Cohen Hall

Amber Zambelli

Amber Zambelli

Ph.D. Student

I focus on the history of archaeological inquiry conducted by U.S. institutions in the Arabian Peninsula, and relationships among archaeological knowledge produc(ers/tion), the petroleum industry, and U.S. state interests, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. Additionally, I co-host the anthropology podcast The Dirt since 2018, and I’ve conducted fieldwork (outreach programming and archaeological) in Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.

Education

A.B., Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College
Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley 

Research Interests

History of archaeological inquiry in Western Asia; relationship between U.S. archaeology and empire in the Arabian Peninsula; history of extractive technologies in archaeology and petroleum industry; intersections of archaeological knowledge and evangelical Christianity in 20th century U.S.; archaeology and the U.S. public; science communication and creation of accessible educational content.