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Photo note: To download a photo of Magness, see end of release.

Expert on archaeology of ancient Palestine named to distinguished teaching chair

By DEE REID

College of Arts and Sciences

CHAPEL HILL -- Dr. Jodi Magness -- a leading expert on the archaeology of ancient Palestine, including the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered -- has been appointed the Kenan Distinguished Professor of teaching excellence in early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The appointment was approved earlier this month by the UNC Board of Governors.

"Dr. Magness is a world-class archaeologist and a brilliant teacher," said Dr. Bart Ehrman, professor and chair of the department of religious studies. "She is recognized internationally as both a dazzling lecturer and a leading scholar in her field."

At Carolina, Magness will teach undergraduate and graduate courses on early Jewish history, literature, religion and archaeology through the department of religious studies.

She is the author of three major books, including "The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls" (2002), "The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine" (forthcoming) and "Jerusalem Ceramic Chronology, circa 200-800 C.E" (1993).

Before coming to Carolina this fall as a visiting professor, Magness taught at Tufts University, where she was associate professor of classics and art history and director of the archaeology program.

She earned a Ph.D. in classical archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and a bachelor’s degree in archaeology and history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1977.

The Kenan professorship is one of four distinguished chairs established in 1995 at the suggestion of Frank H. Kenan, a 1935 Carolina graduate, to help the university recruit and recognize extraordinary scholars who excel in undergraduate teaching. Kenan, a longtime benefactor of the university and founder of Kenan Oil Co., died in 1996. The family’s William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust funded the professorships.

The other Kenan Distinguished Professors of Teaching Excellence include Drs. Arturo Escobar, an anthropologist who studies environmental development and social movements in South America; Don J. Garrett, an expert on the history of philosophy and ethics; and Joel Kingsolver, a biologist who studies insects and other organisms to further the understanding of evolution.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/magness_jodi.jpg

College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339

News Services contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593