Andrew Farinholt WardVisiting Assistant Professor

• Ph.D., Art History & Archaeology, Institute of Fine Arts – New York University, 2018
• M.A., Art History & Archaeology, Institute of Fine Arts – New York University, 2013
• B.A., Art History & Ancient Studies, Columbia University, 2010

Andrew Farinholt Ward, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History at Emory University, is a specialist of the art, architecture, and archaeology of sacred spaces in the ancient Mediterranean, with a particular focus on the “peripheries” of the ancient Greek world (Sicily, Thrace, North Africa, etc.) between the Protoarchaic and Hellenistic periods (700-31 BCE). His current work follows two trajectories: first to understand the aesthetics and materiality of ephemeral rituals like feasting, performance, and purification; and to then engage with how the visual language of Greek ritual was adapted and transformed by other ancient Mediterranean cultures. 

Dr. Ward currently supervises fieldwork in sacred contexts at Selinunte in Sicily and at Samothrace in Greece, and has been previously affiliated with excavations in Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. Before joining the Emory faculty, Dr. Ward taught at several institutions including SUNY-Purchase, SUNY-New Paltz, William & Mary, and Indiana University. At Emory, Dr. Ward offers courses in ancient Greek architecture, sculpture, and vase painting, as well as surveys of the visual culture(s) of the pre-Roman Mediterranean.

• The art and archaeology of ancient Greece, with an emphasis on sacred architecture and space.
• The art and archaeology of pre-Roman Italy and Sicily, with an emphasis on cultural interaction and colonial theory.
• Material expressions of ritual in classical religion.
• Antiquarianism, the collecting of classical antiquities, and the development of modern concepts of cultural heritage.

With Clemente Marconi, “Temple R in Selinunte and the Construction of Tradition,” Journal of Ancient Architecture 1 (2022): 9-36

With Vincent Baillet and Ioannis Poularakis, “Photogrammetric Modeling and the Central Ravine of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothrace,” Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 20 (2021): 1-12.

With Clemente Marconi, “War and the Life of a Sacred Structure: Evidence from the IFA-NYU Excavations at Selinunte,” in The Fight for Greek Sicily: Society, Politics, and Landscape, ed. Melanie Jonasch (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2020)

With Bonna Wescoat, Susan Blevins, Maggie Popkin, Jessica Paga, Michael Page, and William Size, “Interstitial Space in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace,” in Hellenistic Architecture and Human Action, ed. Asja Müller (Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2020)

With Clemente Marconi and Roberto Miccichè, “Contextualizing an Animal Sacrifice in the Foundations of Temple R: A Preliminary Report of the Institute of Fine Arts – NYU Excavations on the Acropolis of Selinunte (2013-2015 campaigns),” Mare Internum 9 (2018): 72-88.

With A. Wilson and B. Russell, “Excavations in an urban park (“South Agora”), 2012” in Aphrodisias Papers 5: Excavation and Research at Aphrodisias, 2006–2012 (JRA Supplement), eds. Roland R. R. Smith, Julia Lenaghan, Alexander Sokolicek, and Katherine Welch (Portsmouth: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2016), 77–90.

Dr. Ward has served as the Field Director for the American-Italian excavations in the main urban sanctuary of Selinunte, an ancient Greek colony in western Sicily, since 2013. There, a team led by Professor Clemente Marconi of the Institute of Fine Arts-NYU and University of Milan work to understand ancient Greek architecture, religion, and colonial identity through the study of some of the best-preserved sacred spaces from the Archaic and Classical periods of Greek history (ca. 650-350 BCE). Learn more about the American-Italian Excavations in the main urban sanctuary of Selinunte here.

He also is a member of the long-running American Excavations at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace, where under the directorship of Professor Bonna Wescoat Emory students have had a long history of learning about Greek architecture in one of the most famed sanctuaris of the Hellenistic period (ca. 350-31 BCE). Learn more about the American Excavations Samothrace here.

Students interested in participating in a summer archaeological experience should contact Dr. Ward directly.