Allison Karmel Thomason
Professor
Department Chair
Peck Hall 3224
618-650-3685
althoma@siue.edu
Bio
Allison Thomason is a professor in the Department of Historical Studies. She teaches courses on ancient history, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. She also teaches in the World History and Western Civilization course sequences. Her research and public scholarship examine the texts, images, and material culture of the ancient Near East, with special focus on Mesopotamia. She is particularly interested in the social and cultural history of the region prior to the advent of Classical civilizations. She has traveled and studied in the Middle East and Mediterranean areas. She has excavated in both Greece and the Middle East and held a fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
She has published a monograph about collecting and museums in ancient Mesopotamia (Luxury and Legitimation: Royal Collecting in Ancient Mesopotamia, Routledge, 2005) and several articles in journals and anthologies (see her page in academia.edu). Her recent research focuses on sensory experiences in Mesopotamia and the larger ancient Near East, including the 32-chapter The Routledge Handbook of the Senses in the Ancient Near East (2021), which she co-edited with Dr. Kiersten Neumann. Professor Thomason is also on the board of the Classical Club of St. Louis.
Research Focus
Ancient History
History of the Ancient Near East and Mesopotamia
Women Studies
Material Culture Studies
Sensory Studies
History of Collecting and Museums
Art History
Archaeology
Dress and Textiles
Courses Taught
World History I: Prehistory to 1500 CE
History of Western Civilization I: Ancient Rome
History of Western Civilization II: 1815 to Present
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome (753 BCE to 500 CE)
Ancient Mesopotamia
Women in the Ancient World
Graduate Seminar on Social and Cultural History of the Ancient World
Graduate Seminar on Orientalism
Historical Research (Senior Assignment Seminar)
Education
PhD, Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, 1999
MA, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 1993
BA, Old World Art and Archaeology, Brown University, 1991
