Anisa Mara

PhD Candidate (she/her)
anisa.mara@mail.utoronto.ca

Campus

  • Downtown Toronto (St. George)

Fields of Study

  • Ancient
  • European
  • Mediterranean
  • Archaeology

Areas of Interest

  • Mediterranean, Adriatic, Balkan, Albanian, and Kosovo archaeology
  • The Bronze Age 
  • Approaches to culture contact (human mobility), technology, and knowledge transmission
  • Chaîne opératoire
  • Ceramic technology
  • Network analysis / ArcGIS
  • Cultural heritage management

Working Dissertation

Title

The EBA and MBA Pottery of Northern Albania: A Mesoscale Approach to Technological Mobility and Social Complexity

Supervisors

Carl Knappett

Biography

My background includes numerous projects, including archaeological excavations and surveys, research, museum and laboratory work, cultural heritage management, and teaching in Albania, Kosovo, Italy, Greece, and the USA. I am particularly interested in the Bronze Age western Balkans. My research investigates community interaction and knowledge transmission across settlements in northern Albania by examining Bronze Age pottery. Such examination pertains to determining the position of north Albania and Kosovo in Adriatic and broader Mediterranean exchange networks. Multiple interrelated projects support my research. I was the co-director of the "Gjyrashë Archaeological Project" in northern Albania in May of 2022 and am part of the staff of two projects: 1) Projekti Arkeologjik Shkodër (PASH), where I was assigned to lead survey groups, supervise laboratory work, and manage the project database, and 2) Regional Archaeology in the Peja and Istog Districts of Kosovo (RAPID-K) in which I lead survey teams. As a doctoral student, I am also part of the Mediterranean Archaeology Collaborative Specialization Program (MACS), which ties to my research interests. Being part of MACS, I had the opportunity to amplify my understanding of eastern Mediterranean material culture while excavating in the Minoan town of Palaikastro (Crete) in the summer of 2022.

Selected Publications

  • Mara, Anisa. In prep. “Petrographic Analysis of Prehistoric Pottery.” In Archaeological Investigations in a Northern Albanian Province: Results of the Projekti Arkeologjik i Shkodrës (PASH): Volume Two, edited by Michael L. Galaty and Lorenc Bejko. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Honours, Awards and Grants

  • 2022 Rust Family Foundation in support of "Gjyrashë Archaeological Project"
  • 2022 Hal Jackman Foundation Fellowship in support of "Gjyrashë Archaeological Project"
  • 2021 W. Bernard Herman Graduate Scholarships In Art History
  • 2019 W. Bernard Herman Graduate Scholarships In Art History
  • 2019 Connaught International Scholarship

Education

MA, Mississippi State University, Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures, 2018
MA, University of Tirana, Department of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 2013
BA, University of Tirana, Department of History, 2009

Presentations

Community Interaction During the end 4th to 3rd Millennium BC: A Case Study from Northern Albania, Society for American Archaeology (SAA) 87th Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois (USA), April 02, 2022.

Cohort

  • 2019-2020