Academic Programs

Faculty

 

Jodi Magness

Jodi Magness holds a senior endowed chair in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism. From 1992-2002, she was Associate/Assistant Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology in the Departments of Classics and Art History at Tufts University, Medford, MA.

She received her B.A. in Archaeology and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1977), and her Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania (1989). From 1990-92, Professor Magness was Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in Syro-Palestinian Archaeology at the Center for Old World Archaeology and Art at Brown University.

Professor Magness’ book on The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002) won the 2003 Biblical Archaeology Society's Award for Best Popular Book in Archaeology in 2001-2002 and was selected as an “Outstanding Academic Book for 2003” by Choice Magazine.

Professor Magness' other books are The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003); Debating Qumran: Collected Essays on Its Archaeology (Leuven: Peeters, 2004); Hesed ve-Emet, Studies in Honor of Ernest S. Frerichs (co-edited with S. Gitin; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998); and Jerusalem Ceramic Chronology circa 200-800 C.E. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1993). In addition, she has published numerous articles in journals and edited volumes. Her research interests, which focus on Palestine in the Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic periods, include ancient pottery, ancient synagogues, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Roman army in the East. Professor Magness has participated on 20 different excavations in Israel and Greece, including co-directing the 1995 excavations in the Roman siege works at Masada. From 1997-99 she co-directed excavations at Khirbet Yattir in Israel. Professor Magness now co-directs excavations in the late Roman fort at Yotvata, Israel (since 2003).

All of Professor Magness' courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (through the Department of Religious Studies) are offered for credit through the Center for Jewish Studies. They include an “Introduction to Early Judaism,” which is an undergraduate survey offered every fall, and undergraduate and graduate level seminars drawing on her research interests (such as “Ancient Synagogues,” “The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” and “Diaspora Judaism in the Roman World”).

In 1997-98 Professor Magness was awarded a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, and a fellowship in Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., for a research project on The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine. In 2000-2001, Professor Magness was awarded the following fellowships for her book on The Archaeology of Qumran: a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship for College Teachers; the Annual Professorship at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem (declined); and a Skirball Visiting Fellowship at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. For spring 2005, Professor Magness received a Fulbright Lecturing Award through the United States-Israel Educational Foundation, to teach two courses at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Professor Magness is Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, and is a member of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She has also been a member of the Governing Board of the Archaeological Institute of America and of the Board of Trustees of the American Schools of Oriental Research. She served as President of the North Carolina Society of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and was President of the Boston Society of the AIA.

Jewish Studies Courses Taught:
JWST 24/RELI 24. “Introduction to Early Judaism”
JWST 28/RELI 28. “Archaeology of Palestine in the New Testament Period”
JWST 111/RELI 111. “Ancient Synagogues”
JWST 199/RELI 199. “Diaspora Judaism in the Roman World”