Collegiate Affiliation
Associate Director,
Premodern

Lydia Garver is the Associate Director of the Center for Premodern Studies where she supports an amazing community of faculty, staff, and students in their collective and individual engagements with the past. Her background is in historical archaeology, and she began working on digs for the State Museum of Pennsylvania as a high school student. Her research interests include early modern religion and consumer behavior, German Americans, material culture, archaeological ethics, and a longstanding obsession with art crime.  You can hear her overthink a porcelain bowl with an interesting 18th-century, Philadelphia connection and argue why archaeologists should be opposed to time travel on the Premodern Podcast! 

Lydia is also on the Advisory Board for the Heritage Studies and Public History Program.

Educational Background & Specialties
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Educational Background

  • PhD: Archaeology & Social Context, Indiana University-Bloomington

Specialties

  • Historical Archaeology
  • Material Culture
  • Religion and Migration in the 18th Century
  • Interdisciplinary Studies