Elizabeth S. Bolman
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Employment
6/04-present
Associate Professor, Art History
Department, Tyler School of Art, Temple
University, Philadelphia, PA
Teach undergraduate and graduate courses on
Byzantine and Medieval art and architecture.
Supervise directed readings, and the
preparation of master’s theses and doctoral
dissertations.
7/04-present
Adjunct Associate Professor, History of
Art Department; and also the graduate group:
Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean
World, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA
1/00-5/04
Assistant Professor, Art History
Department, Tyler School of Art, Temple
University, Philadelphia, PA.
2000-present
Director, Red Monastery Project, Sohag,
Egypt.
Direct a wall painting conservation project
in a
fifth-century C.E. monastic church,
with both high-quality figural painting, and
also
the best preserved program of non-
figural painted architectural sculpture
surviving
from late antiquity. Responsibilities
include assembling the team, fund raising,
coordination with local authorities,
direction of site work, and publication.
Related work includes establishing this and
the adjacent White Monastery on the World
Monuments Watch
2002 List of 100
Most Endangered Sites,
and founding an
international consortium of scholars to
coordinate multi-disciplinary
archaeological,
historical, and art historical work.
All
funding to date has been provided by the
United
States Agency for International Development,
administered by the American Research
Center in Egypt.
5/04-present
Director, White Monastery Federation Project,
Sohag, Egypt.
Direct an archaeological and wall painting
conservation project at one of the most
important sites surviving in the
Mediterranean
region for our understanding of early
monasticism. Responsibilities include:
assembling the heads of archaeology and
conservation; fund-raising;coordination with
local
authorities; study and publication of the
art and
artifacts (to date principally wall
paintings); and
coordination with the consortium mentioned
above, to foster multi-disciplinary work
integrating material evidence and the large
body
of extant texts from the site.
6/05-present
Art Historian, Consultant to the
Egyptian
Antiquities Project (EAP) of the American
Research Center in Egypt (ARCE)
Supervise and collaborate with Heather
Badamo
(graduate student, U.Michigan) on
research for the reinstallation of circa
sixth-
century paintings from early Byzantine
monasteries, in the newly renovated Coptic
Museum, Cairo. Collaborate with
conservators; publish; and assist with
museum display.
6/05-present
Art Historian, Consultant on a project
funded by
the Antiquities Endowment Fund
(AEF) of ARCE
Study a newly discovered section of
thirteenth-
century wall paintings in the Church
of St. Sergius, Old Cairo. Collaborate
with
conservators, and publish.
1/03-12/06
Art Historian, Consultant on a project
funded by
the Egyptian Antiquities Project of ARCE
Study the newly conserved medieval paintings
in
the Cave Church of the Monastery
of St. Paul (Red Sea, Egypt); contribute two
chapters to the book on the conservation
project and the monastery.
3/97-12/99
Art Historian, Consultant to the
Antiquities Development Project of ARCE.
Designed a book on the wall paintings
conserved by the ADP in the Monastery of St.
Antony at the Red Sea, Egypt. Editor,
and author of chapters on the paintings,
their program and their place in Coptic and
Byzantine art.
9/97-1/98
Lecturer, Art History Department,
University of Maryland, College Park,
MD.
Taught a lecture course: "Late Roman and
Early Christian Art and Archaeology.”
Education
1/91-12/97
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
9/83-1/84
12/97 PhD degree
received:
Dissertation title: “The Coptic
Galaktotrophousa as the
Medicine of
Immortality”
4/93
Preliminary Exams passed
5/92 MA degree
received
9/79-5/83
Smith College, Northampton, MA.
5/83 AB degree
received, with High
Honors in
Art History
Publications: Peer Reviewed
forthcoming
“The Medieval Paintings in the Cave Church,
Phase One:
Continuity,” in: The Cave
Church of St. Paul the Hermit,
ed. W. Lyster.
New Haven:
Yale University Press.
forthcoming
“The Medieval Paintings, Phase Two:
Tradition
and
Transformation,” in: The Cave
Church of St. Paul the Hermit,
ed. W. Lyster.
