Professional Summary
Jacob Engstrom is a PhD candidate specializing in Aegean Prehistory. He is the Homer and Dorothy Thompson Fellow at the Canadian Institute in Greece for the 2026-27 academic year. Jacob's research focuses on transcultural interactions and cultural entanglements, stylistic and cultural change, regional variation, and relative chronologies in the Middle and Late Bronze Age Aegean. His dissertation project, "Marine Style: A Contextual Approach to Pottery Production, Distribution, Consumption, and Style in the Late Bronze Age Aegean" takes a cross-media approach to Marine Style pottery as an interregional case study in the dynamics of development, adoption, and change in pottery styles and ceramic production, distribution, and consumption practices. He holds further research interests in the intellectual and political history of archaeology in the Aegean; archives; formation processes; and archaeological theory, especially network analysis, transculturality, and communities of practice.
Jacob has worked as an excavation supervisor with UC's Palace of Nestor Excavations at Pylos, the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project at Ancient Eleon, and the Olynthos Project. He has also assisted with pottery study and cataloguing at Ayia Irini on Kea and Poros-Heraklion and Galatas on Crete. He is a contributor to the ongoing publication of the Neopalatial chamber tomb cemetery at Poros-Heraklion with a focus on ceramic fabrics.
Jacob's research has previously been supported by the Heinrich Schliemann Fellowship and Edward Capps Advanced Fellowship at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Richard Seager Fellowship at the Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete.
A full CV is available here.
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
Engstrom, J. M. 2026. "A Marble Engraving of a 'Mycenaean' Warrior from Ayia Irini, Kea: Island Iconography and Social Context," Hesperia 95, pp. 1-49.
Engstrom, J. M. 2024. "Archive Archaeology and Critical Disciplinary Histories: A Case Study on the Origins of the University of Cincinnati Expedition to the Troad (1932-1938)," in Trends in Archive Archaeology: Current Research on Archival Material from Fieldwork and Its Implications for Archaeological Practice (Archive Archaeology 5), ed. J. M. Frey and R. Raja, Turnhout, pp. 91-114.
Braun, G. C., and J. M. Engstrom. 2022. "Lead Figurines from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Canada): Problems of Typology and Collections History," Annual of the British School at Athens 117, pp. 195-228. (co-authored)
Other Publications
Engstrom, J. M. forthcoming (2026). "A Fresh Look at Marine Style Pottery," Kentro: Newsletter of the INSTAP Study Center for East Crete 29.
Stewart, S. M., ed. 2024. Centuries of Classics in Cincinnati, Cincinnati.
- A history of Classics and archaeology at the University of Cincinnati; contributed entries on Carl W. Blegen, Cedric G. Boulter, and John L. Caskey
Education
B.A. Honours with Distinction: University of Victoria 2020 (Greek and Roman Studies)
M.A.: University of Cincinnati 2023 (Classics)
Research Support
2024 -2025 American School of Classical Studies at Athens Heinrich Schliemann Fellowship
2022 University of Cincinnati Marion and Dorothy Rawson Fellowship
2022 University of Cincinnati Cedric G. Boulter Fellowship
2025 Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete Richard Seager Fellowship
2025 -2026 American School of Classical Studies at Athens Edward Capps Fellowship
2026 -2027 Canadian Institute in Greece Homer and Dorothy Thompson Fellowship