concomitantly, one should teach modesty in knowledge by reminding the students that the Delphic Oracle proclaimed Socrates the wisest man in Athens because he knew that he knew nothing.  The other Athenians thought they knew everything. 

Research & Interests

Within my general field of Greek and Roman art and archaeology, I specialize in the Aegean Bronze Age; namely, the period of Homer, the Trojan War and earlier. I research landscapes as iconography in the Bronze Age frescoes from Crete and the others islands of the Aegean. I also study stone artifacts to appreciate the Minoan understanding of geology and the landscape. Over the past two decades I have worked on many archaeological projects in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey.

Classical Art, Archaeology, History and Languages; Aegean Frescoes, Anatolian and Mesopotamian Prehistory; Ancient Sea-Faring.

  Notable Academic Appointments and Awards

• California State University, Sacramento, Departments of Humanities and Religious Studies & History, Lecturer, 1996-05. 
• Director of the California State University of Sacramento Field School at the Coloma Site, California, where gold was first discovered that started the California gold rush, 1997.
• Bilkent University (Turkey), Department of Archaeology and History of Art, Visiting Lecturer, 1993.
• Associate member of the American School of Classical Studies (Greece), 1987-88. 
• Dartmouth College, Department of Classics, Visiting Assistant Professor, 1992. 

Publication Highlights

• Strasser, T. "Three Axe Groups from Neolithic Knossos," in Knossos: Palace, City, State (BSA Studies 12), G. Cadogan, E. Hatzaki, and A. Vasilakis (eds.), pp. 61-5.  Athens: British School at Athens, 2005. 
• Strasser, T. "The Subtleties of the Seas: Thoughts on Mediterranean Island Biogeography," Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry , 3(2) 5-15, 2003.
• Strasser, T.  "Horns of Consecration or Rooftop Granaries?  Another Look at the Master Impression," in TEXNH: Craftsmen, Craftswomen and Craftsmanship in the Aegean Bronze Age (Aegaeum 13), P. Betancourt and R. Laffineur (eds.), pp.  201-207.  Liège: Annales d'archéologie égéenne de l' Université de Liège, 1997.
• Strasser, T.  "Storage and States on Prehistoric Crete: The Function of the Koulouras in the First Minoan Palaces," Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 10 (1) 73-100, 1997.
• Strasser, T.  "The Boat Models from Eridu: Sailing or Spinning during the 'Ubaid Period," Antiquity 70 (270) 920-25, 1996.
• Strasser, T.  "Soils and Settlements on Neolithic Crete," in The Pleistocene and Holocene Fauna of Crete and its First Settlers (Monographs in World Archaeology No. 28), D. Reese (ed.), pp. 317-36.  Madison: Prehistory Press, 1996.
• Lax, E. and T. Strasser, "Early Holocene Extinctions on Crete: The Search for the Cause," Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 5 (2) 205-28, 1992.
• Broodbank, C. and T. Strasser, "Migrant Farmers and the Neolithic Colonization of Crete," Antiquity 65 (247) 233-45, 1991.

Selected Scholarly Presentations and Activities

• Strasser, T., Perspective and Location in the Theran Flotilla Fresco.  To be presented to the 106th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, 2005.
• A Geological Reference for Archaeologists: Central Crete & A Geological Reference for Archaeologists: East Crete compiled by T. Strasser, D. Evely & H. Dierckx, under the supervision of C. Fassoulas.  Geological reference collections distributed at eight archaeological research institutions on Crete in order to standardize petrographic identifications, 2001-04.
• Strasser, T., The Blue Monkeys of the Aegean and their Implications for Bronze Age Trade.  Presented to the 98th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, 1996.
• Media Consultant
  • 2005  "Archaeologists come to aid of Iraq's old treasure." by G. Edgers for Boston Globe (Jan. 9), B4.
  • 2003 "Cyclops Myth Spurred by "One-Eyed" Fossil?" by H. Mayhell for National Geographic News (Feb. 5).

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