Ruth D. Whitehouse

Abstract

Introducing Ruth It is traditional for honorary volumes to offer a summary of the career and the academic works of the person celebrated on the occasion of their retirement. This article is self-evidently placed in the current issue of the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology with that function, but it concerns a person who, although retiring as Professor in Mediterranean Studies, is clearly not at the end of her academic career: she has research projects currently in progress, with writing-up and publication timetables in place, and new roles from autumn 2007 as editor of the University College London Institute of Archaeology’s flagship publication Archaeology International and chair of the UCL Institute of Archaeology’s Publications Committee. At the same time she has concurrent plans to devote more time to working on the publishing side of the Accordia Research Institute, which she directs with John Wilkins. Ruth Whitehouse would not particularly warm to a valedictory resumé of her academic career to date, and so we offer the following in the spirit of characterizing the career of a successful female academic who is the first and only female professor of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, who has worked within and significantly contributed to the successive strands of archaeological theory and practice that have come to the fore through her academic career, and who remarkably achieved this while remaining a fully rounded person who has enabled the academic development of many, and who has also maintained a total commitment to her thriving family throughout. We would also add that it is impossible not to like Ruth, although she certainly is not a ‘soft touch’—being very much prepared to stand sturdily by her human, political and academic convictions.