Alex Brey, 2014–2015 CAORC Pre-Doctoral Fellow
Alex Brey is an ACOR-CAORC pre-doctorate fellow who is enrolled in a Ph. D. program in the Department of Art History at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia. A few years ago, Alex came to Jordan while writing his masters thesis on the renowned Ummayyad Palace known Qasr Mshatta. At that time he stayed at ACOR, where he learned about the ACOR fellowship program.
Alex has now ventured to Amman a second time as an ACOR scholar to collect research for his dissertation. He has a six month fellowship. His dissertation research focuses on architectural decoration, specifically hunting imagery, produced within the Ummayad Empire during the 8th century.
Alex is using this fellowship opportunity to visit many archaeological sites throughout the country that date to the time period of his research interests. He is particularly interested in the depiction of images in an architectural space, for this serves as a visual manifestation displaying the convergence of different cultures.
Alex shared with ACOR colleagues his technique of taking photos from differing angles in order to understand the potential meanings and interpretations of images. In an interview for this webpost, Alex said “A hunting scene alone has a very literal meaning. But if you put an image of two lovers alongside an image of hunting, the meaning can be drastically different. In this case, an image of hunting placed next to two lovers illustrates a lovers’ chase as opposed to a literal slaughter.”
– written by Taniana Bowe, undergraduate student at American University and Fall 2014 ACOR Intern
