Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom

About Fellow

Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom is the Myra and Robert Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Chair in Christian Studies at Brandeis University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Classical and Early Mediterranean Studies. She is an archaeologist and historian of ancient and early Byzantine Christianity of the eastern Mediterranean world (circa 300–1000 CE) with a specialization in the archaeology and history of monasticism. She is Senior Archaeological Consultant for the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project-North, in Wadi Natrun, Egypt, and codirector for the Monastic Archaeology Field School in Scotland. Her work combines texts, material culture, and theory to examine the history of monastic makers of late antique objects and spaces. 

Selected Publications

• Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene L. Desert Ascetics of Egypt. Past Imperfect. Amsterdam: Arc Humanities Press, 2023.
• Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene L. “Piecing Together a Monastic Kitchen in Late Antique Egypt.” In Coptic Studies from Egypt to Los Angeles: Essays in Honor of Hany N. Takla, edited by Lisa Agaiby, Lillian Larsen, Arsenius Mikhail, and Tamara Siuda, 352–74. Leiden: Brill, 2026.
• Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene L. “Three Monks and a House: The Archaeology of Monastic Householding in Late Antique Egypt.” In Households in Context: Dwelling in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, edited by Caitlín E. Barrett and Jennifer Carrington, 273–96. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2024.
• Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene L. “Artifacts, Archaeology, and the Archaeologist: Late Antique Material Culture and the History of Archaeology in Egypt.” In Egypt and Empire: The Formation of Religious Identity after Rome, edited by Elisabeth R. O’Connell, 71–108. Leuven: Peeters, 2022.
• Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene L. The Monastic Landscape of Late Antique Egypt: An Archaeological Reconstruction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.