Calls for Papers by Alison L Perchuk
For years I have distributed this document to my students to help them organize their thoughts ab... more For years I have distributed this document to my students to help them organize their thoughts about readings in preparation for classroom discussions, essays, exams, and similar. As we prepare for the start of another academic year, I share it here as (c)2024 Alison Locke Perchuk CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. I hope this helps your students as much as it has helped mine!
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Italian Art Society Sponsored Session
2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo M... more Italian Art Society Sponsored Session
2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo MI, May 8–10, 2025
Historia Gothorum
Organized by Liz Wells, University of California Irvine, with Alison Locke Perchuk, CSU Channel Islands
These two linked sessions explore the past, present, and future of the Goths in Italy. We invite proposals from scholars of art history and allied fields who are engaged in the artistic and material culture and legacy of the Ostrogoths and Lombards in and beyond Italy.
Questions? mallorew@uci.edu
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Published Works: Books by Alison L Perchuk
Il monastero medievale di Sant’Elia: una storia in pittura e in pietra , 2023
Il monastero medievale di Sant’Elia: una storia in pittura e in pietra è la prima monografia inte... more Il monastero medievale di Sant’Elia: una storia in pittura e in pietra è la prima monografia interdisciplinare sull’ex-convento benedettino maschile di Castel Sant’Elia (Vt), rappresentato oggi dalla sua chiesa abbaziale, la basilica romanica di Sant’Elia. Uno dei pochissimi monasteri dedicato al profeta Elia di cui si abbia notizia nell'Occidente latino, fu ricostruito intorno al 1122-26 con il sostegno papale e conserva oggi ricche tracce artistiche di questo mecenatismo, ma la sua collocazione alla periferia di Roma e la perdita quasi totale del suo patrimonio documentario lo hanno lasciato in gran parte fuori dalla storiografia. Attraverso un’analisi storico-artistica arricchita da studi di archeologia, epigrafia, storia, liturgia, teologia e paesaggio, Alison Locke Perchuk restituisce al monastero la sua importanza storica, rivelandolo come il frutto di una prolungata meditazione sulla storia, l'identità e l'esegesi, messa al servizio del papato riformatore dell'inizio del XII secolo. Ed. or.: The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone (Brepols 2021). https://www.srsp.it/index.php/prodotto/74-santelia/
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The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone, 2021
Blending innovative art historical analysis with archaeology, epigraphy, history, liturgy, theolo... more Blending innovative art historical analysis with archaeology, epigraphy, history, liturgy, theology, and landscape and memory studies, The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary study of a deeply intelligent yet understudied male Benedictine convent near Rome. The only monastery known to have been dedicated to the prophet Elijah in the Latin West, it was rebuilt c.1122–26 with papal patronage.
Today, the monastery is represented by its church of Sant’Elia, a stone basilica endowed with its original Cosmati marble pavement and liturgical furnishings, early and high medieval sculptures and inscriptions, and vibrant wall paintings that include unique depictions of the prophet Elijah and the twelve tribes of Israel as warriors, an apse program with a distinctly elite Roman origin, and an important narrative cycle of the Apocalypse. An outlying chapel marks the site of a theophany that sanctified the landscape and gave the monastery its raison d’être. The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah makes significant contributions to current art historical debates concerning communal identity and the construction of social memory, artistic creativity and processes, the multisensory and exegetical capacities of works of visual art, intersections of topography and sanctity, and the effects of medievalism on our understanding of the Middle Ages.
Alison Locke Perchuk (Ph.D. Yale University) is an art historian specializing in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. Her work on the Monastery of St. Elijah received the 2018 Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize of the Medieval Academy of America and she has held fellowships at CASVA (2016) and the Institute for Advanced Study (2018–19). Currently Associate Professor of Art at California State University Channel Islands, her next projects are on medieval Italy’s sacred landscapes and medievalism in California.
ISBN: 978-2-503-58943-5
https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503589435-1
Brepols.net
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Reviews & Presentations of My Work by Alison L Perchuk
Burlington Magazine, 2024
A review of my book, The Medieval Monastery [...]: 7. Alice Isabella Sullivan, “The Medieval Mona... more A review of my book, The Medieval Monastery [...]: 7. Alice Isabella Sullivan, “The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone by Alison Locke Perchuk (review),” Burlington Magazine 166 (July 2024): 750–751.
