The news of the passing of Prof. Janice Stargardt of the University of Cambridge reached me yesterday afternoon. Prof. Stargardt is known for her work on the Pyu cities in Myanmar and many of our colleagues are mourning her loss. I interacted with her a number of times through my work at SEAMEO SPAFA while working on the 2013, 2016 and 2019 conferences. This photo was taken at SPAFACON2019 in Bangkok. RIP.
If anyone would like to leave tributes and memories of her, please feel free to share them in the comments below.
A very kind and generous scholar. Unfailingly polite and patient. RIP Prof. Janice Stargardt, safe in the knowledge you have helped so many young and established scholars with your monumental kindness and expertise.
Thanks for all the encouragement, guidance and friendly conversations. Condolences to all close friends and family. Rest in peace Janice.
Janice lectured on the Southeast Asia module of our SOA Asian Arts Diploma. I always found her lectures fascinating. She was a real authority on the Pyu and always managed to bring the culture to life for the students. I will miss her.
Janice worked in relative obscurity for much of her SEA archaeological career, despite her innovative research approaches to studying landscape change and water management in both Thailand and Myanmar and the substantial attention she devoted to Pyu archaeology. She experienced the kind of professional marginalization that so many other women archaeologists did in her generation, and — like them — labored on seemingly undeterred. In fact, Janice garnered greatest attention for her work in the latter decades of her professional career: and through blending training with research in Myanmar.
Let us all remember Janice as I do: for her grace, her enthusiasm, and her support for good archaeological work done anywhere in the region and by anyone. We feel this loss acutely, and send our deepest condolences to her family and closest friends.
Janice was memorably friendly and supportive when I first started working in Southeast Asia. Her impressive body of work, insights, and generosity significantly contributed to broadening and improving archaeology across the region. My deepest sympathy to her family and friends.
I last saw Janice in July last when we met for a catchup in Cambridge. She was as ever, full of enthusiasm and good common sense in all she said. In the summer of 2018, we had a good look at some of her material from Myanmar and found a lot of common ground. It was very sad to hear of her sudden and unexpected death
Such a great and generous scholar. I enjoyed working with her very much. Joe
Janice was such a force in Sidney Sussex College and in our Department of Archaeology at Cambridge. She was unfailingly kind and always had a fabulous story of her most recent adventures in the field, in Myanmar, ready for the telling. I will deeply miss her great warmth and erudition, patient support, wise insights, and her ability to unite people from across the globe in scholarly endeavours. I hope she will rest in peace with the knowledge of how very many lives she touched and changed for the better.
Thank you for your obituary of my mother. The heartfelt appreciation of her life means so much to Janice’s family, colleagues and friends – thank you.
Here is a link to here presentation at UNESCO that led to Myanmar / Burma’s first World Heritage Sites – the Pyu Ancient Cities
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4dYf2pJ8BjE
And here is a link to my mother’s memorial service at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
https://m.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=4ryaK5p184E&feature=youtu.be
There are three Tributes to my mother’s life, a College Tribute by Dr Paul Flynn, a Colleague’s Tribute by Dr Gabriel Amable and my family tribute – which begins at about 40 mins 30 secs. Early in the service my brother Nick reads an extract from John Donne’s “ask not for whom the bell tolls” also referred to as “Meditation 17”
Julian Stargardt
Janice was a dear friend and a wonderful scholar. She invited me to her college several times. She was one of the active participants in the International Symposium on “Maritime Trade and Cultural Exchange in the Indian Ocean” organized by Sanjyot and myself under the patronage of CNRS-ENS, University of California at Berkeley and the Department of Archaeology (Sri Lanka) from August 9 to 11, 2013 at Sigiriya (Sri Lanka). It is partly thanks to her encouragement that I started working on Burmese paintings. I will never forget her.
Osmund (Bopearachch)