Campus Directory

Division Humanities Division

Department/College/Unit History Department

Title Associate Professor

Affiliation Faculty

Other UCSC Campus Affiliation Anthropology Department
Classical Studies
Archaeological Research Center
Center for the Middle East and North Africa (CMENA)

Faculty Type Regular Faculty

Areas of Expertise Egyptology
Archaeology
Digital Humanities
Virtual Reality, Immersive, and Augmented Reality Environments
Ancient World / Classics
History

Web Site

Primary Office Location Humanities Building 1
236

Office Hours for Students/ Office Hours Winter quarter 2025: On sabbatical; intermittant email contact via campus email

Mail Stop Humanities Academic Services

Biography, Education and Training

Elaine A. Sullivan is an Egyptologist and a Digital Humanist whose work focuses on applying new technologies to ancient cultural materials. Her born-digital publication, Constructing the Sacred, utilizes a geo-temporal 3D model of the necropolis of Saqqara (near modern Cairo) to investigate questions of ritual landscape and visibility at the site. This digital monograph (https://constructingthesacred.org, Stanford University Press, 2020) was awarded prizes by the American Historical Association, the Archaeological Institute of America, and ACLS. 

Her archaeological work in Egypt includes five seasons of excavation with Johns Hopkins University at the temple of the goddess Mut (Luxor), as well as four seasons in the field with a joint UCLA-Rijksuniversiteit Groningen project in the Egyptian Fayum at the Greco-Roman town of Karanis. She has also excavated at sites in Syria, Italy, and Israel. Sullivan has published extensively on the use of digital technologies for research and scholarship. 

Dr. Sullivan received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Egyptian Art and Archaeology from Johns Hopkins University. Her B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) in History is from Duke University.

Research Interests

Research interests include landscape, temples and ritual sites, women and gender, and the use of digital toolkits in historical research.

Awards, Honors and Grants

ACLS Open Access book prize honorable mention for Constructing the Sacred, 2024 

Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) Award for Outstanding Work in Digital Archaeology for Constructing the Sacred , 2022

American Historical Association (AHA)  Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History for Constructing the Sacred, 2020

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Digital Publication Awardee, 2018-2019

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant Awardee, 2015-2016

American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Digital Innovation Fellowship, 2012-2013

Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), National Lecture Program speaker, 2012-2013

UC Chancellor's Award for Post-Doctoral Scholarship, 2010

ARCE Dissertation Fellowship, 2005

Selected Publications

• Constructing the sacred: Visibility and ritual landscape at the Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara. Stanford University Press, March 2020.  https://constructingthesacred.org 
• "Seeking a better view: Using 3D to investigate visibility in historic landscapes." Journal of Archaeological Method & Theory, Vol. 24, issue 4. 2017.
• "Digital Karnak: An experiment in publication and peer review of interactive, three-dimensional content." Co-author Lisa M. Snyder. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol 76, issue 4. December 2017.
• "Potential pasts: Taking a humanistic approach to computer visualization of ancient landscapes." Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Vol 59, issue 2, 71-88. December 2016.
• "The 3D SAQQARA project: Technical Workflow for Creating 3D Environments from 2D Archaeological Data." Co-Author: Aaron Cole. Required 'White Paper' submitted to the NEH Official of Digital Humanities, 2017.
• A Glimpse into Ancient Thebes: Excavations at South Karnak (2004-2006). Archaeopress: 2013. 
• “Teaching Digital Humanities through Digital Cultural Mapping.” Co-authors: Chris Johanson, Willeke Wendrich, et. al. In Brett Hirsch (ed.), Teaching Digital Humanities: Principles, Practices, and Politics. Open Book Publishers: 2013.
• “Visualizing the Size and Movement of the Portable Festival Bark at Karnak Temple.” British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan. No. 19, December 2012.
• “The Development of the Temple of Amun at Karnak.” In Willeke Wendrich (ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles: 2010.
• “An Offering to Amun-Ra: Building a Virtual Reality Model of Karnak.” Co-author: Willeke Wendrich. In Nigel Strudwick (ed.), Information Technology and Egyptology in 2008. Gorgias Press, Piscataway: 2009.

Courses History 050: When Pharaohs Reigned: The History of Ancient Egypt
HIS 051: Pyramids of Earth
History 159A: Cleopatra to Constantine: Greek and Roman Egypt
History 189: @history: Doing History in a Digital Age
History 159B: Women and Gender in Ancient Egypt
History 159C: Temple and City: The Egyptian New Kingdom and the City of Thebes
History 159M: Curse of the Mummy
History 194S: Who Owns the Past?: Object Lives in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean
HIS 208: An Introduction to Digital Humanities (Graduate Class)