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Arte Medievale, 2023
Una recensione del mio libro, The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Ston... more Una recensione del mio libro, The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone. Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages, no. 17. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. Tradotto in italiano da Riccardo Cristiani: Il monastero medievale di Sant’Elia: una storia in pittura e pietra. Translated by Riccardo Cristiani. Miscellanea della Società Romana di Storia Patria, no. 74. Rome: Società Romana di Storia Patria, 2023.
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Speculum, 2024
A review of my monograph: Alison Locke Perchuk, The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History... more A review of my monograph: Alison Locke Perchuk, The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone. (Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages 17.) Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. Pp. 432; color and black-and-white figures. €175. ISBN: 978-2-5035-8943-5.
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Mikhtav, 2023
À Castel Sant'Elia, un village du Latium, à une soixantaine de kilomètres au nord de Rome, se tro... more À Castel Sant'Elia, un village du Latium, à une soixantaine de kilomètres au nord de Rome, se trouve une basilique dédiée au prophète Élie, ce qui est bien inhabituel en Occident, qui vénère peu les saints du Premier Testament. Cette église a été construite en 1122-1126 pour une abbaye bénédictine dont l'origine remonte au vi e siècle. Elle fut fondée par Anastase, saint dont il est question dans les Dialogues de Grégoire le Grand (I,7,1 et 8,1), dans le poème De triumphis Christi de Flodoard de Reims (PL 135, 831B), au x e siècle. Cette basilique est un bel exemple de l'art roman, dans les environs de Rome. Elle conserve des pavements cosmatesques, des fresques du xii e siècle, dans l'abside et le transept. L'étude interdisciplinaire d'A. L. Perchuk sur ce monastère médiéval unit archéologie, épigraphie, histoire, liturgie et théologie. Divisée en sept chapitres présentés dès l'introduction, elle est menée avec une grande érudition. Le premier chapitre, Recovering the Romanesque Monastery, décrit l'église telle qu'elle existe aujourd'hui, puis analyse les documents médiévaux et modernes, examine la structure pour isoler les éléments authentiquement médiévaux des modifications de la Contre-Réforme et de celles du xix e siècle, dues au travail de restauration opéré par Virginio Vespignani, architecte du pape Pie IX. Le deuxième chapitre, Vetustum monasterium Sancti Heliae, montre comment les moines ont utilisé la peinture, l'épigraphie, l'architecture et la topographie pour relier leur monastère à leur fondateur saint Anastase. L'auteur considère aussi les activités de
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Studies in Iconography, 2023
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La presentazione di Alison Locke Perchuk, "Il monastero medievale di Sant'Elia. Una storia in pit... more La presentazione di Alison Locke Perchuk, "Il monastero medievale di Sant'Elia. Una storia in pittura e pietra." Tradotto dall'inglese da Riccardo Cristiani. Roma 2023. Miscellanea della Società Romana di Storia Patria LXXIV. Saluti dal sindaco Vingenzo Girolami e consigliere Cecilia Maria Paolucci; intervengono Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri, Serena Romano, Eleonora Tosti. 22 luglio 2023, ora 17.00. Presso la Basilica di Sant'Elia, Castel Sant'Elia (Vt). Sarà presente l'autrice. https://www.basilicasantelia.it/ & https://www.srsp.it/index.php/prodotto/74-santelia/
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Ho il piacere di invitarla alla presentazione di Alison Locke Perchuk, "Il monastero medievale di... more Ho il piacere di invitarla alla presentazione di Alison Locke Perchuk, "Il monastero medievale di Sant'Elia. Una storia in pittura e pietra." Tradotto dall'inglese da Riccardo Cristiani. Roma 2023. Miscellanea della Società Romana di Storia Patria LXXIV. Intervengono Manuela Gianandrea e Umberto Longo. Mercoledì 14 giugno 2023, ora 17.00. Presso la Società nel Salone Borrominiano, Piazza della Chiesa Nuovo 18, Roma. Sarà presente l'autrice. L'evento può essere seguito in diretta sul canale YouTube della Società. https://www.srsp.it/index.php/prodotto/74-santelia/
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Comitatus, 2022
Review of Alison Locke Perchuk, "The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and S... more Review of Alison Locke Perchuk, "The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone," Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages, 17 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2021). Reviewed by Abby Armstrong Check (U. Wisconsin), in "Comitatus" 53 (2022): 266-269.
