Education

  • Ph.D. with Honors in Islamic Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, June 2007. Dissertation: “Archaeological Texts and Contexts on the Red Sea: The Sheikh’s House at Quseir al-Qadim.” Advisor: Donald Whitcomb (University of Chicago). Committee members: Fred M. Donner (University of Chicago), Li Guo (University of Notre Dame), David Schloen (University of Chicago).Text available as a pdf at https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/library/dissertation/strangeburke.html.
  • M.A. Islamic Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, March 2005. Paper: “Archaeological Evidence for Sugar Production in the Near East.” Advisor: Donald Whitcomb.
  • M.St. Islamic Art and Archaeology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the University of Oxford; Oxford, England, August 1998. Dissertation: “A Study of a Hoard of Ayyubid Dirhams in the Ashmolean, and Their Epigraphy as Related to Monumental Epigraphy of the Period.” Advisor: Luke Treadwell.
  • B.A. Hon. Women’s Studies, magna cum laude, University of South Florida; Tampa, Florida, June 1994.

 

Research

  • Early Islamic, Crusader, and Mamluk Jaffa through ceramic analysis
  • Texts as artifacts, texts in context

Publications

Books

Articles

2018                 The Ceramic Assemblage at Quseir al-Qadim, ca. 11th–15th c. CE, Highlighting the Ayyubid-Mamluk Horizon. Bulletin de liaison de la céramique égyptienne 28, part 2: Medieval Pottery in Egypt (7th – 19th century AD), edited by Felix Arnold, Sylvie Marchand, and Gregory Williams. Institut Français d’Archchéologie Orientale, Cairo.

2004                 Quseir al-Qadīm in the Thirteenth Century: A Community and Its Textiles. Ars Orientalis 34: 82–97 (with Donald Whitcomb).

2004                 A Note on Archaeological Evidence for Sugar Production in the Middle Islamic Periods in Bilad al-Sham. Mamluk Studies Review 8/2: 109–118.

Dissertations

“Archaeological Texts and Contexts on the Red Sea: The Sheikh’s House at Quseir al-Qadim.” Advisor: Donald Whitcomb (University of Chicago). Committee members: Fred M. Donner (University of Chicago), Li Guo (University of Notre Dame), David Schloen (University of Chicago). Text available as a pdf at https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/library/dissertation/strangeburke.html.

“Archaeological Evidence for Sugar Production in the Near East.” Advisor: Donald Whitcomb. M.A. Islamic Archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, March 2005.

“A Study of a Hoard of Ayyubid Dirhams in the Ashmolean, and Their Epigraphy as Related to Monumental Epigraphy of the Period.” Advisor: Luke Treadwell. M.St.  Islamic Art and Archaeology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the University of Oxford; Oxford, England, August 1998.

Book

2020                   The Sheikh’s House at Quṣayr al-Qadīm: Documenting a Thirteenth-century Red Sea Port. Oriental
Institute Publications. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

2017                 The History and Archaeology of Jaffa 2: The Late Ottoman Period and Other Archaeological Studies. The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project 2. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Los Angeles. (Co-edited with Aaron A. Burke and Martin Peilstöcker.)

Books in preparation

In Preparation  Jaffa. Routledge, New York (with Aaron A. Burke).

Book Chapters

2021    Crusader Pottery. In Excavations at the Ottoman Military Compound (Qishle) in Jaffa, 2007, 2009, edited by Yoav Arbel, pp. 75‒116. The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project IV; Ägypten Und Altes Testament Studien Zu Geschichte, Kultur Und Religion Ägyptens Und Des Alten Testaments 91. Münster: Zaphon, 2020 (with Edna J. Stern).

Forthcoming    Crusader Pottery. In Excavations in HaZorfim Street, Yafo, edited by Yoav Arbel. The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Los Angeles.

Forthcoming    Crusader Pottery. In Excavations at the Roslan and Mifraz Shlomo Sites, Yafo, edited by Yoav Arbel. The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Los Angeles (with Edna J. Stern).

2011                 Mamluk Jaffa: A Note. In The History and Archaeology of Jaffa, edited by Martin Peilstöcker and Aaron Alexander Burke, pp. 127‒28. The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project 1. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Jerusalem and Los Angeles.

