Naoíse Mac Sweeney is a British archaeologist, historian, writer, and academic. Since 2020 she has been Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Institute of Classical Archaeology at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

Early life and education

Mac Sweeney was born in 1982 to Chinese and Irish parents in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. She studied for an undergraduate degree in Classics at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, followed by a Master's at UCL in Ancient History. She completed a PhD at Cambridge in 2007 with a thesis titled "Community Identity in Protohistoric Western Anatolia".

Career

Following her PhD she spent time in policy research working on conflict and international development. From 2008 she held a Junior Research Fellowship in the Faculty of Classics and

Fitzwilliam College Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college has origins from 1869, with the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer academically excellent students of all ...

at the

. In 2011 she joined the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

as a Lecturer in Ancient History and Classical Archaeology. In 2020 she was promoted to Professor of Ancient History at Leicester, before being appointed later the same year as a Professor of Classical Archaeology at the

. Her research focusses on aspects of cultural interaction and identity, with a focus on the ancient Greek world and Anatolia from the Iron Age to the Classical period. Her 2018 book ''Troy: Myth, City, Icon'' explores the mythic, the archaeological, and cultural significance of

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

. It was short-listed for the 2019

PROSE awards The PROSE Awards (where ''PROSE'' is an abbreviation for "professional and scholarly excellence") are presented by the Association of American Publishers' (AAP) Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division. Presented since 1976, the awar ...

in the category Archaeology & Ancient History. In 2020 Mac Sweeney received an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project ''Migration and the Making of the Ancient Greek World''. She was awarded a

Philip Leverhulme Prize The Philip Leverhulme Prize is awarded by the Leverhulme Trust to recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The prize sche ...

in 2015. In 2017, she held a visiting Research Fellowship at Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies. Mac Sweeney co-ordinates the international network 'Claiming the Classical', exploring the use of classical antiquity within contemporary political rhetoric. Since 2019 she is the academic editor of '' Anatolian Studies,'' the Journal of the

British Institute at Ankara The British Institute at Ankara (BIAA), formerly British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, is a research institute that supports, promotes, and publishes research into the humanities and social sciences of Turkey and the Black Sea region. The ...

, and served as a judge for the

Runciman Award The Runciman Award is an annual literary award offered by the Anglo-Hellenic League for a work published in English dealing wholly or in part with Greece or Hellenism. On some years the prize has been awarded jointly and shared between two or mo ...

. She appeared as a presenter on the BBC TV series ''

Digging for Britain ''Digging For Britain'' is a British television series focused on last and current year archaeology. The series is made by 360 Production (now Rare TV) for the BBC and is presented by Alice Roberts. It was first aired on 19 August 2010. The ser ...

'' in 2019.

Selected publications

Books

*2011. ''Community Identity and Archaeology: Dynamic Communities at Aphrodisias and Beycesultan''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. *2013. ''Foundation Myths and Politics in Ancient Ionia''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *2014. (ed.) ''Foundation Myths in Ancient Societies Dialogues and Discourses''. University of Pennsylvania Press. *2018. ''Troy: Myth, City, Icon''. London: Bloomsbury. *2018. (co-authored with Dr. Jan Haywood) ''Homer’s Iliad and the Trojan War: Dialogues on Tradition''. London: Bloomsbury. *2023. ''The West: A New History of an Old Idea''. London: Ebury.

Journal articles

*2004. Social complexity and population: a study in the Early Bronze Age Aegean. ''Papers of the Institute of Archaeology'' 15: 53–66. *2009. Beyond ethnicity: the overlooked diversity of group identities. ''Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology'' 22.1: 101–126. *2010. Hittites and Arzawans: a view from western Anatolia. '' Anatolian Studies'' 60: 7–24. *2017. Separating fact from fiction in the Ionian migration. '' Hesperia'' 38: 379–421.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mac Sweeney, Naoíse Academic staff of the University of Vienna British classical archaeologists Alumni of the University of Cambridge British women archaeologists Alumni of University College London British women classical scholars 1982 births Living people