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The Medieval Review, 2022
Review by Marius B. Hauknes, University of Notre Dame.
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Dr. Alison Perchuk’s "The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone"Bo... more Dr. Alison Perchuk’s "The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah: A History in Paint and Stone"Book Release Panel.Featuring Dr. Maureen C. Miller &Dr. Nicola Camerlenghi.With an Introduction by Dr. Kathryn A. Smith. Hosted by Dr. Colleen Harris, Broome Library, CSU Channel Islands. February 25 at 11:00am Pacific Time
Register Now At https://csuci.libcal.com/event/8883562
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Thought piece taking as its point of departure my lecture, "Landscapes of St Gregory: Topographie... more Thought piece taking as its point of departure my lecture, "Landscapes of St Gregory: Topographies of the Sacred in Medieval Europe," delivered 10 January 2017 at the Max-Planck-Institut, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. Article by Thomas Steinfeld.
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Audio & Video by Alison L Perchuk
https://www.youtube.com/live/wBfViCqjSW4?si=kOrAMeBTsmXM9o7H Video della presentazione del libro,... more https://www.youtube.com/live/wBfViCqjSW4?si=kOrAMeBTsmXM9o7H Video della presentazione del libro, Il Monastero Medievale di Sant'Elia. Una Storia in Pittura e Pietra, trad. Riccardo Cristiani, Miscellanea della Società Romana di Storia Patria no. 74 (Roma 2023), con Prof. Manuela Gianandrea, Prof. Umberto Longo, Prof. Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri (Presidente della SRSP), Dott.ssa Cecilia Paolucci (giunta comunale), e l'autrice Prof. Alison Locke Perchuk.
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MediaEvi. Il Podcast, 2021
In questo episodio di MediaEvi - Il Podcast, Riccardo e Davide parlano di un loro viaggio alla sc... more In questo episodio di MediaEvi - Il Podcast, Riccardo e Davide parlano di un loro viaggio alla scoperta di una New York neomedievale. Con l'ospite poi si affronta il tema di come il medioevo sia recepito negli States.
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Click link to view video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ypnypCxc6KE. Recording for conference pres... more Click link to view video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ypnypCxc6KE. Recording for conference presentation: “Tuscania Transported: St. John’s Episcopal Church and Italian Medievalism in Interwar Los Angeles,” in Using the Past: The Middle Ages in the Spotlight, Monastery of Santa Maria de Vitória, Batalha, Portugal, 12 December 2020. With Alva Bailey, CSUCI ‘21.
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Video of presentation available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZTBK90vsDNE — I discuss the links be... more Video of presentation available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZTBK90vsDNE — I discuss the links between Collegiate Gothic architecture and racial Anglo-Saxonism in the United States, using the Romanesque campus of the University of California Los Angeles as a lens through which to review the architectural lessons of Princeton University's Gothic campus. Introduction by Yve-Alain Bois, Professor in the School of Historical Studies.
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Calls for Papers by Alison L Perchuk
2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo MI, May 8–10, 2025
Historia Gothorum
Organized by Liz Wells, University of California Irvine, with Alison Locke Perchuk, CSU Channel Islands
These two linked sessions explore the past, present, and future of the Goths in Italy. We invite proposals from scholars of art history and allied fields who are engaged in the artistic and material culture and legacy of the Ostrogoths and Lombards in and beyond Italy.
Questions? mallorew@uci.edu
Published Works: Books by Alison L Perchuk
Today, the monastery is represented by its church of Sant’Elia, a stone basilica endowed with its original Cosmati marble pavement and liturgical furnishings, early and high medieval sculptures and inscriptions, and vibrant wall paintings that include unique depictions of the prophet Elijah and the twelve tribes of Israel as warriors, an apse program with a distinctly elite Roman origin, and an important narrative cycle of the Apocalypse. An outlying chapel marks the site of a theophany that sanctified the landscape and gave the monastery its raison d’être. The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah makes significant contributions to current art historical debates concerning communal identity and the construction of social memory, artistic creativity and processes, the multisensory and exegetical capacities of works of visual art, intersections of topography and sanctity, and the effects of medievalism on our understanding of the Middle Ages.
