Marc Michael Epstein, Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies
Blodgett 208 / Box 0544 / (845) 437-5517
Contact Marc Epstein
http://vassar.academia.edu/MarcMichaelEpstein
Dr. Marc Michael Epstein has taught at Vassar since 1992, and is currently Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, received the PhD at Yale University, and did much of his graduate research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has written on various topics in visual and material culture produced by, for, and about Jews, most notably in his first book, Dreams of Subversion in Medieval Jewish Art and Literature (University Park: Penn State Press, 1997). His new book is titled The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination, (forthcoming, Yale University Press, 2010). Epstein was chosen as general editor of Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts, the first comprehensive survey of Jewish illumination in over thirty years, and the first ever to incorporate digital imagery. During the 80s, Epstein was Director of the Hebrew Books and Manuscripts division of Sotheby’s Judaica department, and continues to serve as consultant to various libraries, auction houses, museums and private collectors throughout the world, among them the Herbert C. and Eileen Bernard Museum at Temple Emanu-El in New York City, for which he curated the inaugural exhibition.
Selected Publications:
Books:
- The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination (forthcoming, Yale University Press, 2010)
- Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Manuscript Illumination (Forthcoming)
- Dreams of Subversion in Medieval Jewish Art and Literature. University Park: Penn State Press, 1997.
- The Jerusalem Haggadah: Gateway to the Haggadah. Jerusalem: Aryeh Editions, 1997.
- If Lions Could Carve Stones..." The Medieval Jewish Minority and the Allegorization of the Animal Kingdom: A Textual and Iconographic Study. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1993.
Book Chapters:
- "Seeing Saul." in Saul in Story and Tradition, C. S. Ehrlich & M. C. White, eds. (Forschungen zum Alten Testament); Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006.
- "Another Flight into Egypt: The crosscultural dialectic of messianism and iconographic appropriation in medieval Jewish culture." in Imaging the Self, Imaging the Other: Representations of Jews in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts. ed. Eva Frojmovic. E.J. Brill, 2002.
- "Illustrating History and Illuminating Identity in the Art of the Passover Haggadah." in Judaism in Practice: From the Middle Ages Through The Early Modern Period. ed. Lawrence Fine. Princeton Readings in Religion, series editor David Lopez, Princeton University Press, 2001.
Articles:
- “Re-presentations of the Jewish image: three new contributions (Rubin, Miri. Gentile Tales: The Narrative Assault on Late Medieval Jews; Lipton, Sara. Images of Intolerance: The Representation of Jews and Judaism in the Bible moralisee; Mellinkoff, Ruth. Antisemitic Hate Signs in Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts).” The Journal Of The Association For Jewish Studies 26:2, (2002), 327-340.
- “The Elephant and the Law: Adoption and Adaptation of a Medieval Christian Motif in the Art of the Jewish Minority,” The Art Bulletin, 76:3, (September 1994), 465-478.