Dear Center for Global Antiquity affiliates and friends,

As our first year as a Center comes to a close, I am delighted by the strength and direction of what we have built together. This year saw a lively program of student- and faculty-led workshops and conferences; our wide-ranging Past Forward lecture and workshop series (designed by Jonathan Conant); the ongoing work of CRAM (ably led by Jae Han) and the graduate forum; and grant support for research and programming by graduate students and postdocs across multiple departments. From tattooed bodies in Egypt to connectivity in South America, the metaphysics of empire in China to poverty in the Roman Mediterranean, we have explored the ancient world across multiple chronologies, geographies, and disciplines.

The Center is continuing the great work of the Program in Early Cultures while building our reach and institutional visibility. My thanks to all who contributed, and especially to Lauren Arsenault, Amy Gerhard, and Sarah Sharpe for administrative support.

Great things are planned for the coming year, including events focusing on writing beyond language, metallurgy, the development of Arabic script, Roman slavery, and identity in ancient China. CGA will also welcome its first postdoc, a scholar of classical and medieval Sanskrit literature in Buddhist contexts. And we await the outcome of the external funding cycle with hopeful anticipation.

It is therefore a great pleasure to announce that Prof. Jeff Moser will become director of the CGA from July 1 2026. The transition is designed to allow a handover before my leave beginning in January 2027, but also marks an exciting new stage in the Center’s development. Jeff’s expertise as an art historian of pre-modern China brings a new perspective to the leadership of the Center, and will help us continue to deepen our commitment to truly global and interdisciplinary research.

It has been an honour to serve as CGA’s first director, and I am grateful for all your help and support. The intellectual community that has grown out of decades of collaboration in the Program for Global Antiquity, developed further through the long but clarifying process of becoming a Center, and strengthened in this first year is one of my favourite parts of being at Brown. I look forward to seeing it continue to thrive under Jeff’s leadership.

Jeff and I both welcome your ideas about the Center’s next steps, and your continued participation in our activities.

Yours,
Amy

Prof. Amy Russell (she/her)
Associate Professor of Classics, Associate Professor of History
Director, Center for Global Antiquity

Department of Classics, Brown University
Box 1856, 48 College St, Providence, RI 02912-1856
(401-86)32992