Alexander Ekserdjian is assistant professor in the departments of Classics and History of Art at Yale University. A historian of ancient Mediterranean art with a specialization in the sculpture of Hellenistic Central Italy, his research focuses on ancient responses to visual art, particularly the role played by sculpted images of the gods in religious experience. He is interested in the theology and anthropology of sacred sculpture, and the ways material culture can contribute to the study of Roman religion.

While at the American Academy, he will visit sites and museums as he puts the finishing touches to the manuscript for his first book, tentatively titled Sculpture and the Gods. Other interests include anatomical ex-votos, jewellery and adornment, and the description of objects in epigraphic texts. He is the editor of Selected Papers on Ancient Art and Architecture Volume 9, a collection of essays interrogating encounters with the art of ancient Central Italy. His most recent work as a field archaeologist has been with the Advanced Program in Ancient History and Art (APAHA) team at Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli.