Robert Murowchick

Robert Murowchick is the Director of Undergraduate Studies and Lecturer of Archaeology at Boston University. After earning his B.A. in Archaeology at Yale (’78) and A.M. in Regional Studies-East Asia at Harvard (’80), he taught English as a Yale-China Association fellow for two years (1981-1983) at Hubei Provincial Medical College (Wuchang, Hubei, PRC). He earned his PhD in Anthropology at Harvard (1989) under Prof. Kwang-chih (K.C.) Chang, specializing on the development of ancient bronze technology in southwest China (Yunnan and Guangxi) and northern Southeast Asia, and then on the Harvard-Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Archaeology collaborative field project Investigations into Early Shang Civilization at Shangqiu in eastern Henan province (1991-2005). He served as Associate Director at Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies. In 1999, he worked with the Henry Luce Foundation to establish the International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History at Boston University, expanding the archaeology curriculum there to include more expansive coverage of Asia and to develop a range of public and K-12 outreach events and resources to engage a broader audience in Asian archaeology. In addition to Asian archaeology, his particular teaching and research interests include international cultural heritage protection, the international antiquities trade, archaeological ethics, and the intersections of politics, nationalism, and cultural heritage studies. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Harvard-Yenching Institute.