Cheryl Ward biography

Although a childhood determination to become an archaeologist was temporarily thwarted by unthinking comments from a high school principal, a chance meeting with a professor organizing a field school to Georgia O'Keeffe's ranch in New Mexico set Cheryl Ward back on track to study ancient human societies. She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. focused on nautical archaeology from Texas A&M University and an M.S. in Bioarchaeology from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of London, and now serves as Assistant Professor of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University at Galveston.

Cheryl recently was awarded a Library of Congress Mellon Foreign Area Fellowship for studying Red Sea trade in the 17th and 18th centuries and a National Geographic Society Research and Exploration grant for her work on the Sadana ship. The Sadana Island wreck is a perfect vehicle for examining trade in luxuries and staples through the region.

She also joined the WGBH investigation of ancient technology that focused on obelisk construction and transport (broadcast on the BBC and PBS stations recently). Her monograph, Sacred and Secular: Ancient Egyptian Ships and Boats, will be published by the Archaeological Institute of America in 1999, and she has authored many journal articles and lectured in museums and other institutions internationally.

Click to view Cheryl Ward's curriculum vitae.

Click to view Cheryl Ward's lecture topics.