Alexandria Mitchem Hansen

Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania (USA) 

Cultivating change: Bartram’s Garden, invasive species, and the environmental history of the Mid-Atlantic 

2026–2027: 12 months

Alexandria Mitchem Hansen is an archaeologist and researcher whose work investigates the intersections of natural history, botanical science, and environmental change. She earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University; her dissertation, “‘Everything in ye universe in thair own nature’: An Archaeology of Natural History at Bartram’s Garden,” examined Philadelphia’s most prominent 18th-century botanical garden as a dynamic ecological and conceptual space. Her research has been supported by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the American Philosophical Society, the Explorers Club, and the Penn Museum.

Moving beyond traditional human-centric records, Alexandria utilizes “ecological archives”—including foraging animal behaviors and field weed naturalization—to understand how historic landscapes were shaped by diverse biological actors. As a Fellow at the Italian Academy, she will expand this work through sediment coring and palynological analysis, offering new insights into the relationship between historic horticulture and Mid-Atlantic environmental shifts. Alexandria is also a dedicated educator committed to public scholarship, having developed numerous public-facing tours and lectures to bring archaeological research to broader audiences.