Anna Selden received her B.A. in Art History and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations on the archaeology track with a minor in Classics from the University of Chicago in 2024. While at UChicago, she undertook museum work, geospatial cultural heritage research, archaeological fieldwork (Tell Keisan and Cerro del Villar), and advanced language study. Her honors thesis examined the body, dress, and gender in the material culture of western Anatolia from the 7th to 5th centuries BCE, and how stylistic hybridity resulting from contact between Lydian, Ionian, Greek, and Achaemenid material culture impacted figural representations in the region. Before joining ISAW, she was an instructional assistant in UChicago’s Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization.
At ISAW she intends to pursue research focused on the body, dress, gender, and performance in the Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean (the Aegean, Anatolia, and the Levant) and on cultural exchange in the visual traditions of this region. In particular, she is interested in eunuchs and gender ambiguity in the archaeological record and in ancient visual representations.