Natalie Kampen

KAMPEN, DR. NATALIE (TALLY) BOYMEL a pioneering feminist scholar and teacher of Roman Art History and Gender Studies, died on August 12, 2012 at home in Wakefield, Rhode Island. She was 68. Kampen taught graduate courses on the ancient world at Columbia University and undergraduate courses in feminist the-ory and gender studies at Barnard College, where she was the first faculty member to hold the endowed Barbara Novak chair in Art History and Women's Studies, and became professor emerita in 2010. She was most recently a visiting professor of Roman Art and Architecture at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University and co-administrator of a Getty Foundation Grant sponsoring international study of the art and architecture of the Roman provinces. She was one of the world's most notable experts on the history of the Roman provinces. Dr. Kampen was an internationally known teacher and scholar. She was a research fellow at Oxford University in 2000, received the Felix Neubergh Medal at the University of Gothenburg in 2004, and was a visiting professor of Art History at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in 2010. As a senior scholar she was interested not only in promoting the careers of her Columbia students but of graduate students in Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Middle East. She was the author of Image and Status: Roman Working Women in Ostia (1981) and Family Fictions in Roman Art (2009), editor of Sexuality in Ancient Art (1996), and author of numerous articles and chapters in scholarly journals, encyclopedias, and books, including Art Journal, American Journal of Archaeology, Art Bulletin, and The Art of Citizens, Soldiers and Freedmen in the Roman World (2006), edited by Metrau and D'Ambra. Dr. Kampen was born on February 1, 1944 in Philadelphia, the daughter of Jules and Pauline (Friedman) Boymel. She was an enthusiastic supporter of left causes from the 1950s to the present, was an effective force in the development of feminist philosophy, and played a key role in the struggle for women's rights. She raised generations of women's consciousness. She received her BA and MA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965 and 1967 and her Ph.D. from Brown University in 1976. She taught Art History at the University of Rhode Island between 1969 and 1988, where she helped to found one of the first Women's Studies programs in New England and became a life-long patron of the Hera Gallery, a feminist artists' collective in Wakefield, Rhode Island. She was an avid horseback rider and a lifelong owner of Labrador dogs. She was married to Michael Kampen from 1965 to 1969 and to John Dunnigan from 1978 to 1989. In all her pursuits, scholarly and otherwise, Tally's generosity was extraordinary. She was famous as a beloved friend and colleague who nurtured lifelong friendships, forged groups of strangers into friends, and could change a person's perspective on life after only an hour's acquaintance in an airport. Even after the onset of her final illness, she led a group of younger scholars to Greece, determined to work with them while she was still able. Dr. Kampen is survived by her sister, Susan Boymel Udin, her brother-in-law David, and her niece and nephew Rachel and Michael Udin. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Contributions can be made in Dr. Kampen's name to Rhode Island Community Food Bank, 200 Niantic Avenue, Providence, RI 02907. The family will be observing a week of Shiva at 33 Shadow Farm Way, Wakefield, RI 02879. Visitors will be welcome from 2-8 PM beginning August 13, 2012.