Avinoam Shalem (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: אבינועם שלם; born 1959) is the Riggio Professor of the History of the Arts of Islam at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He served as director of the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome, Italy. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History 19th century In 1893, a group of American architect ...

from 2020 to 2021.

Biography

Shalem was born in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in 1959. He received his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

from the University of Tel Aviv, M.A. from the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

before earning a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

in 1995. He worked for the

Khalili Collections The Khalili Collections are eight distinct art collections assembled by Nasser Khalili, Nasser D. Khalili over five decades. Together, the collections include some 35,000 works of art, and each is considered among the most important in its field ...

and taught at the

prior to joining the Columbia faculty in 2013. He was also a visiting professor at

Villa I Tatti Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies is a center for advanced research in the humanities located in Florence, Italy, and belongs to Harvard University. It houses a collection of Italian primitives, and of Chinese and ...

, and guest professor at

Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European ...

and

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU; ISO: Javāharalāla Neharū Viśvavidyālaya) is a public research university located in Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university ...

. Shalem's research focuses on medieval Islamic, as well as Jewish and Christian art. In 2020, he was appointed 24th Director of the American Academy in Rome, where he was a 2016 resident. He stepped down in fall 2021 and returned to his teaching career at Columbia. In 2022, Shalem received a grant from the

Getty Foundation The Getty Foundation, based in Los Angeles, California, at the Getty Center, awards grants for "the understanding and preservation of the visual arts".Getty FoundationAbout the Foundation. Retrieved September 18, 2008. In the past, it funded the ...

to direct the Black Mediterranean project, which reconsiders the history of the relationship between Africa and Europe by shedding light on African influences on Mediterranean cultures.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shalem, Avinoam Living people Israeli academics Columbia University faculty American Academy in Rome Tel Aviv University alumni Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Israeli art historians Historians of Islamic art 1959 births