Dr Megan Daniels

Biography

Megan Daniels was born in Ontario, Canada and completed her B.A. (Hons.) at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Waterloo, ON, winning the Alumni Gold Medal for the Faculty of Arts. Following her first degree, she went on to work as an archaeologist for Parks Canada (2005-2006) and taught English in China (Beijing and Shenzhen) and Vietnam (2006-2007). She then went on to complete her M.A. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of British Columbia (2007-2009) under several fellowships, including a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) Fellowship. She completed her Ph.D. at Stanford University in California from 2010-2016. During this time, she was awarded a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and was a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar (2012-2016). Following her Ph.D., Megan was awarded two postdoctoral fellowships: from 2016-2017 she was the Lora Bryning Redford Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the University of Puget Sound, and from 2017-2018 she was postdoctoral scholar at the Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology at SUNY-Buffalo, where she organized an international visiting scholars conference on the subject of migration and mobility in human history, to be turned into a forthcoming edited volume through SUNY Press.

Megan’s interests, broadly, include the intersections of religious and mythical practice with discourses of divine kingship in the eastern Mediterranean over the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. More recently, stemming from her work at SUNY-Buffalo, she has become interested in multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of migration and mobility in human history, particularly within the Mediterranean and broader Eurasian worlds. Megan is an active field archaeologist and ceramic analyst, having worked on projects from Canada to Bermuda to the Mediterranean (Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Turkey, and Tunisia). At UNE, she teaches and supervises units and projects on the ancient history and archaeology of Egypt, the Near East, and the eastern Mediterranean.

Qualifications

Ph.D. Classics, Stanford University (2016)

Certificate in Multimedia and Web Development, University of British Columbia (2016)

M.A. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, University of British Columbia (2009)
B.A. (Hons) with High Distinction in Archaeology, Wilfrid Laurier University

Teaching Areas

• Greek and Near Eastern History and Archaeology (Bronze Age to Hellenistic)
• Ancient Religion
• Ancient Empires
• Ancient Greek language (introductory to advanced)

Research Interests

• The Eastern Mediterranean (Bronze Age to Hellenistic)
• Cross-cultural exchange between the Near East and Mediterranean
• Mobility and migration across Eurasia
• Sanctuaries and votive material
• Divine kingship
• Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of ancient religion
• Ceramic analysis

Publications

Monographs and Edited Volumes

(In Preparation), Blakely, S. and M. Daniels (eds.) Data Science, Human Science, and Ancient Gods: Conversations in Theory and Method. SAMR Series. Atlanta: Lockwood Press. (edited volume)

(In Preparation), Daniels, M. (ed.) Homo Migrans: Modeling Mobility and Migration in Human History. IEMA Distinguished Monograph Series. Albany: SUNY-PRESS. (edited volume)

(In Preparation) Daniels, M. The Queen of Heaven and a Goddess for All the People: Kingship and Religion in the Mediterranean World. (monograph project)

Articles and Book Chapters

Daniels, M. 2018. "Aphrodite Pandemos at Naukratis Revisited: The Goddess and her Civic Function in the Context of an Archaic Emporion." Journal of Greek Archaeology 3.

Daniels, M. 2017. “Hercules and Symbolic Power in Roman Hispania: Appropriating a Globalized Discourse.” In Rome, Empire of Plunder: The Dynamics of Roman Appropriation, edited by C. MacDonald, M. Loar, and D. Padilla-Peralta, 377-417. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Higgins, S. C. and M. Daniels. 2015. “Alternative Academics: Moving Beyond the Academy.” Forum: Investigating the Future, Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 3.3: 238-246.

Daniels, M. 2014. “Sacred Exchange: The Religious Institutions of Emporia in the Mediterranean World of the Later Iron Age.” In Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity: Remains and Representations of the Ancient City, edited by A. Kemezis, 297-327. Leiden: Brill.

(Revised and resubmitted) Daniels, M. “The Queen of Heaven in Iron Age Greece: Analyzing Religious Ideology and Symbolism on Multiple Scales.” In Untangling the Intangible: Reconstructing Ideologies, Beliefs, and Religion in the Past, edited by K. MacFarland and E. Johannesson. Boulder: University of Colorado Press.

(Under revision) Moses, V., B. Kaufman, A. Drine, H. Barnard, S. Ben Tahar, E. Jerray, and M. Daniels. “Zooarchaeological Evidence for Meat Consumption during the Punic to Roman Colonial Transition at Zita (2nd Century BCE-2nd Century CE).” (submitted to International Journal of Osteoarchaeology)

(Under review) Daniels, M. “The Dying and Rising God: A Funerary Scene from Sparta and Elite Power between East and West.” (submitted to American Journal of Archaeology)

(In preparation) Daniels, M. “Heracles and Melqart.” (for submission to The Oxford Handbook to Heracles, edited by D. Ogden and under contract with Oxford University Press)

(In preparation) Daniels, M. “sed ratio in obscure: The Naked Standing Female and Communities of Elites in the Iron Age Mediterranean.” (for submission to Strong Ties: Networks and the Spread of Ideas in the Past, edited by Anna Collar and under contract with Brill)

Reviews

Daniels, M. 2018. Review of Jeffrey P. Emanuel. Black ships and sea raiders: the late bronze and early iron age context of Odysseus’ Second Cretan Lie. Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017. BMCR.

Daniels, M. 2017. Review of Bonnet, Corinne and Laurent Bricault. Quand les dieux voyagent: cultes et mythes en mouvement dans l'espace méditerranéen antique. Histoire des religions. Genève: Labor et Fides, 2016. BMCR.

Other Publications

Daniels, M. 2017. “Black Athena in the Classroom, 30 Years On: Why Bernal Still Matters to Classics and American Education.” Eidolon.

Daniels, M. 2017. “Archaic Spartan Cults.” Database of Religious History. University of British Columbia.

Panels/Workshops/Conferences Organized:

2018 “Homo Migrans: Modeling Mobility and Migration in Human History,” conference organized at the Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology, SUNY-Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

2018 Co-organized with Sandra Blakely: “Gods in Our Machines? Critical Approaches to Big Data and Ancient Religion,” panel presented at the 119th Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting, Boston, MA

2017 Co-organized with Sandra Blakely: “God the Anthropologist: Text, Material and Theory in the Study of Ancient Religion,” presented as a joint AIA/SCS panel at the 118^th Archaeological Institute of America and Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON

2016 “Bigger Histories: Indigenous Archaeology and Decolonizing Perspectives in Education,” Symposium organized in conjunction with Indigenous Peoples Day and International Archaeology Day at the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA

2015 Co-organized with Maryl Gensheimer and Sabrina Higgins: “Thinking Outside the Box: Alternative Careers within Academia,” panel presented at the 116th Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting in conjunction with the Student Affairs Interest Group, New Orleans, LA

2014 Co-organized with Thea De Armond: “Interpreting the Deep Past: The Convergence of Material Remains, Myth and Memory,” panel presented at the Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL

2011-2012 Co-organized with Lynn Meskell and Cherkea Howery: “Empires and Globalization: Archaeology and Its Relation to Local and Global Forces,” year-long workshop series, Stanford Archaeology Center and the Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Memberships

Archaeological Institute of America (2007-present)

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (2012-present)

Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions (2014-present)

Society for Classical Studies (2016-present)

Australasian Society for Classical Studies (2018-present)