Rhea Stark

Rhea Stark is a first-year doctoral student specializing in Islamic art. Her research considers object migration, transculturation, and negotiations of communal identity in the Islamic lands situated around the medieval Mediterranean basin. She is particularly interested in the material manifestations of cultural and intellectual exchange between Jewish and Muslim communities as well as the development of heterodox faith communities. 

Rhea holds a B.A. in Middle East Studies and Archaeology and the Ancient World from Brown University and an M.Phil in Islamic Art and Archaeology from the University of Oxford, where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Before beginning her PhD, Rhea worked as the curatorial assistant for African, Asian, and Islamic Art at the Brooklyn Museum, where she participated in the curation of Africa Fashion (2023) and Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (2024) and led rotations of the Islamic galleries. Her commitment to living heritage preservation led her to co-found the Jewish Craft School, a space for the transmission of Jewish craft knowledge, whose first conference will be held in 2024.