Dr. Owen Doonan
Since 2003 Dr. Owen Doonan has been teaching at CSU Northridge, where he holds the rank of Professor in Art History, with courtesy appointments in Anthropology, Classical Civilizations and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Over the past two decades, Dr. Doonan's work as an archaeologist and art historian has focused on the transformative potential of colonial and post-colonial processes on communities and political formations in the ancient and contemporary world. His early interests were in the formation of Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures, and the impact of pre-colonial and colonial processes in the western Mediterranean. During these years he participated in archaeological excavations in Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Mallorca and conducted research into the emergence of industrial scale copper and iron production in Tuscany and the development of town planning concepts in Sicily at the time of initial contact with Mycenaean traders from the east. His first (1992-95) academic position in the newly-founded Archaeology Department of Bilkent University (Ankara) introduced him to the remarkable possibilities of archaeology in Turkey. Since that time his interests have expanded to include post-colonial art movements in the Middle East and North Africa – he has organized a series of post-colonial and contemporary art exhibitions from Turkey, Tunisia and Syria in recent years.
