Dr. Chelsea Gardner

Chelsea Gardner is a Classical Archaeologist and Associate Professor in the Department of History and Classics at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her research is centered around archaeological exploration in southern Greece, and her fieldwork is in the Mani peninsula, just south of ancient Sparta. There, she is the co-director of The CARTography Project (https://cartographyproject.com; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SHuKfY6Gvg), a Digital Humanities mapping project that aims to analyze and recreate the routes of early modern travellers, as well as the new Southern Mani Archaeological Project (SMAP). She has two books under contract: the first, Tainaron in Classical Antiquity: a Journey to the End of the World, is all about site of ancient Tainaron, the mythical entrance to the ancient Greek Underworld and the location of a famous sanctuary to Poseidon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXxmOkbpVnw); the second Ancient Pasts for Modern Audiences: Public Scholarship and the Mediterranean World is an edited volume with contributions that highlight the creation of inclusive methods of knowledge mobilization and communication in the areas of cultural heritage, pedagogy, and public-facing scholarship. She is interested and has published on ancient and modern cultural identity, ancient religious space, the history of travel, archaeological survey, women in the ancient world, animals and nature in antiquity, landscape studies, and Digital Humanities.

Chelsea is also one of the founders of Peopling the Past (https://peoplingthepast.com), which produces free audio, video, and blog resources for learning about real people who lived in the ancient Mediterranean world; she hosts the Peopling the Past podcast, which currently has three seasons and is available on the PtP website (https://peoplingthepast.com/category/podcast/) and anywhere you get your podcasts.