2011                 Early Islamic and Crusader Whole and Reconstructed Vessels from the Ganor Compound. In The History and Archaeology of Jaffa, edited by Martin Peilstöcker and Aaron Alexander Burke, pp. 197‒210. The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project 1. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Jerusalem and Los Angeles.

2001                 Towards Islamic Archaeology. In Religious Texts and Material Contexts, edited by Jacob Neusner and James F. Strange, pp. 199–218. Studies in Ancient Judaism, J. Neusner, general editor. University Press of America, Lanham, New York (published under the name Katherine Strange).

Articles Online

2006                 Quseir al-Qadim. In The Chicago Online Encyclopedia of Mamluk Studies, edited by Bruce Craig, Bethany J. Walker, and Olaf Nelson. MEDOC Cluster of Mamluk Studies Resources. The University of Chicago, Chicago. BETA version posted February 2006.

2001                 Lustreware from Raqqa in the Ashmolean Museum. In A Web-based Teaching Course on Islamic Ceramics, edited by Mariam Rosser-Owen. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Research Reports

2012                 Ceramic Traditions in Medieval Jaffa: Continuities amid Change. Backdirt 2012: 106–07.

2007                 New Research on Jaffa in the Islamic and Crusader Periods. Al-`Usur al-Wustá: The Bulletin of Middle East Medievalists 19/2: 21‒26.

2006                 The Sheikh’s House at Quseir al-Qadim. Bulletin of the American Research Center in Egypt 190: 24–28.

2004                 Quseir al-Qadim. In The Oriental Institute 20032004 Annual Report, edited by G. J. Stein, pp. 124–132. The Oriental Institute, Chicago.

Reviews

2010                 Review of Ramla (South): An Early Islamic Industrial Site and Remains of Previous Periods, by Oren Tal and Itamar Taxel. Salvage Excavation Reports 5. Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 2008. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 358.

2009                 Review of Tel Yoqne‘am: Excavations on the Acropolis, by Miriam Avissar. Israel Antiquities Authority Reports 25. Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, 2005. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 355: 110–112.

2007                 Review of David P. S. Peacock and Lucy Blue, eds., Myos Hormos – Quseir al-Qadim: Roman and Islamic Ports on the Red Sea. Volume 1: Survey and Excavations 1999–2003 (Oxbow: Oxford 2006). American Journal of Archaeology 111/3: 591–592.

Honors & Awards

Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Faculty Research Grant for research, archaeometric analysis, and publication of
Islamic and Crusader ceramics from Jaffa, Israel, July 2012‒June 2013.

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological
Research in Jerusalem, Israel, for publication of Early Islamic and Crusader Ceramics from Jaffa in Excavations
on Jaffa’s Eastern Slopes (1995‒2007), edited by Martin Peilstöcker, September‒December 2009.

Fondation Max van Berchem for “Islamic and Crusader Pottery from Excavations at Jaffa,” June‒August 2008
and June‒August 2009.

The US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Fellowship at the American
Research Center in Egypt for dissertation research in Egypt, November 8, 2005–May 8, 2006.

The US Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship for
dissertation research in Egypt, October 1, 2005–July 1, 2006 (declined).

Institute of International Education J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship for dissertation research in
Egypt, October 1, 2005–July 1, 2006 (declined).

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Helen Rich Memorial Fund awards in 1999, 2000, 2002,
2003, and 2006 for travel, research, and excavation in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, and Israel.

The US Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies (Title VI) Fellowship for graduate study
in Modern Hebrew, September 2001–June 2002 and for graduate study in Modern Standard Arabic, Summer 1999
and September 2000–June 2001.

The Barakat Trust Research Grant in Islamic Art and Archaeology for “The Art and Meaning of Public Text: An
Examination of Coins and Monuments,” at the University of Oxford, Summer 1998.

Aboly-Lykes Honors College Scholarship at the University of South Florida, August 1992–June 1993 The
Florida Academic Scholars Fund (Florida Undergraduate Scholar) providing full tuition to the University of
South Florida, August 1990–June 1994

Courses

Undergraduate
  • Introduction to Islamic Archaeology (ME STD M111 / ISLM ST M111 / ART HIS M119C)
  • Archaeology and Art of Christian and Islamic Egypt (Archeol M112 / MES M112 / Islamic ST M112 / Art His M119D)