Julian Siggers, PhD

Before moving to Philadelphia in 2012, Siggers was vice president for programs, education and content communication at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada’s largest research museum.  He has also served as director of the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum and as head of narrative and broadcast development at the United Kingdom’s National Museum of Science and Industry in London.  Siggers taught prehistoric archaeology for eight years at the University of Toronto, where he earned his Ph.D., with a specialization in Near Eastern prehistoric archaeology.

Throughout his career, Siggers has been a pioneer in advancing public engagement with museums and archaeology. At the Royal Ontario Museum, he developed innovative initiatives designed to make it a vital part of contemporary life and an inviting means of public education and discovery.  He pursued new forms of exhibition, publication, programming, broadcasting and digital media, including partnerships with government agencies and a weekly show on the Discovery Channel, and he directed a Dead Sea Scrolls project that drew the museum’s highest attendance in two decades.  He was also an integral part of the team responsible for fundraising initiatives, especially during a highly successful $300 million capital campaign.

In addition to his 1997 doctorate from the University of Toronto, Siggers earned an M.A. in prehistoric archaeology in 1988 and B.A. with honors in archaeology in 1986 from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London.