Professor, M.A.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Department of Art & Art History

Curriculum Vitae

dsb@mail.utexas.edu

Website

- Office: DFA 2.130

- Phone: +1 512-232-2608

- Mail Code: - D1300

Denise Schmandt-Besserat is a Professor of Art and Middle Eastern Studies. Her field is the archaeology of the Near East. She has worked on the origin of writing and mathematics. Her major publications include Before Writing (1992) and How Writing Came About (1996); both were published by The University of Texas Press and she has contributed numerous articles in major scholarly and popular journals. Her study has been widely reported in magazines and newspapers such as Scientific American, Time, Life, New York Times, and The Washington Post. Her work has also been the subject of several television programs. Schmandt-Besserat is a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University for the academic year 2003-2004. She has been a visiting scholar at numerous institutions internationally and has received grants from The United States Information Agency, The German Academic Exchange Service, The American Council of Learned Societies, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Radcliffe Institute, and The Wenner Gren Foundation. Schmandt-Besserat is on the editorial board of Archaeology Odyssey since 2003. She has served on the governing boards of the Archaeological Institute of America, 1984-1990, and has been on the advisory board of Visible Language since 1985 and of Written Communication from 1993-1995. Schmandt-Besserat has been cited Outstanding Woman in the Humanities by the American Association of University Women, has received the Holloway Teaching Award, and is listed in Who's Who in America.