Alexandra Dvorkin, Art History Department, Tel Aviv University.
 

Alexandra Dvorkin is a PhD student and a research assistant at the Art History Department in Tel Aviv University. Her MA thesis, written under the supervision of Dr. Sefy Hendler and Dr. Yuval Sapir, investigated the political use of botany by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519–1574) via the case studies of Benvenuto Cellini’s (1500–1571) Narcissus (1548–1565) and Bachiacca’s (1494–1557) Scrittoio murals (c. 1545). Her PhD research examines the role of botanical illustration in 16th century herbals, focusing especially on Mattioli’s I Discorsi, as part of a period of scientific uncertainty and fear of errors. 

 

Hila Kohner, Art History Department, Tel Aviv University.

 

 

 

Orly Amit, Art History Department, Tel Aviv University

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Orly Amit is a teaching assistant in the Department of Art History at Tel Aviv University, where she has recently completed her MA thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Renana Bartal-Cohen. Her MA thesis explores the shaping and presentation of self-identity in two personal prayer books, copied and illustrated for John of Lancaster (1389-1435), Duke of Bedford and Regent of France (1422-1435), during the second and third decades of the 15th century. She is about to begin her doctoral studies; her PhD research will examine questions of appropriation of Illuminated manuscripts as a means of shaping and presenting self-identity.

 

Yael Barash, The Program for Religion Studies, Tel Aviv University

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Yael Barash submitted recently her MA thesis about the importance of the senses in the epistemological thought of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), under the supervision of Prof. Youssef Schwartz. The importance of the senses is unique for Hildegard's time; most of her contemporary epistemology was based on rational arguments or meditation experience. In the Ph.D. thesis, Barash plans to research the relation of text and image in manuscript of Hildegard’s texts from the 12th and 13th centuries.

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