Alison Locke Perchuk (Ph.D. Yale University) is an art historian specializing in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. Her work on the Monastery of St. Elijah received the 2018 Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize of the Medieval Academy of America and she has held fellowships at CASVA (2016) and the Institute for Advanced Study (2018–19). Currently Associate Professor of Art at California State University Channel Islands, her next projects are on medieval Italy’s sacred landscapes and medievalism in California.
ISBN: 978-2-503-58943-5
https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503589435-1
Brepols.net
Reviews & Presentations of My Work by Alison L Perchuk
Register Now At https://csuci.libcal.com/event/8883562
Audio & Video by Alison L Perchuk
2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies
Kalamazoo MI, May 8–10, 2025
Historia Gothorum
Organized by Liz Wells, University of California Irvine, with Alison Locke Perchuk, CSU Channel Islands
These two linked sessions explore the past, present, and future of the Goths in Italy. We invite proposals from scholars of art history and allied fields who are engaged in the artistic and material culture and legacy of the Ostrogoths and Lombards in and beyond Italy.
Questions? mallorew@uci.edu
Today, the monastery is represented by its church of Sant’Elia, a stone basilica endowed with its original Cosmati marble pavement and liturgical furnishings, early and high medieval sculptures and inscriptions, and vibrant wall paintings that include unique depictions of the prophet Elijah and the twelve tribes of Israel as warriors, an apse program with a distinctly elite Roman origin, and an important narrative cycle of the Apocalypse. An outlying chapel marks the site of a theophany that sanctified the landscape and gave the monastery its raison d’être. The Medieval Monastery of Saint Elijah makes significant contributions to current art historical debates concerning communal identity and the construction of social memory, artistic creativity and processes, the multisensory and exegetical capacities of works of visual art, intersections of topography and sanctity, and the effects of medievalism on our understanding of the Middle Ages.
Alison Locke Perchuk (Ph.D. Yale University) is an art historian specializing in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. Her work on the Monastery of St. Elijah received the 2018 Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize of the Medieval Academy of America and she has held fellowships at CASVA (2016) and the Institute for Advanced Study (2018–19). Currently Associate Professor of Art at California State University Channel Islands, her next projects are on medieval Italy’s sacred landscapes and medievalism in California.
ISBN: 978-2-503-58943-5
https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503589435-1
Brepols.net
Register Now At https://csuci.libcal.com/event/8883562
In: “Spazio figurato and Apocalypse: Some Remarks on the Tempietto di Seppannibale,” in Repenser l’art médiéval. Hommage à Xavier Barral i Altet, edited by Miljenko Jurkovic, pp. 99–110. Dissertationes et Monographiae, 19. Turnhout: Brepols, 2023.
https://www.brepols.net/series/dem
https://irclama.ffzg.unizg.hr/dissemination/publications/
ISBN 978-12-80956-11-8
https://www.campisanoeditore.it/index.php/15-collana-quaderni-della-bibliotheca-hertziana/336-medioevo-tra-due-mondi
abstract ingl: Positioned at the heart of art and architectural history, biography presents a real challenge for medievalists. The problem is not a lack of names; it is that in all but a few extraordinary cases they arrive stripped of further information. The usual strategy is to examine comparative cases in search of plausible patronal motivations that can then be applied to other monuments. In this article I work in the other direction, using clues provided by the monument itself – the monastic church of Sant’Elia – to arrive at a biography of its patron: an approach that permits both theoretical and concrete reflection on the biographical method in medieval studies.
