Karen Sonik is a cultural and art historian specializing in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, with an emphasis on ancient Mesopotamia. Her research explores junctures of metamorphosis and identity as they pertain to ancient Mesopotamian visual arts and literature. Her recent work has addressed topics including gender and characterization in Sumerian and Akkadian literature, with an emphasis on Enuma elish and the Sumerian and Akkadian Gilgamesh narratives; Assyrian rock reliefs and royal memory; the materialization and visualization of the senses and emotions in the ancient Near East; the nature, authorization, and legitimation of divine images; the relationship between pictorial and written myth in Mesopotamia; and the reception of Mesopotamian art and literature in 19th century Europe.
Research Interests
- the representation of gender and the Other (including monsters and demons)
- emotions and the senses
- theories of (ancient and non-Western) arts and aesthetics
- characterization and literary analysis (Sumerian and Akkadian narrative)
- the nature of images (divine and royal)
- reception (and translation) of Mesopotamia in 19th century Europe
