Jennifer Baird

Jennifer Baird, is a British archaeologist and academic. She is Professor in Archaeology at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research focuses on the archaeology of Rome's eastern provinces, particularly the site of Dura-Europos.

Career Baird completed a PhD at the University of Leicester, graduating in 2006, with a thesis entitled: 'Housing and households at Dura-Europos: a study in identity on Rome's Eastern Frontier', supervised by Simon James. Baird was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Leicester. She joined Birkbeck in 2008. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Baird has edited several volumes including Ancient Graffiti in Context (2011).

Baird has excavated at the site of Dura-Europos, work which lead to her 2014 and 2018 publications on the site.

Baird delivered the AIA Lecture on "From Aphlad to Zeus: The Archaeology of Diversity at Dura-Europos" at the University of British Columbia on 12 March 2019.

Honours and awards Baird was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) in 2013.

Selected publications

Books Baird, J. A. and C. Taylor, eds. 2010, Ancient Graffiti in Context. New York: Routledge. Baird, J. A. 2014, The Inner Lives of Ancient Houses: An Archaeology of Dura-Europos. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Baird, J. A. 2012, "Re-excavating the Houses of Dura-Europos" Journal of Roman Archaeology 25: 146–169. Baird, J. A. 2015, "On Reading the Material Culture of Ancient Sexual Labour" Helios 42.1: 163–175. Baird, J. A. 2016, "Everyday Life in Roman Dura-Europos: The Evidence of Dress Practices" in Ted Kaizer (ed.), Religion, Society and Culture at Dura-Europos. Yale Classical Studies, 38. (Cambridge; New York) p.30-56. Baird, J.A. 2016, "Private Graffiti? Scratching the Walls of Houses at Dura-Europos" in Rebecca Benefiel, Peter Keegan (ed.), Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World. Brill studies in Greek and Roman epigraphy, 7. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016. p.13-31. Baird, J and Z Kamash, 2019, 'Remembering Roman Syria: Valuing Tadmor‐Palmyra, from ‘Discovery’ to Destruction' Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 62.1, p.1-29.