Associate Professor Heather D. Baker has been awarded a Six-Month Faculty Research Fellowship at the Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) for the 2025-2026 academic year.
This fellowship supports her project, "Being a Neighbour in Urban Babylonia", allowing her to take a half-year leave from her regular teaching and administrative duties to undertake research, including travel, on the project proposed.
Fellowship Research Project - Being a Neighbour in Urban Babylonia
Residential neighbourhoods were an important element of the Babylonian city, yet there is little consensus as to their character. Using cuneiform tablets from 1st millennium BCE Babylonia that record urban property transfers, this project analyses small-scale communities of property owners and their neighbours. It studies the interactions of people living in face-to-face communities, their family relationships, and their markers of identity (personal names, status, professions, official titles, and ethnic and geographical designations). This approach promises to shed new light on the social composition of urban neighbourhoods in Babylonia.
Congratulations to Professor Baker on her accomplishment!
Read more about the JHI Faculty Research Fellowwhip on the JHI website.