New Haven:
Yale University Press.
forthcoming
“The Red Monastery Conservation Project,
2006
and 2007
Campaigns: Contributing
to the Corpus of Late Antique Art,”
Proceedings
of the
White and Red Monastery
Symposium, Sohag, Egypt.
ed. Gawdat Gabra.
Cairo: AUC
Press.
in progress
“Late Ancient Aesthetics and Upper Egypt:
The
Red
Monastery Church,” planned
for submission to the Art Bulletin.
in progress
“Painting the Canopy of Heaven: the
Ciborium at
St. Mammas,
Cyprus,” in: The
Canopy of
Heaven: the Ciborium at St. Mamas, Cyprus,
ed. M.
Jones.
in progress
“Painted Skins: the Illusions and Realities
of
Architectural Polychromy, in Sinai and
Egypt,” in a volume on a Getty-UCLA
symposium
on Sinai,
ed. S. Gerstel.
2007
“Depicting the Kingdom of Heaven: Paintings
and Monastic
Practice in Early Byzantine
Egypt,” in:
Roger Bagnall, ed. Egypt in the
Byzantine World, 300-700.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University
Press.
2007
“The Red Monastery Conservation Project,
2004
Campaign:
New Contributions to the Corpus of
Late Antique
Art,” in: Interactions: Artistic
Interchange Between the
Eastern and
Western
Worlds in the Medieval Period, ed.
Colum Hourihane.
Princeton: Index of Christian Art. 260-281.
2006
“Late Antique Aesthetics,
Chromophobia, and
the Red
Monastery, Sohag, Egypt,”
Eastern Christian Art. v.3. 1-24.
2006
“Veiling Sanctity in Christian Egypt: Visual
and
Spatial
Solutions,” in:
Thresholds of
the Sacred: Architectural, Art Historical,
Liturgical
and Theological Perspectives on
Religious Screens, East and West.
ed. Sharon
Gerstel.
Washington, D.C.
Dumbarton Oaks. 72-104.
2005
“The Enigmatic Coptic
Galaktotrophousa and the
Cult of the
Virgin Mary in Egypt,” in: Images of
the
Mother of God. Perceptions of the
Theotokos
in
Byzantium,
ed. Maria Vassilaki.
London:
Ashgate Publishing. 13-22.
2004
“The Coptic
Galaktotrophousa Reconsidered,”
Coptic
Studies on the Threshold of a
New Millennium,
eds. M. Immerzeel and J. van
der Vliet (Orientalia
Louvaniensia
Analecta v. 133)(Leuven: Peeters) 1173-1184.
2004
“Appendix on Documentary Photography at the
Monasteries
of Anba Shinuda and
Anba Bishoi, Suhag,” appended to: Peter
Grossmann,
Darlene Brooks-Hedstrom,
and Mohamed Abdal-Rassul, “The Excavation
in the
Monastery of Apa Shenute
(Dayr Anba Shinuda) at Suhag,” Dumbarton
Oaks
Papers 58 (2004): 371-382.
2004
“Scetis at the Red Sea: Depictions of
Monastic
Genealogy in
the Monastery of St.
Antony,” Coptica 3. 1-16
2002
Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the
Monastery
of St. Antony at the Red Sea.
editor and chief author. New Haven:
Yale
University
Press and American
Research Center in Egypt.
2001
“Joining the Community of the Saints:
Monastic
Paintings
and Ascetic Practice in Early
Christian
Egypt.” Publication of Papers
Presented at
the Symposium: “Shaping
Community:
The Archaeology and
Architecture
of Monasticism,” held at the
University
of Minnesota, Minneapolis, March
2000.
Edited by Sheila McNally. British
Archaeological Reports Int. Series 941.
pp. 41-56.
1999
“De Natura Colorum:
The Meaning of Color in
Beatus
Manuscripts,” Gesta, 38.1.
pp. 22-34.
1998
"Mimesis,
Metamorphosis and Representation in
Coptic Monastic Cells," Bulletin of the
American Society of Papyrologists 35.
pp. 65-77, plates 1-7.
