He earned his PhD from Princeton University in 1998. He is currently working on Jewel of the Palace and the Soul: Pearls in the Arts, Imagination, and Economy of Late Antiquity, a monograph integrating literary, art historical, and archaeological evidence to examine the role of pearls as objects of adornment and spirituality in the Roman Empire, early Christianity, Byzantium, the Sasanian Empire, and early Islam. (Photo Courtesy: Department of History, University of Washington)