Emeritus Professor Sandra Bowdler is a Senior Honorary Research Fellow in the Schools of Music and Social and Cultural Studies (Archaeology) and the Director of Festival Baroque Australia. As well as an archaeologist, she has been an opera critic for over ten years, writing for Opera magazine among others. She is a member of the American Handel Society, the Georg-Friedrich-Händel Gesellschaft, the Göttinger Händel-Gesellschaft and a Friend of the Handel Institute, London.