Elise A. Friedland

Elise Friedland

Elise A. Friedland

Executive Committee Member, Capitol Archaeological Institute; Associate Professor of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Art History


Contact:

Office Phone: (202) 994-3056
Columbian College of Arts & Sciences 801 22nd Street, NW Washington DC 20052

Elise A. Friedland is an Associate Professor of Classics and Art History and teaches Greek and Roman art and archaeology and Latin at The George Washington University. She earned her PhD in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Michigan and her BA in Classics from Williams College. Prof. Friedland has published two co-edited volumes, The Sculptural Environment of the Roman Near East: Reflections on Culture, Ideology, and Power (2008, Peeters Press) and The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture (2015, 2018: Paperback, Oxford University Press), as well as a monograph, The Roman Marble Sculptures from the Sanctuary of Pan at Caesarea Philippi/Panias (Israel) (2012, ASOR’s Archaeological Report Series). Her articles focus on the importation, display, and messages of marble sculpture in the Roman Near East, especially in Israel and Jordan. Prof. Friedland is currently engaged in two major projects: studying and publishing the corpus of Roman marble sculptures discovered at the site of Beth Shean/Scythopolis in Israel; and investigating the reception of Classical art in Washington, DC. In 2013, Prof. Friedland was awarded both GW’s Bender Teaching Award and the Archaeological Institute of America’s national Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award as well as the ASOR Membership Service Award. She has received multiple fellowships, including awards from the U.S. Capitol Historical Society (2017), the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, Jerusalem (2019), and an NEH Public Scholar Fellowship (2020-21) to write Classical Washington: Greece & Rome in the Art and Architecture of DC.


Import, display, and meaning of marble sculpture from the Roman Near East

Role of religious statuary in the Roman Near East

Greek and Roman echoes in early and 19th c. American art

Ancient Art of the Bronze Age and Greece
Ancient Art of the Roman Empire
Art and Archaeology of Egypt and the Near East
Art and Archaeology of Pompeii and Roman Daily Life
Art and Archaeology of the Roman Provinces
Greece and Rome in Washington, DC: Classical Influences on Our Founding Fathers
Beginning Latin I and II
Intermediate Latin
Vergil's Aeneid (Intermediate Latin II)

2022

“Antiquity in America’s Capital,” in Antiquity & America: Perspectives, Sean P. Burrus ed., Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

“Beth Shean ‘Beauties’: An Introduction to the Sculptures from Roman and Byzantine Nysa-Scythopolis).” In Cities, Monuments and Objects in the Roman and Byzantine Levant Studies in Honour of Gabi Mazor, Walid Atrash, Andrew Overman, and Peter Gendelman, eds. Oxford: Archaeopress, 48–58.

2020

“’Classical’ vs. ‘Ancient’ in the Near Eastern Canon: The Position of Graeco-Roman Art from the Levant, c. 330 BCE–636 CE,” in Testing the Canon of Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, edited by Amy Rebecca Gansell and Ann Shafer. Oxford University Press, 131–150.

2019

“Pompeii on the Potomac: Constantino Brumidi’s Nineteenth-Century, Roman-Style Frescos for the Naval Affairs Committee Room in the United States Capitol,” in The Capitol Dome 56.1: 2– 15.

2018

“The Sebaste Apollo: Form, Function and Local Meaning,” in Roman Artists, Patrons, and Public Consumption: Familiar Works Reconsidered, edited by Brenda Longfellow and Ellen Perry. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 117-141.

2015; 2018 (paperback edition)

The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture (first editor; with Melanie Grunow Sobocinski and Elaine K. Gazda). Oxford University Press.

2012

The Roman Marble Sculptures from the Sanctuary of Pan at Caesarea Philippi/Panias (Israel). American Schools of Oriental Research, Archaeological Report Series 17.

“Marble sculpture in the Roman Near East: remarks on import, production, and impact,” in Ateliers and Artisans in Roman Art and Archaeology, T. M. Kristensen and B. Poulson eds., Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 92: 55-73.

“Quarry Origins, Commission, and Import of the Marble Sculptures from the Roman Theater in Philadelphia/Amman, Jordan,” in Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone: Proceedings of the IX ASMOSIA Conference (Tarragona, Spain 2009). Anna Gutiérrez Garcia-M., Pilar Lapuente Mercadal, and Isabel Rodà de Llanza eds. Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC), Tarragona, 52-60.  (with Robert H. Tykot).

2010

"The Quarry Origins of Nine Roman Marble Sculptures from Amman/Philadelphia and Gadara/Umm Qays,” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 54: 177-188. (with Robert H. Tykot).

2008

“Visualizing Deities in the Roman Near East: Aspects of Athena and Athena-Allat,” in The Sculptural Environment of the Roman Near East: Reflections on Culture, Ideology, and Power.  Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and Religion, 9. Yaron Z. Eliav, Elise A. Friedland, and Sharon Herbert eds. Leuven:  Peeters Press.

2007

"Shifting Places, Changing Faces: The Civic Statuary of Roman Jordan,” in Crossing Jordan: North American Contributions to the Archaeology of Jordan, Thomas E. Levy, P. M. Michèle Daviau, Randall W. Younker, and May Shaer, eds. London: Equinox Publishing, 341-347.

2003

“The Roman Marble Sculptures from the North Hall of the East Baths at Gerasa.” American Journal of Archaeology 107: 413-448.

1997 University of Michigan, Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology

1994 University of Michigan, M.A. in Classical Art and Archaeology

1988 Williams College, B.A. in Classics, Magna Cum Laude

1986 Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome