Thelma K. Thomas holds the position of Associate Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Her main teaching areas are Late Antique, Byzantine, and Eastern Christian art. Current teaching and research interests include ornament, archaeological textiles, and historiography. Her project while at ISAW is a book project, Dressing Souls, Making Monks: The Habits of the Egyptian Desert Fathers, in which she considers the earliest painted representations of these monastic pioneers, as well as written and archaeological evidence for their iconic portrayals.