Annette Lucia Giesecke

Annette Giesecke is a specialist in the history, meaning, and representation (in literature and the arts) of ancient Greek and Roman gardens and designed landscapes. Her work extends to the influence of Near Eastern garden traditions on those of the West and the many cultural ‘uses’ of plants in antiquity: symbolic, religious, culinary, medicinal, ornamental, and technological included. Further research interests include urbanism, utopianism, ancient epic (particularly Homer and Vergil), Epicureanism and Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, Greek tragedy, mythology, ancient painting (vase and mural/fresco), and the relation between texts and images.

For her work on Roman gardens, Dr. Giesecke was named the Archaeological Institute of America Jashemski Lecturer for 2013-2014, and she was awarded a Dumbarton Oaks fellowship in Garden and Landscape Studies for 2019-2020. Her major publications include: The Epic City: Urbanism, Utopia, and the Garden in Ancient Greece and Rome (Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard UP, Washington DC and Cambridge, MA: 2007), Earth Perfect? Nature, Utopia, and the Garden (Black Dog Publishing, London: 2012, co-ed. with Naomi Jacobs and contrib.), The Mythology of Plants: Botanical Lore from Ancient Greece and Rome (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles: 2014), and The Good Gardener? Nature, Humanity and the Garden (Artifice books on architecture, London: 2015, co-ed. with Naomi Jacobs and contrib.). With botanist David Mabberley, she is general editor, volume editor, and contributor for A Cultural History of Plants (6 volumes, Bloomsbury, London: anticipated release, 2019). She is editor of and contributor to a project on the early modern capital of Iran, Isfahan: Blueprint for Paradise, Isfahan and the Choreography of Urban Change.

Dr. Giesecke is Elias Ahuja Professor of Classics and Center for Material Culture Studies faculty at the University of Delaware. She was also Chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at UD (2014-2019) and is affiliated faculty with the Delaware Environmental Institute. Dr. Giesecke holds her degrees from Harvard (Ph.D., M.A.) and UCLA (B.A).