Irene Bald Romano, Ph.D. holds a joint appointment as Professor of Art History in the School of Art (and is currently the Chair of Art History), and Professor of Anthropology in the School of Anthropology. She is also Curator of Mediterranean Archaeology at the Arizona State Museum and has affiliated status with the Department of Religious Studies and Classics and with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Dr. Romano co-directs the Graduate Certificate Program in Museum Studies in the School of Art. She teaches courses on ancient art and archaeology of the Mediterranean region, plundered art, and museum studies.
Dr. Romano earned a Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a B.A. from Manhattanville College. She has more than 30 years of experience as a museum professional, holding many positions, including as registrar, curator, researcher, consultant, and coordinator of the collections' division at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and as Deputy Director of the Arizona State Museum from 2012 to 2015. Dr. Romano came to the University of Arizona in 2012 from a position she held for six years as the Executive Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
Dr. Romano has extensive archaeological field experience in Greece, Spain, Italy, and Turkey, and has worked with scholars from many countries on international research and museum projects. She is the author, co-author, or editor of eight books, as well as numerous articles on ancient Mediterranean collections, Greek and Roman sculpture, pottery, terracotta figurines, Greek cult practice, and marble provenance studies. Dr. Romano's latest book focuses on the fate of antiquities during the Nazi era (1933-1945), a collaboration of the Getty Research Institute and the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich and appearing online in 2023 as a Special Issue of the RIHA Journal. Her eighth book on Beth Shean studies and focusing on a marble portrait of Alexander the Great is in press with the American Philosophical Society’s Transactions in Philadelphia.