Leah Bernardo-Ciddio (Canada)

MPhil in Classical Archaeology

After completing my BA in Classical Studies and History at York University in Toronto, Canada, I decided to continue my studies at the postgraduate level by pursuing the interest in Roman and pre-Roman archaeology I had developed as an undergraduate. I thus came to Oxford to complete an MPhil in Classical Archaeology. My primary research interests at the time included the planning and architecture of Roman cities in Italy to the Late Republican Period, and the settlement patterns and variations in the urban form amongst non-Roman populations in Central and Southern Italy. My MPhil thesis was a comparative exploration of settlement changes in the landscapes around Venosa and Metaponto throughout the last four centuries before the common era.

I am enormously grateful to Mica and to the Ertegun Programme for the opportunity that was given to me to come to Oxford. Not only was I able to pursue my studies at a world-class university with unparalleled resources available to me, but I did so amongst other Ertegun Scholars from a variety of academic backgrounds, from whose own work and activities at the Ertegun House I learned many valuable lessons about interdisciplinary, camaraderie, and teamwork.

Life After Ertegun House

As of September 2016 I am a PhD pre-candidate in the Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where my research interests have continued to evolve. My interest in identity and community in non-Roman Central and Southern Italy has led me to an increasing focus on mobility and connectivity in Iron Age Italy, with a particular focus on the ongoing relationships within the Adriatic Sea during this period. I spent the summer of 2018 forging new connections with archaeologists on the eastern side of the Adriatic, in Albania and Croatia. These are regions whose contacts with Mid-Adriatic Italy are long-standing and which are particularly embodied in the regional developments in the Italian matt-painted ceramics tradition. As of this summer, I have also taken up a position as Finds Assistant at the Gabii Project, an NEH-funded Michigan-led excavation just outside of Rome.