Senior Associate Curator and Head of Conservation
she/her
About
Suzanne Davis is senior associate curator for conservation and head of the Conservation Department at the Kelsey Museum, where she oversees the preservation of the museum’s 100,000+ artifacts and historic building. She currently directs conservation programs for the Kelsey’s Abydos Middle Cemetery project in Egypt, the El-Kurru and Jebel Barkal projects in Sudan, and the Notion Archaeological Project in Turkey. She also serves as affiliated faculty for the University's Museum Studies Program. Prior to joining the Kelsey in 2001, she was a conservator for the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the Naval Historical Center in Washington, DC.
Suzanne received graduate degrees in art history and conservation from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), the world's largest membership association for conservation professionals. She is currently the president of the AIC and serves on the board of its philanthropic affiliate, the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation. In addition to her work with AIC, she serves on the Site Preservation Committee of the Archaeological Institute of America and as a director on the board of the United States Committee of the Blue Shield, an organization dedicated to preventing the destruction, damage, and theft of cultural property during armed conflict and natural disasters.
Her research is centered in three areas: 1) investigating problems and improving preservation outcomes for archaeological sites and collections, 2) community-engaged, collaborative practice in archaeology and conservation, and 3) ancient materials and technology. She has also studied and written about ancient graffiti, visitor experience at museums and archaeological sites, and gender equity in conservation and museums.
In addition to her conservation work for the Kelsey, she has co-curated two exhibitions at the museum, Graffiti as Devotion along the Nile (2019–2020, with Geoff Emberling), and Conserving Antiquity, (2012–2013, with Claudia Chemello).
