Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, an assistant professor in UCF’s Department of History, is the director of the Vayots Dzor Fortress Landscapes Project, an archaeological survey and excavation project exploring the historical and archaeological remains of the Vayots Dzor providence in southern Armenia.
Currently she’s examining the role of fortresses in human settlement in the area.
“We’re trying to understand why people feel sufficiently insecure to invest so much in building these fortresses, which are quite a bit of work,” Earley-Spadoni said.
But that’s just her traditional side. Earley-Spadoni recently launched Infinite Armenias, a digital storytelling initiative that endeavors to raise awareness about at-risk and disappearing Armenian cultural heritage through the production of multi-media content. The project explores notions of socially constructed landscapes through personal stories instead of “colonial stories” of Armenia’s history. Researchers, students and local stakeholders are given the support needed to create a diverse array of narratives.
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