Lynn Meskell

Lynn Meskell, a world-renowned archaeologist, is the Richard D. Green University Professor, with joint appointments in the Department of Anthropology , the Historic Preservation Program and Department of City and Regional Planning in the Weitzman School of Design, and the Penn Museum as a Curator in both the Asian and Near East Sections.

Meskell was most recently Ely Professor of Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University, where she taught since 2005, and is an AD White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University from 2019-2025. Born in Australia, she has done pioneering archaeological work across the world, including research into Neolithic Turkey and New Kingdom Egypt. Her most current work explores World Heritage sites in India, especially how heritage bureaucracies interact with the needs of living communities, and the implications of archaeological research for wider contemporary challenges of heritage, national sovereignty, and multilateral diplomacy. Her landmark institutional ethnography of UNESCO World Heritage, A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage and the Dream of Peace (Oxford University Press, 2018) – awarded the 2019 Best Book Award from the Society for American Archaeology – rereads the politics of preservation in relation to international history and global practices of governance and sovereignty.