Societies News

October 14, 2022

Society Spotlight: New York City Society


This month, we’re delighted to spotlight the New York City Society. Society President Jeff Lamia shares an update with us below.

“The AIA-New York City Society’s mission mirrors that of the AIA generally in that we seek to foster the professional practice of archaeology and to inform the general public about the latest discoveries by archaeologists. Our activities cover all areas of the globe, all cultures, and through all time. We carry out our mission in a number of ways. We hold lectures every month from September through April. Some of these lectures are co-hosted with other New York City institutions, for example, one lecture we co-hosted with the Metropolitan Museum of Art had an audience of over 2,000 attendees. Currently our lectures are on Zoom, but we hope to return to in-person events, which provide post-lecture fellowship for attendees to exchange ideas and to engage informally with the speaker. Another significant activity is our NY Society Scholars Program supporting students of archaeology at New York City colleges and universities. Each year, we award scholarships to a maximum of six students. We give them free membership in the AIA with subscriptions to ARCHAEOLOGY magazine and the American Journal of Archaeology, offer complimentary Annual Meeting registration if they’re planning on attending the conference, and other benefits, in addition to making them eligible for a Fieldwork Scholarship. Each year, we award one of the six students a $1,500 Fieldwork Scholarship to assist them financially with their participation in fieldwork. More information on some of our past scholarship winners is included below.  We also publish a paper newsletter, informing our members of our lectures and of other articles about archaeology in New York City and around the world. We maintain a website with recordings of past lectures. To support our active programs, we count on the financial support of our Friends of the NY Society group, in addition to an endowment trust. In sum, the AIA-New York City Society is an active and dynamically changing Society carrying out its support for archaeology.”

NY Society Scholars, Fieldwork Scholarship Recipients, 2019-2021

Christina Stefanou, Cohort I (2019): PhD student at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (ISAW NYU). She participated in the Lyktos Archaeological Project, an excavation of the Archaeological Society at Athens, exploring the ancient city of Lyktos, located on the island of Crete.

Rebecca Tauscher, Cohort II (2020) : A graduate of Hunter College, receiving her B.A. in n Classical Studies and Classical Archaeology. She is working at Necropoli del Vallone di San Lorenzo, an Etruscan site.

Illyamani Castro, Cohort III (2021):  B.A. from New York University in Anthropology with a concentration in Native American Studies. Currently pursuing graduate studies at the University of Florida. She worked at two sites in Peru.

Thank you, Jeff, for sharing this update with us! The NY Society Scholars Program is a fantastic program and we’ve been delighted at AIA-HQ about it since its conception. Hopefully, other Societies will consider doing something similar!

To learn more about the New York City Society, visit their website and Facebook page.

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The AIA is North America's largest and oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to archaeology. The Institute advances awareness, education, fieldwork, preservation, publication, and research of archaeological sites and cultural heritage throughout the world. Your contribution makes a difference.