April Membership Meeting: Talk by Dr. Alicia Dissinger (American School of Classical Studies at Athens), “Images of Birds in the Ancient Mediterranean World”

April 18, 2025

Ellis Library Auditorium, University of Missouri

4 PM

Come and put your birding skills to the test and learn about avians in antiquity!

 

We will be having a special April Membership meeting, co-hosted by the Central Missouri Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and University of Missouri Museum of Art & Archaeology.

People (and artists) in the ancient world spent more time observing the natural world than one might realize. Little details that modern-day birders might notice also appear in some instances in ancient art, helping us understand how people in antiquity thought about and experienced the natural world. 

As part of her research on bird iconography on ancient Cypriot pottery, Alicia Dissinger has used modern-day bird typologies, looking at aspects such as silhouettes and proportions, to help understand and identify images of birds in ancient art.

Alicia Dissinger received her PhD in Art & Architectural History from the University of Virginia in 2017. She also holds an MA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in Archaeology from the College of Wooster. Alicia has excavated in Cyprus, Greece, and Italy. Her academic work focuses on Archaic Cyprus, with a special interest on representations of animals (mainly images of birds) in the ancient world. She is currently the Programs Administrator at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

 

Please note the special time, date, and place!

The lecture will be hosted in Ellis Library Auditorium (Room 21) on the University of Missouri Campus, starting at 4 PM on Friday, April 18. This will be followed by a reception and special tour of the antiquities galleries at the nearby Museum of Art & Archaeology, focusing on some of the objects on view and in storage that showcase bird iconography.

You can find more information on the location of Ellis Auditorium here: https://libraryanswers.missouri.edu/faq/4427

And on the museum and its collections here: https://maa.missouri.edu/