A researcher of the art of the Middle East from the Hellenistic period (the end of the 4^th century BCE) to the beginning of the Abbasid period (middle of the 8^th century CE).>>>

Prof. Rina Talgam, the Alice and Edward Winant Family Professor of Art History, received her Ph.D from The Hebrew University in 1996 and joined the faculty the following year. Her research interests include the art of the Middle East from the Hellenistic period to the Umayyad period, specialization in mosaic pavements, and the mutual influences between polytheism, Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity and Islam, the emergence and sources of Umayyad art, and ancient synagogues. Her books include: The Mosaics of the House of Dionysos at Sepphoris, written with Zeev Weiss (2004), The Stylistic Origins of Umayyad Sculpture and Architectural Decoration (2004) and Mosaics of Faith: Floors of Pagan, Christians, and Muslims in the Holy Land (2014). Rina Talgam received several awards from the Hebrew University: in 2013, the Milken Prize for years of excellence in teaching, in 2015 the prestigious Polonsky Prize for creativity and originality in the humanistic disciplines, in 2016 she was awarded the Narkiss Prize for the research of Jewish art and in 2018 the Rector Prize for excellence in research, teaching and contribution to the community. Prof. Talgam was a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting Professor at Yale University and the Gregoriana University in Rome.