Kolb 2024 Graduates

Recently graduated Kolb Junior Fellows celebrated at the Kolb Dinner on September 20, 2024. Robert Vigar, Samantha Seyler, Kasey Diserens Morgan, and John Sigmier (pictured at right) along with Justin Reamer (not pictured) defended their dissertations this past year and graduated to become Fellows of the Kolb Society.

Robert Vigar (ANTH) defended his dissertation DISPOSSESSING NUBIA: THE POLITICS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PRACTICE IN NUBIA” in February. He is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Case University in New York.

Samantha Seyler (ANTH) defended her dissertation “Monte Para Trabajar: Histories of land and Labor in Central Quintana Roo” in July.

Kasey Diserens Morgan (ANTH) is currently an Adjunct Lecturer in Anthropology in the Department of Cultural, Environmental and Global Studies at Salve Regina University as well as in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Delaware. She defended her dissertation “Resisting Heritage Facadism: Politics of Patrimony and Community-centered Approaches to Heritage Preservation in Tihosuco, Mexico” in July.

John Sigmier (AAMW) accepted a position as a postdoctural fellow in the Department of Classics at the University of Toronto. He defended his dissertation “Architectural Knowledge Transmission in the Theater Buildings of the Roman Northwest” in April.

Justin Reamer (ANTH) defended “The Farmers in the Del: Maize and Minsi-Lenape Foodways in the Minisink NHLM (2000 BCE–CE 1675)” in December. He graduated and taught last year at Bryn Mawr College, and is now a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Bowdoin College.

Senior Fellow Ralph Rosen, Vartan Gregorian Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Classical Studies, retires. Ralph served on the Kolb Foundation board as Vice President from 2012–2022.

Welcome and congratulations to Arielle Hardy (AAMW), Cianna Jackson (CLST), and Moriah McKenna (ANTH), newly elected Kolb Junior Fellows in 2024!

Katherine Paanakker

The Kolb Society awarded its first fellowship in 1981. Since that date numerous graduate students from across the University have been inducted into the society as Junior Fellows based on academic excellence and participation in fields of study related to the Penn Museum. Junior Fellows have been drawn from the graduate groups and departments of Ancient History, Anthropology, Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, Art History, Classical Studies, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Professors from those departments are elected as Kolb Senior Fellows, guiding the work of Junior Fellows of the Society.

Currently there are eleven Senior Fellows representing Anthropology, Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, Art History, Classical Studies, and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. The Director of the Penn Museum serves as the President of the Society. As each Junior Fellow graduates, they become a lifelong Fellow of the Kolb Society as they move on in their career. Since 1981 the Kolb Society has graduated nearly 100 Fellows, who have followed up their graduate work with academic careers, fieldwork, and research reflecting the interests of the Kolb Society.

The Society itself is unique—the only academic society supporting graduate work. In this way, the Kolb Society has formed strong bonds among its Junior and Senior Fellows based at Penn, and its graduated and far-flung Fellows. From the hub of the Penn Museum, the Kolb Society and its fellows have spread throughout the world to academic institutions and excavations furthering the pursuit of archaeology.

Featured Videos By Kolb Fellows

Visit our Video Library for More Content!