Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg, Ph.D.
Courses Taught
- AH 1700 (GE) Prehistoric through Medieval Art, global focus
- AH 1701 (GE) Renaissance through Contemporary Art, global focus
- AH 3770/5770 Ancient Greek and Roman Art and Architecture
- AH 3771/5771 Byzantine Art, Architecture, and Culture, focus on North Africa
- AH 3760/5760 Medieval Art and Culture, Afro-Eurasia focus
- AH 3710/5710 Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture, including Islamic and Jewish materials
- AH 4000 (IS) Along the Silk Roads from East Asia to Africa and Europe
- AH 4000 (IS) Women, Art, and Women’s Studies
- AH 4000 (IS) Museum Studies and Local Collections
- AH 4700 Art History Capstone
- HIST 1052 (GE) Worlds of History, global focus
- HIST 4000 Byzantine Africa, Europe, and Asia
- HIST 4000 Islam and Visual Culture
- HIST (IS) Japanese Culture and Art: the Tale of Genji
- ID 2700 Travel Learn to Spain: Art and Culture
- ID 5700 Studies in the Creative Process
Teaching Philosophy
Challenge, encourage and support the whole student, through and beyond academics. Above all, she values the interactions with her students, fostering and supporting intellectual curiosity and growth with attention to individual student needs and interests.
Tuerk-Stonberg is a Jewish Studies affiliate faculty, a member of the MALS graduate faculty, has taken Kean students to Spain as a travel-learn course and has directed projects in Women’s Studies. Her teaching accomplishments include being named as “Teacher Who Impacted Educational Growth” by the Dean of Students at Gettysburg College, and being nominated for Excellence in Teaching Award in the Division of Humanities at Ohio State University.
Scholarship
Jacquelyn Tuerk-Stonberg received her Ph.D. in the history of Byzantine art and material culture from the University of Chicago, where she focused on the ancient and medieval history of so-called “magic”: the power of words, images, and performances to shape human experience by shaping interpretations of it. Currently she is completing a book entitled Medieval Magic: How to do Things with Words and Images in Byzantium which focuses on the use of amulets (small personal objects with word and images on them) as they were used in medicine, ritual power, pilgrimage and religion to affect human experience directly. She has also compiled an extensive annotated catalogue of 340 late antique and medieval archaeological objects related to the history of magic. Tuerk-Stonberg has published numerous articles on magical amulets, holy icons, magical thinking, narrative, and hierotopy (the study of sacred space), with entries in The Oxford Handbook on Byzantine Art and Architecture, and in The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. She has conducted art and archaeological research in 41 different museums across 10 countries.
Beyond ancient and medieval art, Tuerk-Stonberg has written on contemporary art topics including its relationship to medieval precedence (an exhibition catalogue entitled The Temperature of Light: The Encaustic Paintings of Janise Yntema which is available on amazon.com), art and cultural inclusivity (a booklet published by Kean University and a short film entitled We Are US: A True Cultural Mosaic in conjunction with her students), art and social conditions for peace (edited an e-book of essays from the Kean Faculty Seminar Roundtable entitled Peace: Its Conditions and Conceptions), and art and gender. She has curated art exhibitions on the early American paintings and the history of slavery in the US, contemporary art from the war zone in Sri Lanka, modern-Gothic encaustic paintings, contemporary art and the Holocaust, and feminist contemporary artwork.
Selected Publications
"Epigraphy, Image, and Material: The Strategic Power of the Word ‘And’ on Byzantine Uterine Amulets” Magic, Witchcraft, and Ritual, Vol. 18/3, University of Pennsylvania Press, Winter 2023.
“Magic and Byzantine Art,” Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture, ed. Ellen Schwartz, Oxford University Press, 2021, pp. 83-95. For sale on amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Handbook-Byzantine-Architecture-HANDBOOKS/dp/0190277351 Review by: Georgi Parpulov, Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, The Byzantine Review, 04.2022.017.
“Magical Amulets, Magical Thinking, and Semiotics in Early Byzantium,” Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia, Brill Publishers, Research Centre for History and Culture, Beijing Normal University and United International College of Hong Kong Baptist University, Beijing, China, 2021, pp. 1-23. https://brill.com/view/journals/aisr/aop/issue.xml
Kean Student and Alumni Art Protest in Memory of George Floyd, curated art exhibition and public events with student artists, Human Rights Institute Hallway, Kean University, March-April 2021. https://sites.google.com/view/kean-student-alum-art-protest/home. Press coverage: https://issuu.com/thetower/docs/042421_ku_tower_may_v2; http://kutower.com/?s=george+floyd.
