Iman Saca, Ph.D.

For over 20 years, Dr. Iman has been a leading scholar and interdisciplinary educator in Archaeology and Anthropology and an advocate for cultural protection, preservation, and promotion. Dr. Iman received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She completed her B.A. in Archaeology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. A native of Bethlehem, she attended Saint Joseph Girls School and Talitha Kumi for High School.

Dr. Iman’s research interest focuses on interdisciplinary education, community participation, cultural heritage preservation, and the prehistory of the Levant. Her research interests lie at the intersection of anthropology, community archaeology; oral history; lived experiences; intergenerational heritage education; community participation, and heritage protection.  Dr. Iman’s scholarship and research advocate for active participation of all sectors of society as a decolonial praxis – to decolonize history, land, and heritage and for indigenous people to unearth, document, and tell their own stories, locally and globally. On a community and institutional level, she builds bridges to work together to find concrete, creative ways to protect their heritage, both tangible and intangible, from loss, destruction, and appropriation.

You can reach Dr. Saca at: isaca@bethlehem.edu