Elisha Ann Dumser

Title: Associate Professor
Dept/Program: Art History
Office: Folk Hall 172
Phone: 330-972-8063
Email: edumser@uakron.edu
Website: https://uakron.academia.edu/ElishaDumser

Biography

Elisha Dumser teaches pre-20th century art history courses and is the Honors Research Advisor for the Myers School of Art. She holds Graduate Faculty, Category 2 status at the university. A specialist in Roman architecture, especially late imperial buildings in the city of Rome, her recent research focuses on the impact reused materials have upon design and construction processes and the meanings a structure can convey.

Her publications include Building the Classical World (with D. Borbonus, 2022), Mapping Augustan Rome (2002, reprinted 2008), and book chapters on the influence of reuse on architectural practices (2022); the residences of Maxentius (2020); visual literacy under the late Empire (2018); and the urban topography of Rome (2013).

Currently, she is writing a monograph on the architecture of Maxentius (306-312 CE) and in the summer of 2023 will be a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome.

She serves as President of the Akron-Kent Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America, on the editorial board of the University of Akron Press, and on committees for the Archaeological Institute of America.

Education

Ph.D. – The University of Pennsylvania, 2005
M.A. – Case Western Reserve University, 1996
B.A. – The Ohio State University, 1994, Art History and Photography, summa cum laude with honors in the Liberal Arts