Greek Women Then and Now, online art exhibition catalog, international exhibition of art by Kean students and others, AthensArt, Athens, Greece, 2021. https://sites.google.com/kean.edu/greek-women-then-and-now/home
“Christopher Faraone’s The Transformation of Greek Amulets in Roman Imperial Times,” Journal of Roman Studies, Cambridge University Press, Dec 2020.
Medieval Magic: How To Do Things With Words and Images in Byzantium. Book in draft.
Powerful Words and Images from the Late Antique Levant: An Annotated Catalogue of Minor Objects. Catalogue of 340 archaeological objects. Book in draft.
We Are US: A True Culture Mosaic, booklet and film, written, designed, printed, and filmed in collaboration with students in the Art History Capstone Course, Kean University, Union, NJ, 2017.
“Re-Collections: The Artwork of Julie Harris,” The James Howe Gallery, Kean University, 5 September - 28 October 2016. Curated art exhibition.
The Temperature of Light: The Encaustic Paintings of Janise Yntema. The Dryfoos Gallery, Kean University. October 2015. Curated art exhibition and catalogue written in conjunction with students in Art History Capstone Course, published by Kean University, Union, NJ. Sold on amazon.com.
“Ashes, Ashes: Artists' Reactions to the Holocaust: Drawings by Jo Jochnowitz, Poems by Susanna Rich,” The James Howe Gallery, Kean University, 4 November – 22 December 2015. Curated art exhibition.
“La Lumière Gothique,” (in French and English) in the art exhibition catalogue Janise Yntema, Cadogen Gallery, London, 2010, unpaginated.
“Living Fibers, Living Forms: The Work of Jappie King Black,” Surface Design Journal, vol. 34, issue 3, April 2010, pp. 36-39.
“Painting,” “Ampulla,” “Plotinus,” and “Tympanum,” The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. Robert Bjork, 2010.
Peace: Its Conditions and Conceptions, Editor, Faculty Seminar E-Book Series, volume on the Faculty Seminar Roundtable Kean University, held on 6 April 2009.
“Introduction,” in Still, Cadogan, London, 2009, pp. 3-4.
“Early Byzantine Amulets: Unorthodox, yes; Incorrect, no,” The Journal of Modern Hellenism, “Byzantium” issue, fall 2009, pp. 103-129.
“Hierotopy, Narrative, and Magical Amulets,” “ИЕРОТОПИЯ, НАРРАТИВНОϹТЬ И МАГИЧЕϹКИЕ АМУПЕТЫ,” (in English and Russian) Comparative Hierotopy: Studies in the Making of Sacred Space, vol. 2, ed. Alexei Lidov, Research Centre for Eastern Christian Culture, Moscow, 2008, pp. 84-109.
“Art Once Stolen by Nazis, Now Enjoyed by Us,” Comparative Cultures Journal, Faculty Seminar on Comparative Cultures E-Book Series, Kean University, Spring 2008, pp. 30-41. <http://www.kean.edu/~orsp/online_journal/comp_journal.htm>
“From Amulets to Icons in Byzantium,” Faith and Transformation: Votive Offerings and Amulets from the Alexander Girard Collection, edited by Doris Francis, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, 2007, pp. 62-63.
“The Process of Gender: The Fiber Arts of Jappie Kind Black,” The Dryfoos Gallery, Kean University, February 2007. Curated art exhibition.
“Breaking through the Picture Plane: Icons, Verbal Performance, and Magical Amulets,” Hierotopy: Studies in the Making of Sacred Space, vol. 1, ed. Alexei Lidov, Research Centre for Eastern Christian Culture, Moscow, 2005. These are published abstracts of symposium proceedings.
“Byzantine Models for Post-Modern Architecture and Iconography,” The St. George’s Herald, Nov 2003.
“Art from the War Zone in Sri Lanka,” Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA. 29 January – 22 February 2003. Curated art exhibition.
“An Inscribed Byzantine Amulet and Its Narratives,” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 23, 1999, pp. 24-42.
“The Paintings of William Henry Mount,” Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages (formerly The Museums at Stony Brook), Stony Brook, NY. Spring 1994. Exhibition curated.