The Open University of Israel
Dr. Mati Meyer

Dr. Mati Meyer

Department of Literature, Language and the Arts

Updated: April 2010

 

Personal

Office: 972-9-778-1214

Home: 972-2-563-0337

Fax: 972-9-778-2671

E-mail: matim@openu.ac.il

Status: Married + 3
Address: 7, Hatibonim St, Jerusalem

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Education

1985 Graduate studies, History of Theatre, Tel-Aviv University
1989-90 Undergraduate courses, History of Art, Université de Paris I (Sorbonne)
1992 BA, History of Art, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1996 MA, History of Art, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1997 Direct doctoral program for outstanding students, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Subject of doctoral thesis: The Image of the Biblical Woman in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Macedonian Dynasty (867-1056)
2002 Approval of doctoral thesis: Summa cum laude
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Areas of Interest

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Academic Positions

2009 Senior Lecturer, Department of Literature, Language and the Arts, The Open University of Israel, Raanana
2007-2008 Lecturer, Department of Literature, Language and the Arts, The Open University of Israel, Raanana
1996-2007 Instructor, and later adjunct professor, Department of Art History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1999-2003 Instructor, Department of Art History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva
2008-2009 Adjunct lecturer, Department of Art History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva
2007-2008 Adjunct lecturer, Onassis Program of Hellenic Studies, University of Haifa
2006-2007 Adjunct lecturer, Academic College "Hadassa", Jerusalem: Depts. of Photography and Design
2005-2007 Adjunct lecturer, Central School for Teachers, Tel-Aviv (affiliated to the Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
2002-2003 Adjunct lecturer, "Emunah" College, Jerusalem
2001 Instructor, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem
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Other Relevant Positions

1983 - 1999 Adjoint curator, The Israeli Museum of Israel, Jerusalem
2003 - 2006 Researcher and staff member of joint project of the Index of Christian Art, Princeton and Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, Beer-Sheva
2007 - Curator and responsible for the Open Art Gallery, The Open University of Israel, Raanana
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Activities at the Open University

2010 Chairperson, Steering Committee on Exhibitions
2009 Curator of the exhibitions: A Matter of Discourse: A Retrospective of Talia Tokatly's Art and Georgia: A Journey through the Ages
2009 - Member, Accreditation Committee
2008 Curator of the exhibition: Graffiti: Street Art as a Statement: A Photographic Look at the Streets of Berlin
2007 - Member, Humanities Subcommittee
2007 - Head of the Art History division
In charge of development of BA program in Art History
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Membership in Professional Organizations

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Member of Organizing Committees

2010 Co-organizer with Sherry Lindquist, "Representing the Sexuality of Women in Medieval Europe and Byzantium," International Medieval Congress, Leeds, sponsored by the International Center for Medieval Art.
2009 2nd Workshop of the Israeli Association for Medieval Visual Culture, The Open University, Raanana.
15th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, "Envisioning the Past and Present. The Relevancy of Traditions in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts," organized session.
2006 International Conference at the Medieval Institute, Leeds, Great Britain, "Gesticulating the spiritual/motioning the secular. Ideals, morals and actions in Byzantine art," organized session.
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Grants and Fellowships

1994-95 Award and scholarship of the Rector and of the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities for outstanding students
1996 Research grant from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Research Authority for doctoral students, for a stay at Princeton University
1997 Award of the Israel Association of University Women, Jerusalem
1996-98 Four grants for limited periods of research conducted in different libraries abroad, of the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Center for the History of Art, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2000 One-month scholarship in Paris, granted by the Cultural Department, Embassy of France, Tel-Aviv
2001 Guest fellow, Dumbarton Oaks Research Institute, Washington, DC
2003-06 Postdoctoral grant; researcher and staff member of joint project of the Index of Christian Art, Princeton and Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, Beer-Sheva
2003-06 Postdoctoral grant for a two-month research conducted at the Index of Christian Art, Princeton, and Dumbarton Oaks Research Institute, Washington, DC, of the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Center for the History of Art, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2005-07 Fellow of the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Center for the History of Art, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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List of Publications

