Margaret Culuris-Harp completed her first MA in ancient Mediterranean art history in 2024 at the University of California, Davis after receiving her BA from the University of Nevada, Reno. During her studies, she specialized in late Roman art history and archaeology in both the Levant and North Africa. Margaret’s research is interdisciplinary, relying on archaeology, art history, Jewish studies, and religious studies to better understand the cultural spaces that produced the material religion of interest. Before receiving the Fulbright fellowship, Margaret first received a research grant from UC Davis to travel to Beit Alfa and the Israel Museum to conduct on-site research for her MA thesis, titled “The Beth Alpha Zodiac Wheel, a Jewish Iconographic Reaction to Roman Rule and Jewish Literature.” Using both apocryphal and canonical Hebrew literature, she connected descriptions of David and the divine to the visuals within the Beit Alfa synagogue. She will pursue an MA in archaeology and the ancient Near East at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to expand upon her interest in Jewish material religion from the Second Temple Period.

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Margaret Culuris-Harp
Fellow
2024