Sarah Beckmann

Assistant Professor, Department of Classics

Education

BA in Classical Languages from Carleton College in 2007

Ph.D. in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016

Areas of Interest

Domestic art and archaeology of the Western Roman provinces

Profile

I am a Roman archaeologist specializing in domestic art and archaeology of the Western Roman provinces. My current research focuses on late Roman villas and investigates how differences across the material culture packages of extant villas can be used to highlight the regionally distinct character(s) of the late Roman elite. Broader interests include the Roman statuary habit, late antique art and antiquarianism, provincial material culture, and collection in antiquity and in the early modern era. I have excavated throughout the Western Mediterranean in Greece, Italy, and France, but my current book project and interest in the late Roman villa is such that I also work with archival material and the recovery and analysis of legacy data.

I joined UCLA’s Classics Department in 2018 after a year of adjunct teaching in both Philadelphia and Los Angeles. I received my BA in Classical Languages from Carleton College in 2007 and my Ph.D. in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. My dissertation examined statuary assemblages found in the late antique villas of Hispania and Gaul as a window into social practices, self-fashioning, and peer polity interactions among provincial domini. As a doctoral student I was the recipient of the AIA’s Archaeology of Portugal Fellowship (2014-15), and a Fulbright scholar in France (2015-16).

At UCLA I teach courses in Roman visual and material culture at both the undergraduate and graduate level. I welcome questions from students at any level who are interested in pursuing material culture studies or incorporating material analysis into their own work. I am also happy to discuss career options outside of the academy with students who are pursing a Classics or Ancient Studies degree.