Kay Sunahara joined the Ancient Greece & Rome section in ROM’s Department of Art and Culture in 2010. She currently manages collections of archaeological materials from the Mediterranean region as well as prehistoric Europe. Dr. Sunahara also oversees the operation of ROM’s Ceramic Petrology Laboratory. An anthropologically trained archaeologist, Dr. Sunahara’s research and fieldwork has predominantly focused on Mesoamerica with specific emphasis on the ancient Maya of Belize and Mexico.

In 2019, Dr. Sunahara was cross appointed to the University of Toronto as Assistant Professor in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. In this capacity, she teaches courses on the applications of polarized light microscopy in archaeological research, ceramic analyses, and archaeometry.