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Classicist elected fellow

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    Stephen Dyson

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Published: June 17, 2009

Stephen L. Dyson, Park Professor of Classics, has been named a fellow of the convivial and scholarly Society of Antiquaries of London, the world’s premiere learned society for heritage and a distinguished international association founded in 1707 to encourage, advance and further the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of Britain and countries abroad.

Fellows are elected by existing members of the society in recognition of their significant achievement in the heritage field, and are entitled to use the initials FSA after their names.

They include directors of national museums and galleries, heads of university departments and directors of conservation charities, as well as well-known authors, journalists and broadcasters, bishops, peers and members of parliament, and members of other professions, all distinguished by their expertise in various aspects of heritage studies.

Dyson, a former president of the Archaeological Institute of America who has twice held the institute’s prestigious Charles Eliot Norton Lectureship, is a specialist in the history and archaeology of the City of Rome, the archaeology of Roman Italy and the western empire, and the history and theory of archaeology, Roman social history and the Roman countryside.

He is the author of several books in his field, among them “In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts: A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” “Eugenie Sellers Strong: Portrait of an Archaeologist,” “The Roman Villas of Buccino,” “The Creation of the Roman Frontier,” “Community and Society in Roman Italy” and “Ancient Marbles to American Shores.”

He has directed the summer school program at the American Academy in Rome; conducted archaeological field projects in France, mainland Italy and Sardinia; served as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome; and has held fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

He also is the former book review editor of the American Journal of Archaeology, served as president of the Classical Association of the American Academy in Rome and is a corresponding fellow of the German Archaeological Institute, one of the oldest and most prestigious archaeological associations on the continent.