Books and Monographs

An Obscure Portrait: Imaging Women's Reality in Byzantine Art, London: Pindar Press (2009).
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Reference Articles

"Porneia. Quelques considérations sur la represéntation du péché de chair dans l’art byzantin," Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale 52/204 (2009): 225-244.
"The Personification of Zion in Byzantine Psalters with Marginal Illustrations: Between Eschatological Hopes and Realia," Ars Judaica 5 (2009): 7-22.
"Garbing Orthodoxy in Classicism: Revisiting the Illustrated Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzos," Iconographica 6 (2008): 11-22.
"Harlot or Penitent? The Image of Rahab in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts," Ars Judaica 2 (2006): 25-34.
"The Levite's Concubine: Imaging the Marginal Woman in Byzantine Society," Studies in Iconography 26 (2006): 45-76.
"On the Hypothetical Model of the Iconography of Birth-giving in the Octateuchs," Deltion tes Christianikes Archaiologikes Etairerias 26 (2005): 311-18.
"Woman to Woman: Parturient-Midwife Imagery in Byzantine Art," Bizantinistica VI (2004): 101-19.
"Did the Daughters of Israel Come Out Dancing and Singing to Meet…David? A Biblical Image in Christian-Imperial Attire," Byzantion LXXIII/2 (2003): 467-87.

Submitted for Publication

"On Birth and More in Middle Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts," Cahiers Archéologiques (32 pp., 7 figs.).
"The Personification of Zion and the Marian Cult in Byzantine Psalters with Marginal Illustrations," Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik (28 pp., 12 images).
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Chapters in Books

"Eve's nudity. A sign of shame or a precursor of Christological economy?" in Between Judaism and Christianity. Art Historical Essays in Honour of Prof. Elisabeth (Elisheva) Revel-Neher, eds. Katrin Kogman-Appel and Mati Meyer, Leiden: Brill, 2009, 243-58.
"The Window of Testimony. A Sign of Physical or Spiritual Conception?" in Interactions. Artistic Interchange between the Eastern and Western Worlds in the Medieval Period, ed. C. Hourihane, Philadelphia, PA: Penn State University Press, 2007, 244-59.

Accepted for Publication

"Refracting Christian Truths through the Prism of the Biblical Female in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts," in Heritage of the Jews in Byzantium, Jerusalem Studies and Cultural Heritage, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2010; 30 pp., 10 figs.).
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Edited Books

Between Judaism and Christianity. Art Historical Essays in Honour of Prof. Elisabeth (Elisheva) Revel-Neher, eds. Katrin Kogman-Appel and Mati Meyer, Leiden: Brill, 2009.
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Open University Courses (in Hebrew)

Introduction to European and Byzantine Medieval Art (forthcoming).
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Book Reviews

Cecily Hennessy, Images of Children in Byzantium (Ashgate: Farnham, Surrey, UK; Burlington, VA, 2008), in: Journal für Kunstgeschichte / Journal of Art History. The International Periodical of Reviews (March 2010).
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Other Publications

A Matter of Discourse: A Retrospective of Talia Tokatly's Art, catalogue, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, 2009 (Hebrew, with English summary).
Georgia: A Journey through the Ages, catalogue, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, 2009 (Hebrew, with English summary).
"The Personification of Zion and the Marian Cult in Byzantine Psalters with Marginal Illustrations," in CAA 2009 97th Annual Conference, Los Angeles, 25-28 February 2009, Abstracts, 53.
"Women at windows: glimpses of reality in Byzantine art," in Proceedings of the 21st Congress of Byzantine Studies, London, 21-26 August 2006, III: Abstracts of Communications, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), 100-101.
"Representation of Biblical Women in Art," in Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, P. Hyman and D. Ofer, eds., Jerusalem (2006, CD-ROM).
"The Female Nude in Byzantine Art," in The Thirtieth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference. Abstracts of Papers, 28-31 October 2004, The Walters Art Museum and The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 102-103.
Products of Palestine: Propaganda, Design and Advertisement 1923-1949, exhibition catalogue, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997 (Hebrew).
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Selected Papers at Scientific Conferences

