The new academic year has begun at the Institute, and we welcome the Institute’s 2026-2027 Homer and Dorothy Thompson Fellow, Jacob Engstrom, and University of Victoria intern, Amanda Swaile.

Jacob Engstrom is a PhD candidate specializing in Aegean Bronze Age archaeology in the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. His dissertation project, “Marine Style: A Contextual Approach to Pottery Production, Distribution, and Consumption in the Late Bronze Age Aegean,” takes Marine Style pottery produced on Crete and the Greek mainland during the 15^th century BCE as a unit of analysis for pottery production, distribution, and consumption patterns at intra-site, inter-site, interregional, and transcultural scales.

Jacob has a decade of fieldwork and research experience in Greece, including participation in excavation, survey, and pottery study projects on the Greek mainland, Crete, the Cyclades, and the Dodecanese.

While at the CIG as Homer and Dorothy Thompson Fellow, Jacob is writing his dissertation chapter focused on Crete, which will form the basis for subsequent comparative analysis of Marine Style as shared material culture integrating data from the mainland, Kythera, the Cyclades, and the east Aegean. He is also writing his theory and methodology chapter and continuing work on three related projects.

Amanda Swaile is a fourth-year undergraduate student in History and Greek & Roman Studies at the University of Victoria. She fell in love with Greek mythology in elementary school, and has since turned that passion towards her studies and the pursuit of a career in archaeology.

She hopes to use her time at the Canadian Institute to further her understanding of Canadian archaeological work in Greece, as well as to dive deeper into her own interest in ancient Greek statuary and architecture through the context of religion and mythology.

Jonathan Tomlinson
Assistant Director