Laurel Taylor, Ph.D.

Laurel Taylor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History. She teaches a wide variety of courses on material culture, art history and archaeology. Her research interests include funerary ritual and commemoration and rural archaeology. Dr. Taylor’s current archaeological fieldwork is at the Etruscan and Roman site of Cetamura del Chianti, Italy. Dr. Taylor has also directed excavations at the UNC Asheville field school at Palazzaccio, a Roman period farmhouse located outside of Lucca, Italy, and part of the UNESCO ‘Project of 100 Roman Farms’. Previously Dr. Taylor worked with the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell’s excavations at a palace of Herod the Great in Caesarea Maritima, Israel and has published preliminary studies on the mosaic and fresco remains from the palace. Dr. Taylor is president of the Western North Carolina chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America. Her publications include a wide range of topics, from gender studies to craft in the ancient world to funerary ritual and monuments. She served as the co-chair for the Etruscan Interest Group (2019-2021) for the Archaeological Institute of America and currently serves as the Editor in Chief for the Journal of Etruscan and Italic Studies.

Education

PhD, Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania

MA, Classical Archaeology, Florida State University

BA, International Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill