Institution
Providence College
Education
Research Interests
Biography
Joan Branham is Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Providence College where she teaches courses in late-antique and medieval art and architectural history. She has been an invited visiting professor at Harvard University and Brown University, and currently serves as Chair of Fellowships for the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.
Professor Branham’s research interests include theories of sacred space, the relationship of gender, blood, and sacrifice in ancient Judaism and Christianity, the iconography of late-antique synagogues and churches, and textual and visual strategies—ancient and modern—to emulate the ancient Jerusalem Temple. She has also participated as a scholarly consultant in documentary film projects including The Trial of Jesus (History Channel, 2004), Epic History of Blood (PBS, 2002), Hagia Sophia (Discovery Channel, 1999), The Bible’s Buried Secrets (NOVA / PBS, 2008), Building the Great Cathedrals (NOVA / PBS, 2010), and currently The Unshakeable Hagia Sophia (NOVA/PBS forthcoming).
Joan Branham obtained her PhD from Emory University in 1993 receiving Emory’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Research. She conducted her doctoral work at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with an Interuniversity Fellowship for Jewish Studies, and wrote her dissertation with fellowships from the American Association of University Women, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Kress Foundation. Professor Branham has received a number of postdoctoral fellowships from the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School (2001-02 and 2007-08), National Endowment for the Humanities (2002), Chateaubriand Foundation at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, the Sorbonne, Paris (1994-95), and Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities (1993-94).
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401-865-1789
