Jodi Magness

Jodi Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has been at UNC since 2002 after teaching at Tufts University from 1992-2002. Magness has directed excavations at Huqoq in Galilee since 2011 and has participated in over 20 excavations in Israel and Greece throughout her career.

Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania (1989) and a B.A. in Archaeology and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1977). Before joining UNC, she was a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow at Brown University (1990-1992).

Magness specializes in the archaeology of ancient Palestine from the Roman through early Islamic periods. Her research encompasses Jerusalem, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient synagogues, Masada, the Roman army in the East, and Diaspora Judaism in the Roman world. She is particularly noted for her work on ancient pottery and for directing the excavations at Huqoq, where her team discovered stunning synagogue mosaics that have revolutionized understanding of Jewish visual culture in Late Roman and Byzantine periods.

Her recent publications include Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades (2024) and Ancient Synagogues in Palestine: A Reevaluation Nearly a Century After Sukenik's Schweich Lectures (2024), continuing her long tradition of scholarly contributions to the field.

• National Jewish Book Award Finalist (2019)
• Biblical Archaeology Society's Award for Best Popular Book in Archaeology (2003)
• Archaeological Institute of America's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2008)
• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Kingdon Fellowship (2021-2022)
• Fulbright Israel Senior Scholar Award (2021-2022)

Magness has been actively engaged in public education through The Teaching Company's Great Courses, producing lectures on 'The Holy Land Revealed' and 'Jesus and His Jewish Influences.' She has also consulted for National Geographic productions including the film 'Jerusalem' and the series 'The Story of God with Morgan Freeman.' As Past President of the Archaeological Institute of America (2017-2020), she has played a significant leadership role in the archaeological community.

Her excavation work at Huqoq has been particularly groundbreaking, revealing monumental Late Roman synagogues with elaborate mosaics that challenge previous assumptions about Jewish artistic expression during this period. These discoveries have received significant media attention and have reshaped scholarly understanding of Jewish life in Galilee under early Christian rule.