Sheila Dillon, Anne Murnick Cogan Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History

Please note: Sheila has left the "Computational Media, Arts & Cultures" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

Sheila Dillon received a Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She teaches courses on Greek and Graeco-Roman art and archaeology. Her research interests focus on portraiture and public sculpture and on reconstructing the statuary landscape of ancient cities and sanctuaries. Her books include The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World (2010); Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture: Contexts, Subjects, and Styles (2006), which was awarded the James R. Wiseman Book Award from the Archaeological Institute of America in January 2008; Roman Portrait Statuary from Aphrodisias (2006); and an edited volume A Companion to Women in the Ancient World (2012). Professor Dillon was a member of the Aphrodisias Excavations in Turkey from 1992-2004, has worked at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace, and now spends summers doing fieldwork in Athens. Her current research includes a collaborative project to publish the portrait sculpture from the Excavations in the Athenian Agora with a group of current and former students, and a digital mapping project of the history of the archaeological excavations in the Agora, a collaborative endeavor centered in the Wired! Lab that involves undergraduate and graduate students at Duke. Professor Dillon was the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Archaeology from 2013-2016.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	114 S Buchanan Blvd, Smith Warehouse, Bay 10, A261, Durham, NC 27708-0766
Office Phone:	(919) 684-6082
Email Address:
Web Pages:	https://duke.app.box.com/folder/2249763099 http://dukewired.org

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• ARTHIST 495S.01, HONORS THESIS WORKSHOP Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs A266, F 10:05 AM-12:35 PM

  (also cross-listed as ARTSVIS 495S.01, VMS 495S.01)

• VMS 334.01, ROMAN SPECTACLE Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs A290, TuTh 04:40 PM-05:55 PM

  (also cross-listed as ARTHIST 334.01, CLST 354.01)

• ARTHIST 723S.01, GRANT WRITING AND PROSPECTUS Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs A266, Th 10:05 AM-12:35 PM

Office Hours:

Education:

Ph.D.	New York University	1994
M.A.	New York University	1989
B.A.	Rutgers University New Brunswick	1987
AAS	Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY

Specialties:

Greek & Roman Art
Sculpture
New Technologies for Visualizing Historical Materials

Research Interests: portraiture; the sculptural landscape of the ancient Greek city; the archaeology of Athens

Current projects: Roman Portrait Statuary in Athens, Mapping the Archaeology of Athens

Sheila Dillon received a Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She teaches courses on Greek and Roman art. Her research interests focus on portraiture and public sculpture and on reconstructing the statuary landscape of ancient cities and sanctuaries. Her books include The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World (2010); Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture: Contexts, Subjects, and Styles (2006), which was awarded the James R. Wiseman Book Award from the Archaeological Institute of America in January 2008; Roman Portrait Statuary from Aphrodisias (2006); and an edited volume A Companion to Women in the Ancient World (2012). Professor Dillon was a member of the Aphrodisias Excavations in Turkey from 1992-2004, has worked at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace, and now spends summers doing fieldwork in Athens. Her current projects include a history of portrait sculpture in Roman Athens, which examines the impact of Roman rule and Roman portrait styles on Athenian portraiture, and a digital mapping project of the archaeology of Athens, a collaborative endeavor centered in the Wired! Lab that involves undergraduate and graduate students at Duke and international colleagues in Athens. Professor Dillon is the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Archaeology.

Keywords:

Digital humanities • Portrait sculpture, Greco-Roman • Sculpture, Classical, in art • Women in art

Curriculum Vitae

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Marianne E Wardle  
• Lindsey Mazurek  
• Elizabeth Baltes  
• Rachel L. Meyers  

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Dillon, S, The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World (March, 2010), Cambridge University Press [available here]
2. Dillon, S, Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture: Contexts, Subjects, and Styles (April, 2006), Cambridge University Press (Winner of the 2008 James R. Wiseman Book Award from the Archaeological Institute of America..) [Ancient]
3. with Dillon, S; Smith, RRR; Hallett, CH; Lenaghan, J; Voorhis, JV, Roman Portrait Statuary from Aphrodisias (June, 2006), Philipp von Zabern, Mainz Germany (Reviews: J. Tanner, BMCR 2007.04.07.)
4. Dillon, S; Welch, K, Representations of War in Ancient Rome (paperback) (2009), Cambridge University Press [of%20War%20in%20Ancient%20Rome/?site_locale=en_US]
5. S. Dillon and S. James, co-editors, The Blackwell Companion to Women in the Ancient World (January, 2012)
6. Dillon, S, Portraits of Women in the early Hellenistic Period, in Early Hellenistic Portraiture: Image, Style, Context, edited by Hoff, RVD; Schultz, P (October, 2007), pp. 63-83, Cambridge University Press [available here]
7. Dillon, S, Women on the Columns of Trajan and Marcus and the Visual Language of Roman Victory, in Representations of War in Ancient Rome, edited by Dillon, S; Welch, K (April, 2006), pp. 244-271, Cambridge University Press
8. Sheila Dillon, , Subject selection and viewer reception of Greek portraits from Herculaneum and Tivoli, Journal of Roman Archaeology, vol. 13 (Fall, 2000), pp. 21-40
9. Sheila Dillon, , Figured Pilaster Capitals from Aphrodisias in Caria, American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 1997 no. 101 (October, 1997), pp. 731-769 [html]
10. Sheila Dillon, , The portraits of a civic benefactor of 2nd-c. Ephesos, Journal of Roman Archaeology, vol. 9 no. 9 (Fall, 1996), pp. 261-274

Selected Grant Support

• National Endowment for the Humanities, Faculty Fellowship: 2005-2006.      
• Millard Meiss Publication Grant, 2004, College Art Association.