Lynn Meskell (born 1967) is an Australian archaeologist and anthropologist who currently works as a professor at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.^[1][2]

She has worked as the 26th Penn Integrates Knowledge Program (PIK) Professor since her appointment in 2020, which is a program appointed to faculty with multidisciplinary research and teaching and who are working in at least two Penn Schools.^[3]

Meskell is also the Richard D. Green Professor of Anthropology in theSchool of Arts and Sciences, Graduate Professor of Historic Preservation in theWeitzman School of Design, and a curator for thePenn Museum's Middle East and Asia areas.^[2]

Since 2019 she has been anAndrew D. White Professor-at-Large atCornell University; her term expires in 2025.^[4]

Meskell received her B.A. from theUniversity of Sydney in 1994 (First Class) and University Medal. She was awarded the King's College scholarship from theUniversity of Cambridge for her Ph.D. in archaeology (1994–1997).^[5] In her doctoral dissertation, Meskell analyzed data from the settlement and cemeteries ofDeir el-Medina, aNew Kingdom worker's village across theNile fromLuxor.^[1]

From 1997 to 1999 she held the Salvesen Junior Research Fellowship atNew College,University of Oxford before accepting a position in the Anthropology Department atColumbia University inNew York City where she became Professor in 2005.^[5]

Meskell founded theJournal of Social Archaeology,^[5] releasing its first publication in June 2001.^[6]

In 2002, she was aNational Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at theSchool for Advanced Research inSanta Fe.^[1][7] Meskell received theAndrew W. Mellon Foundation's New Directions Fellowship in 2004, supporting training in ethnography and African studies to prepare her for work inSouth Africa.^[8][1] She carried out fieldwork in theKruger National Park andMapungubwe National Park.^[9]

Meskell's interests include socio-politics, archaeological ethics, global heritage, materiality, as well as feminist and postcolonial theory.^[2] She is recognized for her contributions to feminist archaeology, archaeological ethics, and issues of heritage.^[2] Her earlier research examined social life in theNew Kingdom of Egypt, natural and cultural heritage in South Africa, and the archaeology offigurines and burial at the Neolithic site ofÇatalhöyük, Turkey.^[2]

Meskell conducted an institutional ethnography ofUNESCO World Heritage, criticizing theWorld Heritage Program through her research.^[10] She traced the politics of governance and sovereignty and the subsequent implications for multilateral diplomacy, international conservation, and heritage rights.^[2] Employing archival and ethnographic analysis, she has revealed UNESCO's early forays into a one-world archaeology and its later commitments to global heritage.^[2]

In other fieldwork acrossIndia she explores monumental regimes of research and preservation around World Heritage sites and how diverse actors and agencies address the needs of living communities.^[2] In 2016 she was invited to India through theGlobal Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) program.^[11]

From 2019 to 2020, she was the Shirley and Leonard Ely Professor of Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Anthropology atStanford University.^[2]

Since 2020, Meskell has been a professor in theCollege of Arts and Sciences and theWeitzman School of Design, and aPenn Museum curator for the Middle East and Asia.^[2]

Meskell is an Honorary Professor in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at theUniversity of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and in the Center for Archaeology, Heritage & Museum Studies,Shiv Nadar University, India.^[8]

She has been awarded grants and fellowships for over 20 years from various institutions, including those from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, theNational Science Foundation, theAustralian Research Council, theAmerican Academy in Rome, the School of American Research, Oxford University and Cambridge University.

In 2017, Meskell was elected Fellow of theAustralian Academy of the Humanities.^[11] That same year, she received an Honorary Doctorate from theAmerican University of Rome,Italy.

• 2018A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage and the Dream of Peace, Oxford University Press: New York.
• 2015Global Heritage: A Reader, (editor) Blackwell: Oxford.
• 2012The Nature of Heritage: The New South Africa, Blackwell: Oxford.
• 2009Cosmopolitan Archaeologies, (editor) Duke University Press: Durham.
• 2005Archaeologies of Materiality, (editor) Blackwell: Oxford.
• 2005Embedding Ethics, (edited with Peter Pels) Berg: Oxford.
• 2004Object Worlds in Ancient Egypt: Material Biographies Past and Present, Berg: Oxford.
• 2004Companion to Social Archaeology, (edited with Robert Preucel) Blackwell: Oxford.
• 2003Embodied Lives: Figuring Ancient Maya and Egyptian Experience, (authored with Rosemary Joyce) Routledge: London.
• 2002Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt, Princeton University Press: Princeton.
• 1999Archaeologies of Social Life: Age, Sex, Class Etcetera in Ancient Egypt, Social Archaeology Series. Blackwell: Oxford.
• 1998 Archaeology under Fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, (editor) Routledge: London.