parole chiave it: Medioevo; secolo XII; Castel Sant’Elia; storia dell’arte; biografia; committenza
parole chiave ingl: Middle Ages; twelfth century; Castel Sant’Elia; art history; biography; patronage
medieval audiences (and should guide modern scholars) into a world of gesture, movement, ritual, and voice. These paintings were inseparable from daily ritual, from liturgical elements spoken and sung at specific times, and from commemorative practices followed on such occasions as the feast days of saints and the deaths of terrestrial leaders—in sum, even if presenting themselves initially as motionless two-dimensional images, these images were profoundly intertwined with
the monastery’s existence as a lived ritual site. These links between image and site served a further purpose: to establish and promote a distinct communal identity among the monastery of Elijah’s brethren by depicting and then activating specific concepts regarding their community’s sacred history, the history of monasticism more generally, and appropriate monastic behaviors and aspirations. Crucial in this regard were a series of images depicting the monastery’s local saint, the abbot Anastasius, and its exceedingly rare titular saint, the Old Testament prophet Elijah. While the process of generating communal identity may have begun at a visual level, it was only effected through, first, the use of mediums including, in addition to painting, architecture,
furnishings, pavement, inscriptions, and topography, and, second, the activation of multiple bodily actions and sensations, including physical movement through the monastery’s wider landscape. Likewise, a scholarly discussion that begins within the field of art history necessarily expands to encompass history, liturgy, and theology, but always with a close focus on twelfth-century Italy.
medievalizing phenomenon in the Republic of San Marino from
a comparative perspective, with a particular focus on the period between 1884 (date of the construction of San Marino’s
new town hall) and the years of Fascism (1922-1943), the most
significant phase of San Marino’s transformation into a neomedieval city. Nowadays, San Marino possesses not only a medieval history, but also a neomedieval identity. The recognition of
this identity was made clear in 2008, when the historic center
of San Marino was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage
List.
Keywords: Medievalism, Urban History, Republic of San Marino, History of Architecture
medievalizing phenomenon in the Republic of San Marino from
a comparative perspective, with a particular focus on the period between 1884 (date of the construction of San Marino’s
new town hall) and the years of Fascism (1922-1943), the most
significant phase of San Marino’s transformation into a neomedieval city. Nowadays, San Marino possesses not only a medieval history, but also a neomedieval identity. The recognition of
this identity was made clear in 2008, when the historic center
of San Marino was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage
List.
This dissertation takes a different approach. Inspired by recent work addressing the role of the arts in the generation and communication of medieval institutional identity, it asks how the monks responsible for the Basilica’s construction used its fabric to create, preserve, and promote the antiquity, history, and current social position of their monastic community. Liturgy, including chant, is seen as crucial to this process; the intersection of art and liturgy remains a theme throughout this study. Chapter one analyzes medieval and modern documents and examines the standing structure to isolate authentically medieval elements from Counter-Reformation and nineteenth-century modifications, including the work of Virginio Vespignani for Pope Pius IX. Chapter two considers how the monks used painting, epigraphy, architecture, and topography to link their monastery to the local saint Anastasius, discussed in the Dialogues of Gregory the Great. Chapter three looks at the use of early medieval spolia within the church. Chapter four examines the monastery’s dedication to Elijah the Prophet, identifying Elijah as an exemplar for monastic behavior. Chapter five probes the frescoes’ Roman iconography, especially a rendering of the Madonna della Clemenza, the icon from Santa Maria in Trastevere. Chapter six places the romanitas of the Basilica’s paintings, architecture, and furnishings within the context of the Gregorian Reform and the papacies of Callixtus II and Anacletus II.
These engagements have manifested in numerous ways: racialized tropes in fantasy fiction and gaming; casting and setting choices in productions of Renaissance drama; and New Age, Black Metal, and “Ren Faire” fantasies of “medieval” music. These afterlives of the past have revealed deep-seated biases and racial blind spots in the way we conceive of, teach, and inhabit racialized spaces and subjects. This roundtable panel interrogates these biases and offers a forum for collaborative exchange among scholars whose work intersects with these themes.
Roundtable Participants:
Ambereen Dadabhoy, Assistant Professor of Literature at Harvey Mudd College
Alison Locke Perchuk, Associate Professor of Art History at California State University, Channel Islands
Ayana Smith, Associate Professor of Musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Paul B. Sturtevant, Editor-in-Chief of The Public Medievalist
This event is part of the "Our Stories Matter" series at CSU Channel Islands.
