Medieval Colloquium
The Northwestern Medieval Colloquium brings distinguished speakers to campus each year for a series of dynamic conversations in settings ranging from informal lunches with graduate students to traditional evening lectures. In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of medieval studies, the Colloquium allows scholars using multiple intellectual approaches to exchange ideas about a shared set of cultural artifacts and contexts.
Administered by faculty and advanced graduate students, the Colloquium is funded by the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and various Northwestern departments and programs. All Colloquium events are designed to appeal to broad audiences and are open to the public.
*All talks will be given at 5 p.m. in the Hagstrum Room (University Hall 201), except for the last. Kristina Richardson’s Gray Boyce Lecture will be given at 4:30 in Harris 108.*
2024-25 Schedule of Events
2024
October 10
Shannon Gayk (English, Indiana University)
“Everyday Apocalypse: Wondrous Weather in Medieval England”
October 31
Catherine Conybeare (Classics, Bryn Mawr College)
“Song, Self, and Sonority in Paulinus and Nicetas”
2025
January 9
Heather Webb (Italian, Yale University)
“Reading the Botanical Affects of Dante’s Comedy”
March 6
Kathryn Babayan (History, University of Michigan)
“Microhistories of Reading: Anthologies Before Print Culture”
April 24
Jamie Kreiner (History, University of California, Los Angeles)
"How to Deal with Distraction: Early Medieval Monks and the Modern Quest for Cognitive History"
May 1
Ittai Weinryb (Art History, Bard Graduate Center, NY)
“Down to the Wire”
↑ Return to Top
Driving Directions
Directions to the Northwestern University Evanston Campus
Parking information for the Evanston Campus. No visitor permits are required after 4:00 pm or on weekends.
↑ Return to Top
Co-Sponsors
- Department of Art History
- Department of English
- Department of History
- Interdisciplinary Program in Theatre and Drama
- Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
↑ Return to Top
Past Speakers
2023-24
Michelle Armstrong-Partida (History, Emory University)
Suzanne Akbari (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University)
Peggy McCracken (French, University of Michigan)
Jeffrey Fleisher (Anthropology, Rice University)
Persis Berlekamp (Art History, University of Chicago)
Kristina Richardson (History, University of Virginia)
2022-23
Julie Singer (French, Washington University)
Leah DeVun (History and Gender Studies - Rutgers University)
Justin Steinberg (Italian, University of Chicago)
Karl Whittington (Art History, Ohio State University)
Dyan Elliott (History, Northwestern University- Gray Boyce Lecture)
Ardis Butterfield (English, French, and Music - Yale University)
Carissa Harris (English, Temple University)
2021-22
Hussein Fancy (History, University of Michigan and Yale University)
Holly Crocker (English, University of South Carolina)
Karl Steel (English, Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center)
Carol Symes (History, Theatre, and Classics, University of Illinois - Urbana)
Fiona Griffiths (History, Stanford University)
Shirin Fozi (Art History, University of Pittsburgh)
2019-20
Sean Field (History, University of Vermont)
Zrinka Stahuljak (French and Comparative Literature, UCLA)
Paroma Chatterjee (Art History, University of Michigan)
Julie Orlemanski (English, University of Chicago)
Tamar Herzig (History, Tel Aviv University)
Geraldine Heng (English, Comparative Literature, and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas)
2018-19
Monica Green (History, Arizona State University)
Sarah McNamer (English, Georgetown University)
Bénédicte Sère (History, University of Paris, Nanterre)
Laura Smoller (History, University of Rochester)
Mark Miller (English, University of Chicago)
Elina Gertsman (Art History, Case Western University)
Miri Rubin (History, Queen Mary, University of London)
Ed Muir (History, Northwestern University)
Sharon Kinoshita (Literature, UC Santa Cruz)
2017-18
Jonathan Hsy (English, George Washington University)
Karin Krause (Art History and Divinity School, University of CHicago)
Sara Poor (German, Princeton University)
Samantha Kelly (History, Rutgers University)
Joel Kaye (History, Barnard College and Columbia University)
Elisheva Baumgarten (Jewish Studies, Hebrew University)
2016-17
Michael Bailey (History, Iowa State)
Meredith Cohen (Art History, UCLA)
Kellie Robertson (English, U. of Maryland)
Michelle Karnes (English, Notre Dame)
Susie Phillips (English, Northwestern – Kaplan Institute)
Brian Catlos (Religious Studies, U. of Colorado)
Jenny Adams (English, U. Mass. at Amherst)
2015-16
Beate Fricke (Art History, Berkeley)
Daisy Delogu (French Literature, U. of Chicago)
Tanya Stabler Miller (History, Loyola)
Garry Wills (History, Northwestern)
Jessica Brantley (English, Yale)
Shirin Khanmohamadi (Comparative and World Literature, San Francisco State)
2014-15
Elizaveta Strakhov (French postdoc, Northwestern)
Seeta Chaganti (English, UC Davis)
Paul Saenger (curator emeritus, Newberry Library)
Mo Pareles (English postdoc, Northwestern)
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (English, Fordham)
Maureen Miller (History, Berkeley)
Gabrielle Spiegel (History, Johns Hopkins)
Achim Timmermann (Art History, Michigan)
2013-14
Christina Normore (Art History, Northwestern)
Daniel Lord Smail (History, Harvard)
Susan Crane (English and Comp. Lit., Columbia)
Anne Curry (History, U. of Southampton)
Cathy Sanok (English, U. of Michigan)
Marvin Trachtenberg (Art History, NYU)
2012-13
Matthew Johnson (Anthropology, Northwestern)
Caroline Walker Bynum (History, Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton)
Conrad Rudolph (Art History, UC Riverside)
Andrew Galloway (English, Cornell)
Annemarie Carr (Art History, Southern Methodist U.)
