Sören Stark Promoted to Full Professor

We are delighted to announce that NYU Interim Provost Georgina Dopico has approved the recommendation of ISAW's faculty to promote Sören Stark from Associate Professor to Professor of Central Asian Archaeology, effective September 1.

Professor Stark received his PhD at the University Halle-Wittenberg and came to ISAW in 2010. He has published extensively on a variety of topics relating to the archaeology and history of Central Asia between the Bronze Age and the Islamic Middle Ages, covering a wide geographical area from the oasis regions northeast of Iran to Inner Mongolia in the east.

Much of his current research is conducted in combination with major archaeological fieldwork projects in the historical region of Bukhara in western Sogdiana. Between 2016 and 2021 he has spearheaded five seasons of excavations at the Hellenistic site of Bashtepa (4th cent. BCE – 1st cent. CE) and is currently preparing an edited volume which will present the final results of these multi-disciplinary investigations. Most recently, Professor Stark is co-directing excavations in the old city-center of Bukhara (which yielded important new discoveries pertaining to the rich history of this major Silk Road city during Antiquity, the pre-Islamic Early Middle Ages and the Middle Islamic periods), and multi-disciplinary investigations at the important new Final Bronze Age site of Kimirekkum-1.

In support of his fieldwork projects, Professor Stark was recently awarded grants from the Max van Berchem Foundation, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, and the Rust Family Foundation.