Landscapes of St Gregory: Topography of the Sacred in Medieval Europe is the first presentation of a new interdisciplinary project bringing together art and architectural history, archaeology, anthropology, history, theology, and environmental and memory studies in an exploration of the creation, social and communal functions, dissemination, and preservation of predominantly monastic landscapes that are linked, directly or mimetically, to Gregory’s Dialogues–a project given further urgency by the recent seismic events that have remind us of the vulnerability and mutability of these sacred landscapes.
arising naturally around some shared bond: family, religion, politics,
favorite activities or sports teams. But for a community to really cohere, it needs to have a concept of its own individual identity. In this talk, I explore how one twelfth-century Italian monastery used the visual arts,
architecture, and landscape to create a sense of its unique identity—and
how we can apply these lessons to understanding our own world today.
Organized by Giulia Puma, Université Côte d’Azur & Maria Alessia Rossi, Index of Medieval Art
4 July 2022
--
As part of an ongoing study of artistic creativity, narrative processes, and spazio figurato in Romanesque painting – and with the assistance of Madelyn Blaha, an art history major in the class of 2023 at California State University Channel Islands this talk reflects on the nature and function of pictorial architecture in medieval wall paintings, focusing specifically on Rome and Lazio during from the long twelfth century. It identifies six categories of pictorial architecture in these paintings: framing devices, heavenly architecture, natural “architecture,” architecture as background, pictorial microarchitecture, and architectural portraits. It then considers some of the ways in which these categories interpenetrate, using as its examples paintings from the lower church of San Clemente in Rome and the lower church (crypt) of the Cathedral at Anagni.
Part of a broader research project on medievalizing architecture in interwar California, this paper represents the first scholarly investigation of the process and ramifications of the decision to model St. John’s on San Pietro. This Italian heritage joins St. John’s to such other LA buildings as UCLA’s Royce Hall, the church of Santa Monica, and Forest Lawn’s Great Mausoleum that leveraged medieval Italy to fashion Los Angeles as a cosmopolitan city with roots more in Europe than the New World. This talk will look specifically at the role of art history and the Grand Tour in this process, from the contemporary studies of Arthur Kingsley Porter (like LA, made possible by the camera and the automobile) to the Davis brothers’ Italian travels to the importation of furnishings, and even craftsmen, from Italy.
project that seeks to redress that omission by examining the handful of known medieval churches dedicated to Elijah in the Latin West, all located on the Italian peninsula. Taking as its point of departure the twelfth-century Monastery of Elijah near Nepi (VT), and drawing on evidence from art history, liturgy, theology, and landscape studies, this paper presents Elijah as an effective monastic exemplar within the Latin church, whose life of isolation, abstinence, and prayer served as a behavioral model while his heavenly ascent and encounters with God validated their desire to reach God. The position of these foundations in central Italy and on Sardegna suggests a basis in a shared Mediterranean culture, though with varied ramifications— including different feast days—East and West.
Chiara Paniccia, Università degli Studi “G. D’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara. "Narrative Creativity and Acts of Imitation on the Vercelli Rotolus": Evan A. Gatti, Elon University.
Discussant: Alison Locke Perchuk, CSU Channel Islands
In the past decade the medieval humanities have opened up new perspectives on the past by focusing on questions of materiality, agency, temporality, spatiality, cross-cultural interaction, and ecocriticism. These new approaches, many of which are informed by interdisciplinary research and contemporary cultural interests in the natural and built world, are fundamentally reshaping how we conceive of and study medieval architecture and urbanism. This panel will examine how new methodologies and theoretically informed approaches are changing our understanding of the architecture and urban forms of Rome from the end of the Gothic War (ca. 554) to the re-establishment of the papacy under Pope Martin V (ca. 1420). The city of Rome has long occupied a particular place in scholarly narratives as the seat of the papacy, as a destination for pilgrims, and as a mythical symbol of past grandeur and decline. Historians of Rome’s medieval architecture and urban fabric have traditionally focused on such issues as the distinctively retrospective character of the city's basilicas, the relationship between architecture and liturgy, the reuse of ancient materials, the topographical distinctions between the city’s inhabited and uninhabited regions, or the polemical character of Rome’s baronial tower houses. This session inquires into the current status of medieval Rome, both within the field of architectural history and in relation to the broader discourses of the medieval humanities.
