Draft:Sharon E. J. Gerstel

Sharon E. J. Gerstel (Greek: Σάρον Γκερστέλ) is an American historian and archaeologist. She is Professor of Byzantine Art & Archaeology, George P. Kolovos Family Centennial Term Chair in Hellenic Studies, and Director of the UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture.

Life
Sharon E. J. Gerstel was born in New York City. She attended Bryn Mawr College and the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University where she studied Byzantine Art History and History.

After completing studies and fieldwork in Thessaloniki, she joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, where she taught Byzantine art history from 1994-2004 holding, at the same time, a position at Dumbarton Oaks.

In 2005, she joined the faculty of the UCLA where she was promoted to Full Professor in 2007. From 2016-2018, she served as Associate Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCLA and was named inaugural director of the UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture in 2019, a position she continues to hold.

In the 2010s, Gerstel and a team undertook research the acoustics of churches in the Byzantine era.

In 2020, Gerstel criticized plans to convert the Hagia Sophia to a mosque, calling it "anti-Orthodox" and "an attempt at cultural erasure".

Personal life
Gerstel moved to the West Coast in the 2000s. She has one child.

Awards and recognition
In recognition of her service to the Hellenic Republic, she was awarded honorary citizenship in 2021 and, in the same year, was named a Commander of the Order of the Phoenix, one of Greece’s highest honors. For her work as an art historian, she has been awarded the prestigious Runciman Prize, the inaugural book prize by the International Center for Medieval Art (ICMA), and the Maria Theocharis Prize by the Christian Archaeological Society in Greece.

She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, including a J. Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. She was also awarded the Theodore Saloutos Award by the American Hellenic Council in 2019 and was honored, in the same year, by the Hellenic Society of Constantinople.

Books and edited volumes

 * Beholding the Sacred Mysteries: Programs of the Byzantine Sanctuary, CAA Monograph on the Fine Arts LVI (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1999).

Articles and book chapters

 * “Recording Village History: The Church of Hagioi Theodoroi, Vamvaka,” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 38 (2020), 21-42.
 * “Recording Village History: The Church of Hagioi Theodoroi, Vamvaka,” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 38 (2020), 21-42.

Films

 * “Inside the Atelier,” Creator. Documents a book project for children from Los Angeles’ first ‘parent trigger’ school.
 * “Blessings and Vows,” Executive Producer, 2018. Public impact research in Vamvaka, Mani.