Plenary Speakers
April Nowell
University of Victoria in British Columbia
Victoria, Canada
April Nowell is a Paleolithic archaeologist and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. She directs an international team of researchers in the study of Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites in Jordan and collaborates with colleagues on the study of cave art in Australia and France. She and her colleagues working in Jordan published the world’s oldest identifiable blood on stone tools, demonstrating that 300,000 years ago early humans ate a range of animals from duck to rhinoceros. She is known for her publications on cognitive archaeology, Neandertal lifeways, Paleolithic art, the archaeology of children and the relationship between science, pop culture, and the media.
Her work has been covered by more than 100 media outlets, and her blood residue work was named one of Time Magazine’s top 100 discoveries. She is the co-editor of multiple volumes including Archaeology of Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient world (with Nancy Golin), and the author of the book Growing Up in the Ice Age, winner of the 2023 European Association of Archaeologists Book Prize.
Her work has been covered by more than 100 media outlets, and her blood residue work was named one of Time Magazine’s top 100 discoveries. She is the co-editor of multiple volumes including Archaeology of Night: Life After Dark in the Ancient world (with Nancy Golin), and the author of the book Growing Up in the Ice Age, winner of the 2023 European Association of Archaeologists Book Prize.
Barbara E. Barich is a former Professor of Ethnography and Prehistory of Africa at the Faculty of Humanities and the School of Archaeology of Sapienza University, Rome (1994–2011). She is currently conducting research within the framework of ISMEO (the International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies).
In May 2025, she was elected President of the International Academy of Prehistory and Protohistory. From September 2023 to October 2024, she was appointed as interim President of the UISPP.
She represented the Sapienza University on the International Certificate in African Archaeology, a European Master's degree based at the Université Libre in Brussels, and until 2011, she was a member of the Academic Board of the Doctoral School of African Studies at the University of Naples 'L'Orientale' and the Doctoral School of Archaeology (Prehistory Curriculum) at Sapienza University.
Barbara E. Barich conducted extensive field research in North Africa and the Sahara, drawing on the data collected to investigate early ceramic societies in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Her research has focused in particular on the origins of food-producing economies and the development of Neolithic groups in desert environments.
She served as Deputy Director of the Mission in the Libyan Sahara (Tadrart Acacus) from 1970 to 1985 and, in the 1990s, initiated two official University of Rome missions: one in Libya (Jebel Gharbi–Nefusa) and one in Egypt (Farafra Oasis). These missions have made substantial contributions to the study of the history and ethno-anthropology of prehistoric societies in the region and are currently ongoing under the auspices of ISMEO.
In 2010, B. E. Barich directed an archaeological and conservation project on the prehistoric rock art of Wadi Sura, Egypt, within the framework of the Gilf Kebir National Park initiative, sponsored by the Egyptian–Italian Environmental Cooperation Programme.
She has coordinated national research programmes funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the Ministry of Universities (PRIN and FIRB programmes), the National Research Council, and Sapienza University.
Her extensive bibliography comprises around 200 titles, including books and articles. Some of these focus on the theoretical aspects of the discipline, particularly the ecological perspective in archaeological reconstructions.
In May 2025, she was elected President of the International Academy of Prehistory and Protohistory. From September 2023 to October 2024, she was appointed as interim President of the UISPP.
She represented the Sapienza University on the International Certificate in African Archaeology, a European Master's degree based at the Université Libre in Brussels, and until 2011, she was a member of the Academic Board of the Doctoral School of African Studies at the University of Naples 'L'Orientale' and the Doctoral School of Archaeology (Prehistory Curriculum) at Sapienza University.
Barbara E. Barich conducted extensive field research in North Africa and the Sahara, drawing on the data collected to investigate early ceramic societies in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Her research has focused in particular on the origins of food-producing economies and the development of Neolithic groups in desert environments.
She served as Deputy Director of the Mission in the Libyan Sahara (Tadrart Acacus) from 1970 to 1985 and, in the 1990s, initiated two official University of Rome missions: one in Libya (Jebel Gharbi–Nefusa) and one in Egypt (Farafra Oasis). These missions have made substantial contributions to the study of the history and ethno-anthropology of prehistoric societies in the region and are currently ongoing under the auspices of ISMEO.
In 2010, B. E. Barich directed an archaeological and conservation project on the prehistoric rock art of Wadi Sura, Egypt, within the framework of the Gilf Kebir National Park initiative, sponsored by the Egyptian–Italian Environmental Cooperation Programme.
She has coordinated national research programmes funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the Ministry of Universities (PRIN and FIRB programmes), the National Research Council, and Sapienza University.
Her extensive bibliography comprises around 200 titles, including books and articles. Some of these focus on the theoretical aspects of the discipline, particularly the ecological perspective in archaeological reconstructions.
Barbara E. Barich
Sapienza University
Rome, Italy