Publications for the General Public:
forthcoming
Bolman, Louise Blanke, Darlene Brooks
Hedstrom,
Mohammed Khalifa, Cédric
Meurice, Saad Mohammed, Gillian Pyke, and
Peter
Sheehan. “Late Antique and
Medieval Painted Decoration at the White
Monastery (Dayr
al-Abiad), Sohag,”
Bulletin of the American
Research Center
in Egypt.
forthcoming
“Transforming Coptic Art History,”
Introduction to the section on the Coptic
Conservation Projects, in a volume being
published by the American Research Center in
Egypt on its conservation projects.
Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.
forthcoming
“Conservation of the Red Monastery, Sohag,”
a volume being published by the American
Research Center in Egypt on its conservation
projects. Cairo: American University
in Cairo Press.
2006
“The Newly Discovered Paintings in Abu Serga,
Babylon, Old Cairo: The Logos Made
Visible,” Bulletin of the American
Research Center in Egypt. no. 190.
14-17.
2004
“Chromatic Brilliance at the Red Monastery
Church,” Bulletin of the American
Research Center in Egypt. no. 186.
cover – 9.
Book
Reviews:
In progress
Book Review of: Caroline T. Schroeder,
Monastic
Bodies: Discipline and Salvation
in Shenoute of Atripe.
(Philadelphia:
University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), for
the: Journal of Near Eastern Studies.
In progress
Book Review of: Ann Terry and Henry
Maguire,
Dynamic Splendor: The Wall
Mosaics in the Cathedral of Eufrasius at
Poreč. 2 volumes. (University Park, PA:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007),
for the:
Journal of Early Christian
Studies.
2003
Book Review of: Gawdat Gabra, Coptic
Monasteries: Egypt’s Monastic Art and
Architecture,
in Al-Ahram Weekly, January
16-22
edition, p. 2.
2002
Book Review of: Erica Cruikshank Dodd,
The
Frescoes
of Mar Musa al-Habashi
(Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval
Studies,
2001), in the CAA.Reviews
2001
Book Review of: Thelma Thomas, Late
Antique
Egyptian Funerary Sculpture:
Images for this World and the Next.
(Princeton
UP, 2000), in the: American
Journal
of
Archaeology.
pp. 379-380.
Academic
Awards, Honors, and Fellowships
4/07
Yale Egyptological Institute in Egypt Grant
for
the White
Monastery Project, with
Bentley Layton (principal investigator) and
Darlene
Brooks Hedstrom.
2/07
Dumbarton Oaks Project Grant in Byzantine
studies, with Darlene Brooks Hedstrom
(principal investigator), for work at the
White Monastery, Sohag
5/06
Yale Egyptological Institute in Egypt Grant
for
the White
Monastery Project, for
Ground Penetrating
Radar and Architectural
Documentation and Survey
Work, with Bentley
Layton (principal
investigator) and Darlene Brooks Hedstrom.
2/06
Dumbarton Oaks Project Grant in Byzantine
Studies,
with Darlene Brooks Hedstrom
(principal investigator), for work at the
White
Monastery,
Sohag, Egypt.
6/05
National Endowment for the Humanities
Collaborative Research Grant for the
Project: “Archaeological and
Multidisciplinary
Investigation of the White
Monastery
Federation, near Sohag,
Egypt,” for
work in 2005-2006. Principal
Investigator: E. Bolman.
6/05
Aziz S. and Lola Atiya Fund for Coptic
Studies, Grant for the inclusion of color photographs in forthcoming publications on
Egyptian Christian art.
6/04
Antiquities Endowment Fund of the American
Research Center in Egypt Grant for
Conservation work at the White Monastery,
Sohag, Egypt.
3/04
Dumbarton Oaks Fellowship in Byzantine
Studies for the academic year 2004-2005
5/03
J. William Fulbright Grant to Egypt, for
January – August 2004
4/03
Grant in Aid of Research, Temple University,
for the academic year 2003-2004
2/03
Temple University Research and Study Leave,
for work in Egypt, 2004
2/03
Dumbarton Oaks Project Grant in Byzantine
Studies, for work at the White and Red
Monasteries, Sohag,
Egypt; with Dr. Peter Grossmann
2/03
Prize awarded to
Monastic Visions by the Association of
American University
Presses, in the Scholarly Illustrated
Category.
