We are delighted to announce that Professor Athena Tsingarida has been appointed to the Lincoln Professorship of Classical Archaeology and Art in the Faculty of Classics. She will join Lincoln as a Fellow from 1 October 2026.

Athena holds degrees in Classical Archaeology and Byzantine Studies from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and a Doctorate from the University of Oxford where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar and a Fellow of the Wiener-Anspach Foundation. Professor Ordinarius of Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology at ULB, she was awarded research fellowships from several academic institutions (including Merton College, University College London, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, …). She has excavated in Syria and Greece.

She has held various management roles both within and outside the University, including Director of the Centre of Research in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (ULB), Chair of the Scientific Council of the Arts and History Museum in Brussels, Director of the Belgian School at Athens. 

Athena said, "Joining Lincoln College on its six-hundred anniversary celebration is both a privilege  and a responsibility. A hundred and forty years after the foundation of the Lincoln Chair, Classical Archaeology and Art still brings into light new aspects of an interconnected and globalized ancient world through a multidisciplinary approach and plays, more than ever, a seminal role in the education of younger generations."

Academic background

Athena's research focuses on the archaeology and art of the Archaic and Classical Mediterranean World (8th – 4th centuries BC) with a special interest in social and economic aspects of craft production (especially Ancient Greek Pottery) and in cultural and economic interactions in the Mediterranean and the East. Her research also covers symposium practices, funerary archaeology, and the reception of Ancient Greek Art in Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She has co-directed several international research programmes in these fields, supported by national and European research funds.

Research interests

Expanding upon her work on objects as gestures, Athena will combine both technical and stylistic analysis with the study of the objects’ use in a wide variety of contexts. She will examine the cultural transformation brought by visual experience and manipulation in distinctive Greek and non-Greek contexts, across the Mediterranean; and how this process contributes to the construction of social identities. Her research will also deal with « biographies » of archaeological objects taken holistically, from manufacture, use and distribution during their primary lifetime, to the rediscovery, collection, and interpretation/appropriation in their later, multiple lives.  These projects will bring together subjects, traditionally studied separately, across divisions, faculties, departments, and the Ashmolean Museum along with the study of Archives, and offer the potential for exhibitions and further international collaboration. Athena will continue to co-direct excavations in Eastern Crete, contributing to the reconstruction of the long-term history of a coastal city (Itanos), including the organization of its funerary and sacred landscapes.

Approach to teaching

Athena Tsingarida will use the unique opportunity of the Oxford tutorial system to foster intellectual exchange in small groups, improve background knowledge and develop independent thinking, including  the critical use of AI. Teaching Classical Archaeology and Art further implies a good balance between theory, in line with recent developments in scholarship, and practical knowledge. It is therefore important to continue to provide opportunities to gain direct expertise in the study of material culture both in Museums and on archaeological sites. Her classes will include hands on sessions and visits to the world-class collections of the Ashmolean Museum. She will also offer the opportunity to participate in the excavations in Eastern Crete.

Personal interests

Athena hates cooking but loves swimming. She enjoys reading, especially poetry, and attending Classical and Modern Ballet dance performances. Being an optimist, she hopes to have the time to improve her skills in drawing, oil-painting and watercolours in the near future.