Lecturers

 

 

Saša Čaval 

Saša gained her Ph.D. from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and is currently an Associate Researcher at the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies, part of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Saša’s research focuses on the archaeology of religion with regional foci spanning Europe, North Africa, Latin America and the Indian Ocean. Her initial investigations centered on the Balkans and studied the role of medieval architecture and the integration of elements of power into sacred landscapes. More recently, she has developed her research to incorporate anthropological as well as archaeological perspectives in a study of identity construction, using religion and religious expression by descendent communities on formerly colonised island enclaves; her principle case study is Mauritius.

In addition, she has broad fieldwork and research experience in her native Slovenia, on the Adriatic islands and inland in Bosnia and Herzegovina focusing on religious ‘topographies’.  Further afield, she has incorporating key temple and tomb sites at Kom Llola and Deir el-Bahri, Luxor, West bank, Egypt into her research on the role of sacred architecture; and performed landscape based archaeological reconnaissance in the central Yucatan peninsula looking at the distribution and significance of ritual structures within Mayan civilisation.