Dr Alison MacDonald

Profile details

 

Assistant Director (Award-Bearing Programme and Accredited Short Courses)

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Biography

BA (Hons), DPhil (Oxon), PG Dip (Oxon), SFHEA

Alison is the Assistant Director of the Department with responsibility for the award-bearing programme and accredited short courses. She provides academic and educational leadership for the undergraduate award-bearing programme, credit-bearing undergraduate-level short courses, postgraduate taught course programme, postgraduate research degrees and credit-bearing graduate-level short courses. Her role involves ensuring that the Department’s provision aligns with the Mission, Vision and Values, is of the highest academic quality and is accessible to the widest possible audience.

Alison has a BA in Classical Civilisation and Ancient History from Sheffield University and a DPhil in Classical Archaeology from Oxford University. Her connection with the Department began in the 1990s when she organised placements for professional archaeology postgraduate students. She retains a particular interest in professional archaeology and is a member of the Board of Trustees at Oxford Archaeology.

Research

Starting her research career as a Roman pottery specialist, Alison has worked on a number of landscape archaeology projects in Italy, including the Tuscania Archaeological Survey, the Sangro Valley Survey and the Upper Esino Valley Survey. More recently her research interests have moved to Roman urban life, the study of material culture and object biography, and individuality and expression of identity in the Roman world.

Recent publications

Campbell, C., Ventresca, M. and MacDonald A. (2022) ‘Leadership challenges in arts repatriation for museum governance’, Oxford Answers, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Barker, G. and Rasmussen, T. with contributions by MacDonald, A. et al. (2023) In the Footsteps of the Etruscans. Changing Landscapes around Tuscania from Prehistory to Modernity. London, British School at Rome, Cambridge University Press.