Elizabeth Baltes

Contact Elizabeth Baltes

843-349-5036 ebaltes@coastal.edu

Edwards Building (EHFA) 275

Fall 2023 Office Hours
Tuesdays/Thursdays 9:30 - 10:30am
and by appointment.

Biography

With a background in political science, art history, archaeology, and digital humanities, Elizabeth Baltes’ research and teaching interests cross traditional disciplinary boundaries to consider the intersection of sculpture, politics, identity, and public space in the ancient Greek world. Her first book project, Dedication and Display of Portrait Statues in Hellenistic Greece: Spatial Practices and Identity Politics investigates how statue landscapes at such important sites as Delphi and Delos helped to articulate and reinforce a complex set of political and social identities and how space was utilized and manipulated on a local and regional level. Her contextual approach to ancient sculpture has been deeply influenced by recent work on contemporary American public sculpture, and it has also benefitted from a critical engagement with trends in digital art history.

Dr. Baltes’ scholarly work in digital historical reconstruction informs her approach to teaching. In her upper-level classes, students often undertake research-based digital projects––such as mapping the movement of objects, materials, or artists, or reconstructing buildings from archaeological plans––through which they learn interdisciplinary, transferrable skills.

Dr. Baltes’ scholarly work has been published in multiple venues, including the American Journal of Archaeology and Hesperia, and her research has been generously supported by grants from the Archaeological Institute of America, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the American Philosophical Society, and the Loeb Classical Library Foundation.

Read more about Dr. Baltes' NEH award here.

Education

Ph.D., Art History; Duke University, 2016
M.A., Art History; Duke University, 2011
B.A., Political Science (magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa); Louisiana State University, 2002

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Intensive Ancient Greek Summer Program, City University of New York Greek Institute (completed with honors, 2011)

Digital Visualization Summer Training Program for Archaeology, Architecture, Art History and Urbanism, Duke University (2010)

American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Summer Session, Field Scholar (2009)

Recent Publications

• “A Monumental Stepped Statue Base in the Athenian Agora.” Hesperia 89.2 (2020), pp. 339–377.
• “Challenging Narratives: Arthur Ashe and the Practice of Counter-monumentality on Richmond’s Monument Avenue.” De Arte 53.2 (2018), pp. 31–50.
• “Itinerant Statues? The Portrait Landscape of the Athenian Agora,” in Greek Art in Context: Archaeological and Art Historical Perspectives, edited by D. Rodríguez-Pérez, pp. 30–41. Routledge (2017).

Recent Grants & Accolades

• Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellowship, Harvard University (2022)
• Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society (2022)
• Summer Stipend (individual award), National Endowment for the Humanities (2020)

Teaching Areas

Introduction to Art History; Greek Art & Archaeology; Roman Art; Methods of Art History; Digital Historical Reconstruction; Identity, Ethnicity, & Gender in the Classical Mediterranean; Classical Sculpture & Monuments; Cultural Heritage & Art Crime

Research Areas

Greek and Roman sculpture; portrait statues & public monuments (ancient and modern); digital historical reconstruction