Jonathan M. Bloom | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jonathan Max Bloom (1950-04-07)April 7, 1950 (age 75) |
| Occupation(s) | Art historian Educator |
| Spouse | Sheila Blair (m. 1980) |
| Children | 2 (Felicity and Oliver) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Harvard University University of Michigan |
| Thesis | Meaning in Early Fatimid Architecture: Islamic Art in North Africa and Egypt in the Fourth Century (1980) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Art history |
| Sub-discipline | Islamic art Asian art |
| Institutions | Harvard University Boston College Virginia Commonwealth University |
Jonathan Max Bloom (born April 7, 1950) is an Americanart historian andeducator. Bloom has served as the dual Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art atBoston College, along with his wife,Sheila Blair.
Bloom received hisBachelor of Arts inArt History fromHarvard University in 1972. He then continued education and received aMaster of Arts in Art History from theUniversity of Michigan in 1975, where his thesis concernedRaqqa ware and was titled "Raqqa Ceramics of the Freer Gallery of Art."[1] Then, Bloom received aDoctor of Philosophy in Art History andMiddle Eastern Studies from Harvard in 1980, graduating in the same exact program as his wife,Sheila Blair, whom he married in that year. His doctoral dissertation was onFatimid architecture and was titled "Meaning in Early Fatimid Architecture: Islamic Art in North Africa and Egypt in the Fourth Century."
In the same year of receiving their doctorates, Bloom and Blair were named Aga Khan Lecturers on Islamic Art and Architecture at Harvard and at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology until 1981. Later that year, Bloom was hired as Assistant Professor of Art History at Harvard, a post which he held until 1987, followed by a year as a Research Associate.
In 2000, Bloom and Blair were named to the dual professorship of Norma Jean Calderwood University Professor of Islamic and Asian Art atBoston College. In that same year, Bloom served as the principal consultant, with Blair as artistic consultant, for the documentary titledIslam: Empire of Faith.[2] In 2006, Bloom and Blair also began holding the joint post of Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art atVirginia Commonwealth University.[3]
Bloom has held numerous visiting professorships, including at the:University of California, Los Angeles (1980),University of Geneva (1985),Yale University (1989),Trinity College (1995),University of Bamberg (1995-1996),Smith College (2000-2001), andUniversity of Louisville (2005).
During the 2014-2015 academic year, Bloom and Blair held a research residency at theShangri La Museum.[4] The couple retired from teaching in 2018.[5]