Peggy McCracken (French and Women’s Studies, U. of Michigan)
Emily Steiner (English, U. of Pennsylvania)
2011-12
Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner (Romance Languages, Boston College)
Rebecca Krug (English, Minnesota)
Scott Hiley (French and Italian, Northwestern)
Margot Fassler (Music History and Liturgy, Notre Dame)
Anne Hedeman (Art History and Medieval Studies, U. of Illinois)
Sara Lipton (History, SUNY Stony Brook)
Suzanne Conklin Akbari (English and Medieval Studies, Toronto)
↑ Return to Top
Mellon Art History Conference
A World within Worlds?
Reassessing the “Global Turn” in Medieval Art History
June 5-6, 2015
University Hall 201
Free and open to the public
Sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Study of the migration of motifs, materials, personnel and finished objects in Eurasia has a long pedigree within medieval art history, featuring prominently in the work of foundational figures such as Alois Riegl, Josef Strzygowski, Aby Warburg, Arthur Kingsley Porter and André and Oleg Grabar. The broadening attention to material culture as an alternative to purely text-based historical accounts has likewise been an integral factor in reshaping the current conception of a more interconnected medieval world. The past two decades in particular have seen a marked increase in institutional interest in promoting such work in art history. Job notices within the four College Art Association-designated fields that traditionally study medieval art history (Byzantine, Islamic, Western Medieval and East Asian) now regularly express a preference for research that crosses the boundaries between these modern distinctions, signaled through keywords such as Mediterranean studies, Silk Road, and cross-cultural analysis.
Yet despite this seeming support, and the valuable case studies and new conceptions of individual regions it has encouraged, numerous important problems remain to be addressed. These include not only the growing debates concerning the concept of “the global” throughout art history, but also the challenges to traditional art historical narratives, specializations, and scholarly training posed by the more complex picture of Eurasian and African societies and material culture that has begun to emerge in the past two decades. Moreover, while these problems affect Byzantine, Islamic, Western medieval, and East Asian art history alike, there has as yet been little sustained conversation between those working in all four fields, although such dialogue seems fundamental to the larger objectives of all.
Drawing together early-career specialists in four art historical fields actively engaged in this cross-cultural reassessment of the period between the 4th and 15thcenturies, this conference hopes offer a starting point for future conversations between scholars working across multiple cultural regions.
Mellon Conference Speakers
Matthew Canepa, University of Minnesota
Heather Badamo, University of Chicago/UCSB
- “Icons at War: Warrior Saints and Interfaith Encounter at the Frontiers of Faith”
Bonnie Cheng, Oberlin College
- “A Camel’s Pace: The Case against Global Art”
Sarah Guérin, Université de Montréal
- “Climate & Commodities: Ivory Trade and Habitat Change”
Cecily Hilsdale, McGill University
- “Global Romance in Byzantium and Beyond”
Hu Jun, Northwestern University
- “The “Final Destination” of the Silk Road and Its Many Lives”
Lisa Mahoney, DePaul University
- “Understanding Absence: The Church Façades of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem”
Jennifer Pruitt, University of Wisconsin
- “Reassessing Medieval Islamic Globalism: The Fatimid Caliph and Jerusalem”
Eric Ramirez-Weaver, University of Virginia
- “Permeable Membranes: Astronomy and Appropriation in the Leiden Aratea”
Alicia Walker, Bryn Mawr