Alumna Profile: Tine Rassalle
In 2014, Tine Rassalle came to Carolina as the Center’s very first TEP Fellow, and, after more than seven years of intense study and research, she recently graduated and landed her dream job at the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans.
The Tau Epsilon Phi Graduate Student Fellowship in Jewish Studies was created by the Center as a recruitment tool in order to attract outstanding students to Carolina to earn doctoral degrees in a subfield of Jewish Studies. Without fellowships such as this, it is often difficult to recruit the very best students to Carolina.
The TEP Fellowship allowed Rassalle to come to Carolina from the Netherlands to study with faculty advisor Jodi Magness in the department of religious studies. Her program included courses in ancient Mediterranean religions, Hebrew Bible, archaeology and Jewish history, and she frequently spent her summers on archaeological digs.
“The Center’s support, through the TEP Fellowship, made it possible for me to attend Carolina,” said Rassalle. “I am so grateful to the Center and the donors because I truly would not have come to the U.S., or to Carolina, without the TEP Fellowship. Not only did it make my graduate program a reality, it now has also led me to my first career position.”
Rassalle was an active participant at the Center throughout her graduate school career. She regularly attended academic and social events, she organized a graduate network lecture with Swiss art historian Naomi Lubrich, and in her last year, she was the Center’s graduate student assistant, working on social media and virtual events. Rassalle graduated in December 2021 with a dissertation on coin hoards found in ancient synagogues (www.ancientsynagoguecoins.com). In February 2022, she gave an Emerging Scholars talk on this topic, which is available to view on the Center’s YouTube channel.
Just a few months after graduating with her Ph.D. and the graduate certificate in Jewish studies, she has started her career as the new curator at the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience. At the museum, Rassalle is responsible for a collection of over 4,000 items related to Jews living in the American south (from North Carolina to Texas). She will also be setting up museum exhibitions, giving regular talks, and helping to advance the museum’s mission to make the space a vital part of the Southern Jewish community.