As an expert on the art and archaeology of the Etruscans and Romans, Dr. Michael Thomas focuses on interdisciplinary research and collaboration. In his role as director of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, he builds innovative partnerships that drive important research and support education and student learning.

For more than 25 years, he has excavated in Italy, where he co-directs two projects: the ongoing Oplontis Project in Torre Annunziata near Naples and the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project & Poggio Colla Field School in Tuscany. An interdisciplinary project between The University of Texas at Dallas and UT Austin, the Oplontis Project is a collaboration excavating a Roman villa buried by the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The results of the research are available to the public through digital media, including born-digital publication and a 3D navigable model of the buildings and grounds.

When Thomas joined UT Dallas in 2019, he described the university as an “exciting center for art history, whose community enables dynamic research and interdisciplinary collaboration.”

Thomas previously served as director of the Center for the Study of Ancient Italy at UT Austin, where he promoted interdisciplinary education and research in the archaeology and visual culture of ancient Italy from the Bronze Age through the fifth century A.D. He earned a bachelor’s degree in art history from Duke University, a master’s degree in art history from Southern Methodist University and a PhD in art history from UT Austin.

He has taught at SMU, the University of Michigan and UT Austin and held a Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Tufts University. He is a member of the Meadows Museum Advisory Council at SMU and a board member of the Etruscan Foundation. His publications have focused on the art, architecture, archaeology and numismatics of Etruscan and Roman Italy.

Thomas’ publications include articles in the Journal of Roman Archaeology, American Journal of Numismatics, Etruscan Studies: Journal of the Etruscan Foundation and Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, among others. He co-edited the book Monumentality in Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture: Ideology and Innovation. Thomas is co-editor and author of the forthcoming Volume III of the Oplontis Project’s publication on the architecture and excavation of Villa A.