Tasha Dobbin-Bennett
Associate Professor of Art History and Studio Art
Tasha Dobbin-Bennett is an Associate Professor of Art History and Studio Art at Oxford College. Originally from New Zealand, she earned her Ph.D. from Yale University in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations with a specialization in Egyptology. Prior to starting at Oxford College in 2015, she was the Papyrologist at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where she worked on the ancient papyri collection.
Dr. Dobbin-Bennett's dissertation research examined the ancient Egyptian conceptions of decomposition and putrefaction. Her interdisciplinary study applied forsenic anthropological research to the ancient Egyptian medical and religious texts. Having spent a number of years on archaeological excavations in Egypt, she is interested in how Egypt's unique climate contributed to the ancient Egyptian perception of the post-mortem human body.
Education
BBus| Massey University, New Zealand| 1999
MA| University of Auckland, New Zealand| 2008
M.Phil.| Yale University| 2011
Ph.D.| Yale University| 2014
Courses Taught
ART 101 - Art and Architecture from Prehistory to the Renaissance
ART 102 - Art and Architecture from the Renaissance to the Present
ART 299/Art 110 - Introduction to Paper-making Studio
ART 213QW- Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture (5000 - 1550 B.C.E.)
ART 214QW- Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture (1550 - 30 B.C.E.)
DISC 101Q - Fakes, Forgeries, and Finance: The Ethics of Collecting and Repatriation
Accomplishments
William J. Horwitz Dissertation Prize, Yale University - 2014
Publications
Dobbin-Bennett, T., (2016) “Stretching out a contraction, softening stiffness: Identifying Rigor Mortis in ancient Egyptian Religious Texts”, in R. Landgráfová & J. Myná?ová (eds.) Rich in Years, Great in Victories: Studies in Honour of Tony Spalinger, pp. 61-68.
Dobbin-Bennett, T., (2013) “Egyptian Book of the Dead Chapter 23” in C. Manassa (ed.) Echoes from Egypt: Conjuring the Land of Pharaohs Exhibit. Yale University Press, p.41.
Dobbin-Bennett, T., (2013), “Ptolemaic Gilded Mummy Mask” in C. Manassa (ed.) Echoes from Egypt: Conjuring the Land of Pharaohs Exhibit. Yale University Press, p.77.
Dobbin-Bennett, T., (2013), “The History of Mummification, by Thomas Pettigrew (1834)” in C. Manassa (ed.) Echoes from Egypt: Conjuring the Land of Pharaohs Exhibit. Yale University Press.
Manassa, C.M., & T. Dobbin-Bennett, “The Natacha Rambova Archive, Yale University” Göttinger Miszellen 234 (2012): 85-100.
“Glossary of Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, Demotic, Coptic and Greek Rock Inscriptions”, in J. C. Darnell, (2014) Theban Desert Road Survey II: The Rock Shrine of Pahu, Gebel Akhenaton, and Other Rock Inscriptions from the Western Hinterland of Qamula, Yale Egyptological Institute, pp.201-206.
Presentations
“He who is green of his flesh: Reinterpreting the Green-Faced Osiris,” American Schools of Oriental Research Annual Meeting (Theoretical and Anthropological Approaches to the Near East I, Theme: Exploring the Mortuary Realm), San Antonio, Texas, November 19 2016.
“Efflux is my manifestation: Ancient Egyptian conceptions of putrefactive fluids,” Bodily fluids/fluid bodies in Greek and Roman Antiquity Conference, Cardiff, Wales, July 12, 2016.
“Breaking rigor: a new approach to understanding decomposition,” American Research Centre in Egypt Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, April 2016.
“Rotting in Hell: Ancient Egyptian Conceptions of Decomposition” Emory/Oxford Scholars, Oxford College, April 8th 2016
“You think you have it bad: Or the iconography of violence realized” Temple University, March 10th 2016
“Latin Papyri in the Yale Papyrus Collection” Yale University, December 11th 2014
“New Testament Greek” Yale University, November 17th & December 1st 2014
“Monastic Literature in the Yale Papyrus Collection” Yale University, November 12th & 19th 2014
“Arabic Texts in the Yale Papyrus Collection” Yale University, November 13th 2014
“Persian Texts” Yale University, November 10th 2014
“Egyptomania in the Yale Papyrus Collection”, Yale University, October 21st 2014
“Research Methods in Papyrology” Yale University, Sept 11th 2014.
“From Papyrus to Penguin: The Transmission of Classical Literature” Yale University, Fall 2014.
“Visual Metaphors: The changing face of the ancient world in American films,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., January 2 2014.
Research Interests
Her research interests are wide-ranging including art history, Egyptology, forensic anthropology, public history, ethics of museum collecting and repatriation, identification of fakes and forgeries, archaeological practice, and museum and gallery curation.