Lisa C. Pieraccini works on the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean with special emphasis on ancient Italy. She taught and conducted research in Rome and southern Etruria for several years. Her interests in ancient Mediterranean art reflect global and cross disciplinary approaches to understanding the past. Issues related to decolonization and indigeneity as well as reception studies, digital humanities, cultural heritage and antiquity in film are just some of the subjects explored in her courses. Dr. Pieraccini has published a variety of articles and book chapters on a wide range of subject matter dedicated to the Etruscans, the historical and cultural impact of the Grand Tour, collection histories and the curious re-use of ancient art in modern media.
Dr. Pieraccini is the Program Coordinator for the Del Chiaro Center for the Study of Ancient Italy, which she founded (2015) along with the Mario Del Chiaro Annual Lecture Series (2011). She is co-editor of the series Cities and Communities of the Etruscans (with Nancy de Grummond) published by Texas University Press; co-editor of the book, Material Connections, Artistic Exchange: The Case of Etruria and Anatolia (2023) (with Elizabeth Baughan) published by Cambridge University Press; co-editor of the volume, Consumption, Ritual, Art and Society: Interpretive Approaches and Recent Discoveries of Food and Drink in Etruria (2023) (with Laurel Taylor) published by Brepols and consulting editor of the journal Etruscan and Italic Studies. She is an elected member of the Istituto di Studi Etruschi ed Italici in Florence, Italy. Dr. Pieraccini is the recipient of the 2023 United States Capitol Historical Society Fellowship and is conducting research on “Neoclassical Depictions of Native American Women and Early American Identity at the US Capitol."
She is the President of the Archaeological Institute of America’s San Francisco Chapter and an Advisory Council Member for MAGPRA (Mediterranean Antiquities Provenance Research Alliance) which received an NEH Grant in 2024. Current projects include a comprehensive study of the Etruscan artifacts at the Phoebe Hearst Museum at UC Berkeley where she teaches a seminar focusing on the largely unpublished collection. She is presently working with the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum on an Etruscan exhibit that will open in San Francisco in 2026. Before joining the History of Art Department, Dr. Pieraccini taught for the Classics Department and Italian Studies at UC Berkeley, the Classics Department at Stanford University as well as Temple University in Rome. Pieraccini's courses include Decolonizing Ancient Mediterranean Art, Revisiting Reception: Old and New World Monuments; Digital Humanities, Cultural Heritage and Art History; The Etruscans: Past, Present and Futures; The Wall Painting of Ancient Italy and Pompeii: The Art and Culture of a Roman Town.
Select publications
2023 Consumption, Ritual, Art and Society: Interpretive Approaches and Recent Discoveries of Food and Drink in Etruria. Edited by L. C. Pieraccini and L. Taylor. Brepols (June 2023).
2023 Material Connections and Artistic Exchange: Etruria and Anatolia. Edited by L. Baughan and L. C. Pieraccini. Cambridge University Press.
2023 “Etruscans in Unexpected Places – Space, Temporality and Visual Agency,” in, Close Encounters with a Spectral Past, editors., M. Piperno, B. Van Den Bossche & C. Zampieri.
2021 R. Levitan, “Out of Etruria: Collecting and Context in California,” in Lo stronao caso di Francesco Mancinelli Scotti, edited by M. C. Biella and J. Tabolli, Fondazione Luigi Rovati, 527-535.
2018 “An Egyptian Tomb, an Etruscan Inscription and the Funerary Monument of an American Civil War Officer,” in An Etruscan Affair: The Impact of Early Etruscan Discoveries on European Culture, ed., J. Swaddling. The British Museum, 188-194.
2018 “Collecting Etruscans for California: The Story of Philanthropist, Phoebe A. Hearst and Archaeologist, Alfred Emerson,” in Etruscans in North America – Archaeological Institute of America Selected Papers on Ancient Art, eds., by A. Carpino and R. De Puma. Archaeological Institute of America, 45-58.
2016 “Sacred Serpent Symbols: The Bearded Snakes of Etruria,” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections Vol. 10: 2016, 92-102.
2016 “Etruscan Wall Painting: Insights, Innovations and Legacy,” in The Companion to the Etruscans, eds., S. Bell and A. Carpino, Wiley-Blackwell, 247-260.
2014 and Mario Del Chiaro, “Greek in Subject Matter, Etruscan by Design: Alcestis and Admetus on an Etruscan Red-figure Krater.” In The Regional Production of Red-figure Pottery: Greece, Magna Graecia and Etruria, edited by S. Schierup. Copenhagen, 304-310.
2014 “Un brasero de Berkeley et d’autres vases à engobe rouge cérétains,” in Les Potiers d’Etrurie et Leur Monde: contacts, echanges, transferts, eds., L. Ambrosini and V. Jolivet. Melanges de l’Ecole francaise de Rome, 201-207.
2013 “L’inafferrabile uovo etrusco,” in Mediterranea: Studi e ricerche a Tarquinia e in Etruria: simposio internazionale in ricordo di Francesca R. Serra Ridgway, ed. M. D. Gentilli. Rome, 105-125.
2011 “The Wonders of Wine and Ritual in Etruria,” in The Archaeology of Sanctuaries and Ritual in Etruria, JRA supplement, eds. N.T. de Grummond and I. Edlund-Berry, 127-137.