Schedule
Marius Hauknes & Alison Perchuk, “Introduction” (8:30 AM)
Nicola Camerlenghi, Dartmouth College (U.S.A.), “Mapping Medieval Rome” (8:35 AM).
Christina Videbech, University of Bergen (Norway), “Fora as Sites of Collective Memory in Gothic and Post-Gothic Rome” (8:55 AM).
Joan Barclay Lloyd, La Trobe University (Australia), “The Dominican Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome” (9:15 AM)
Katherine Rinne, Independent Scholar (U.S.A.), “The Power of Thirst: Water and Power in Late-Medieval Rome” (9:35 AM)
Melissa Fitzmaurice, Binghamton University (U.S.A.), “Fascist Medievalism: Architecture, Authority and Dissent in Rome” (9:55 AM)
See the attached PDF for additional information.
This roundtable seeks to help us navigate these challenges by bringing together faculty from a range of disciplines and institutions to discuss their experiences in the GE classroom and some of the ways in which they have invigorated their teaching of the Middle Ages to bring benefit to GE and major students alike. We hope to engage participants from a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including writing and foreign language programs, and from two-year and four-year institutions, all of whom are interested in sharing experiences, approaches, and strategies with their medievalist colleagues.
Organizers: Amy Caldwell, Lecturer in History, and Alison Locke Perchuk, Assistant Professor of Art History, California State University Channel Islands.
Participants: P. Scott Brown, Art, University of North Florida; Andrea Harbin, English, SUNY Cortland; A. Keith Kelly, English, Georgia Gwinnett College; Kristine Larson, Astronomy, Central Connecticut State University; Marilyn Lawrence, French, New York University; Heidi Marx-Wolff, Religion, University of Manitoba; Susan Taylor, History, Independent Scholar
Session #1: Italian Art for a Persecuting Society
Organized by Theresa Flanigan (Texas Tech University)
Session #2: Spatial Confinement and Virtual Peregrinations of Women in Late Medieval Italy
Organized by Shane Harless (Rice University)
IAS members interested in putting together a panel or linked panels should submit a brief abstract (250 words max.); session title; a list of speakers with their affiliations and paper titles; and the name of the chair (with email address(es), affiliation(s), and one-page CV(s) to the online submission form by the extended deadline 17 April 2022.
IN TRECENTO ART & ARCHITECTURE
Dublin conference of the Renaissance Society of America (March 30-April 2, 2022). These sessions are sponsored by the Italian Art Society and have guaranteed acceptance by RSA.
By now a large and ever-increasing body of scholarship in various fields addresses women and gender in numerous cultures and regions. However, a rich vein remains under-explored: art historical inquiry into the roles, experiences, and representation of women in the Trecento, when many aspects of women’s roles and circumstances were in flux. Interest among Trecento scholars in women and gender has recently widened considerably, with more scholars engaging and more approaches applied to the subject. Together with the highly successful papers presented at RSA in 2021, the papers in these sessions will be eligible for publication in an edited volume on the subject.
These two linked sessions seek to promote investigation of the roles and experiences of Trecento women as well as the ways society and/or the Church gendered them. Trecento attitudes toward women are usually assumed to have been exclusively negative, determined by men, and based on Church teachings– and they often were. However, some Trecento artists clearly paid close attention to women’s dress, behavior, and other details, including those of non-white women either in the bible or in the world around them, and rendered them with descriptive detail and sensitive nuance. Others rendered “the other” as stereotypes.
As these are art historical sessions, images should be considered primary documents; however, interdisciplinary approaches and research are also very much welcome. Topics addressing women of any class and status - as religious, as patrons, or as pious devotees will be fully considered; however, papers are especially welcome that consider the gendering of the emotions, lives, and representations of women, women of color, laywomen, and papers that move beyond traditional binaries for a complex understanding of the models for and lives of Trecento women. Since RSA will be meeting in Dublin, scholars from outside of the U.S are particularly warmly invited to submit a proposal.
Please send proposals to the organizer, Judith Steinhoff (jsteinho@Central.UH.EDU OR jsteinhoff@uh.edu), by the end of Saturday, July 31, 2021.