2010 International Conference, "Visual Constructs of Jerusalem," The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "Ideal, Reality, and Simulacrum: the architecture of Jerusalem in illuminated Byzantine manuscripts"
2009 15th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, "From Zion to Constantinople: The Ups and Downs of a Biblical Image"
2009 International Conference at the Medieval Institute, Leeds, Great Britain, "Hagia Sion: Gendering the Orthodox Faith in Byzantine Art"
2009 College Art Association 96th Annual Conference, Los Angeles, "The Personification of Zion and the Marian Cult in Byzantine Psalters with Marginal Illustrations"
2009 2nd Congress of the Israeli Association for Byzantine Studies, Jerusalem, Yad Ben-Zvi, "The Art of the Book in Byzantium: Tradition and Innovation"
2008 International conference "The Jewish Presence in Art," Bar-Ilan University, "Between Realia and Eschatological Hopes. The personification of Zion in middle Byzantine illuminated manuscripts"
2007 International Conference at the Medieval Institute, Leeds, Great Britain, "The Window in Byzantine Art as Metonym of Female Perceptions"
2007 2nd International Congress, "Greek Art and Culture: Origins and Influences," University of Haifa, "Architectural Openings: Metonyms of Perceptions of Women in Byzantine Art"
2007 "The Art in the Bible / The Bible in Art," one-day conference, Haifa University, Department of Biblical Studies, "Imaging the Women of the Bible in Byzantine Art"
2007 1st Congress of the Israeli Association for Byzantine Studies, Jerusalem, Yad Ben-Zvi, "Sexual Actions and Morals in Byzantine Art"
2006 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, University of London, London "Reading Sexuality in Byzantine Art"
2006 International Conference at the Medieval Institute, Leeds, Great Britain, "Gestual and Sexual Interplay in Byzantine Art"
2006 International Conference "Art and Liturgy in the Middle Ages," Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, "Garbing Orthodoxy in Classicism: revisiting the illustrated homilies of Gregory of Nazianzos", Iconographica 6 (2008): 11-22
2006 Conference "Conversion," Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, "Atoning for Her Sins. The Figure of Rahab in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts"
2005 14th World Congress of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, "Eve's Nudity. A Sign of Shame or Precursor of Christological Economy?"
2005 1st International Congress "Art and the Mediterranean Culture," University of Haifa, "The Window of Testimony"-a sign of physical and spiritual conception"
2005 The Israeli Society for History of Medicine and Science, Hadassah hospital, Jerusalem, "Between Convention and Reality: Imaging the Midwife in Art"
2004 30th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, The Walters Art Museum and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, "The Female Nude in Byzantine Art"
2004 International Symposium "The Art of Narrative," Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, "Birth-giving imagery in Byzantine Art"
International Conference at the Medieval Institute, Leeds, Great Britain, "Punished by her Lust: Luxuria in Byzantine Art"
2004 College Art Association 92nd Annual Conference, Seattle, "Woman to Woman: Parturient-Midwife Imagery in Byzantine Art"
2004 36th Congress of Jewish Art, Society for Jewish Art, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, "The Marginalized Woman: The Case of Levite's Concubine"
2003 The Lafer Center for Women and Gender Studies, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, "The Portrayal of Birth Giving in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts"
2003 27th Annual Congress on History, Shazar Center, Jerusalem, "The Image of the Dancer/Musician in Byzantine Art - Fiction or Reality?"
2003 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich., "The Levite Concubine: A Case in Point of the Clerical Attitude towards the Marginal Woman in Byzantine Society"
2001 13th World Congress of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, "And the Daughters of Israel Exalted David - A Jewish Image in Christian-Byzantine Disguise"
1998 6th International Seminary on Jewish Art: "Scripture and Picture," Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem, "Between Harlot and Penitent. The Image of Rahab in Illuminated Byzantine Manuscripts"
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