10/02
Honorary Mention for
Monastic Visions, awarded by the
Association of American
Publishers, in the Professional/Scholarly
Publishing Division, Arts category.
6/02
Summer Research Fellowship, Temple
University
2/02
Franklin Research Grant, American
Philosophical Society
9/01
Dumbarton Oaks Project Grant in Byzantine
Studies, for work at the White and Red Monasteries, Sohag, Egypt; with Dr. Peter
Grossmann
3/01
Multi-Country Research Fellowship, Council
of American Overseas Research Centers. For
three months of research in Syria, Turkey,
Greece and Cyprus
6/01-8/01
Summer Fellowship, Temple University
7/01-6/02
Grant in Aid of Research, Temple University
2/01
Franklin Research Grant, American
Philosophical Society
6/00-12/00
National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellowship, for work on
Monastic Visions.
11/98
Prize awarded for the Best Paper Presented
by a Graduate Student at the 1997 Byzantine
Studies Conference.
9/97-12/97
Scholarship, Bryn Mawr College
9/96-5/97
Scholarship and Senior Fellowship, Bryn Mawr
College
3/95
Samuel H. Kress Foundation Travel Fellowship
in the History of Art, for dissertation
research
1995-1996
4/95
Fanny Bullock Workman Travel Fellowship,
awarded by
Bryn Mawr College, for
dissertation
research 1995-1996
4/95
The Scriptorium's Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in
Early
Christian Art, for Teaching and
Dissertation
Research in Egypt, February,
1996 - March
1996
4/94
Doris Sill Carland Prize for Excellence in
Teaching for
1993-1994, Teaching
Assistant, Bryn Mawr
College
3/94
Samuel H. Kress Foundation Predoctoral
Fellowship
in Egyptian Art and
Architecture, as a Fellow at the American
Research
Center in Egypt, for dissertation
research in
Egypt, 1994-1995
3/94
J. William Fulbright Scholarship Grant, for
dissertation
research in Egypt. Declined.
8/93-5/94
Teaching Assistantship and Scholarship,
Bryn Mawr
College
9/91-5/93
Scholarships and Fellowship,
Bryn Mawr
College
9/83-1/84
Scholarship and Fellowship, Bryn Mawr
College
5/83
Phyllis Lehmann Art History Travel Award
Recipient,
Smith College
Scholarly
Presentations:
5/07
“The Transformation of Egyptian Christian
Art
History: The
Results of Conservation
and Scholarly Analysis in the Last Decade,”
American
University in Cairo. Invited speaker.
3/07
“Discovering Beauty: Wall Painting
Conservation
at the Late
Antique Red Monastery Church
(Sohag).”
American University in Cairo.
Invited
speaker.
1/07
“Painted Skins: the Illusions and Realities
of
Architectural Polychromy, in Sinai and
Egypt,” “Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons
from Sinai,
on January 26-27, 2007, at
UCLA and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Invited
speaker.
11/06
“Upper Egypt, Late Antique Aesthetics, and
Transformative Conservation at the Red
and White Monasteries,” American Institute
of
Archaeology,
Honolulu Chapter.
Honolulu, HI. Invited speaker.
8/06
“Relics of the
Galaktotrophousa: the Milk Grotto
& Middle
Byzantine Narrations of
the Nursing Virgin Mary,” Symposium on “The
Mother of
God in Byzantium:
Relics, Icons, and Texts,” held at St Edmund
Hall, Oxford
University, Oxford.
Invited speaker.
8/06
Panel Chair: “Constructing the Future of the
Past in
Egypt and the Levant:
Culturally-Specific Points of View,” at the
International Byzantine Congress,
London. Invited chair.
8/06
“Negotiating the Future of the Past at the
Red
and White
Monasteries, Sohag,
Egypt,” paper presented at the International
Byzantine
Congress, London.
2/06
“Late Antique Aesthetics in Upper Egypt: The
Red
Monastery,” Symposium held at
the White Monastery, Sohag, and sponsored
by the
Coptic Pope Shenouda III.