Each proposal must include:
• paper title (15-word maximum)
• paper abstract (150-word maximum)
o A good abstract will state the topic and argument and will inform specialists in the field of what is new about the research. Generalities known to everyone, or research that a scholar intends to do but has not yet begun, are not appropriate. Please keep in mind that, if selected, your abstract will be used, as is, for the online program and conference app.
• a brief resume (.pdf or .docx)
• PhD or other terminal degree completion year (past or expected)
• full name, current affiliation, and email address
• Because these sessions are sponsored by the IAS, each participant will be required to be a member of both the Italian Art Society AND the RSA at the time of the conference.
Renaissance Society of America (https://www.rsa.org)
30 March - 2 April 2022
Convention Center, Dublin, Ireland (https://www.theccd.ie)
The IAS will sponsor up to four sessions at the annual conference of the Renaissance Society of America (RSA) in Dublin, Ireland, 30 March - 2 April 2022. Sessions typically consist of three 20-minute papers. IAS members interested in putting together a panel or linked panels on any topic of Italian Art ca.1300-1650 should send a brief abstract (150 words max) with session title(s) of less than 15 words each, five keywords, name/s of organizer(s)/chair(s) with email addresses and affiliations, a short list of potential or desired speakers (they need not be confirmed), and a one-page CV. All participants must be members of both RSA and IAS.
The deadline for submission to the IAS is 15 July 2021.
Online submission: https://www.italianartsociety.org/conferences-lectures/rsa/
For any questions contact programs@italianartsociety.org.
57th International Congress on Medieval Studies 2022
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, 9-14 May 2022
https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress
The IAS sponsors up to three linked sessions at the annual meeting of the International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS). The Congress is an annual gathering of more than 3,000 scholars interested in Medieval Studies, broadly defined. It features more than 550 sessions of papers, panel discussions, roundtables, workshops, and performances.
The IAS is seeking session proposals that cover Italian art from the fourth through the fifteenth centuries. Members interested in putting together a panel or linked panels should send a brief abstract (250 words max), session title, a short list of potential or desired speakers (they need not be confirmed), the name of the chair(s) with email addresses and affiliation, and a one-page CV.
IAS online application:
https://www.italianartsociety.org/conferences-lectures/icms/
Questions to programs@italianartsociety.org.
More information about ICMS submissions:
https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions
Submit to IAS by: 27 May 2021
Submit to ICMS by: 1 June 2021
57th International Congress on Medieval Studies 2022
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, 9-14 May 2022
https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress
The IAS sponsors up to three linked sessions at the annual meeting of the International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS). The Congress is an annual gathering of more than 3,000 scholars interested in Medieval Studies, broadly defined. It features more than 550 sessions of papers, panel discussions, roundtables, workshops, and performances.
The IAS is seeking session proposals that cover Italian art from the fourth through the fifteenth centuries. Members interested in putting together a panel or linked panels should send a brief abstract (250 words max), session title, a short list of potential or desired speakers (they need not be confirmed), the name of the chair(s) with email addresses and affiliation, and a one-page CV.
IAS online application:
https://www.italianartsociety.org/conferences-lectures/icms/
Questions to programs@italianartsociety.org.
More information about ICMS submissions:
https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions
Submit to IAS by: 10 May 2021
Submit to ICMS by: 1 June 2021
IAS-Sponsored session https://www.italianartsociety.org
College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference https://www.collegeart.org/programs/conference/proposals
Chicago 16-19 February 2022
IAS Deadline: 19 April 2021
CAA Deadline: 30 April 2021
The Italian Art Society (IAS) is now accepting proposals for one sponsored session (90 minutes) at CAA to be held in Chicago 16-19 February 2022.
IAS members interested in putting together a panel on any topic of Italian art (broadly conceived) should send:
Session title
Brief abstract (250 words max.)
Five fields of study that best represent your proposal https://www.collegeart.org/pdf/standards-and-guidelines/2018-CAA-Fields-of-Study.pdf
Short list of potential or desired speakers (they need not be confirmed)
Name(s) of the chair(s) with email addresses and affiliations, and a one-page CV
Please submit all materials to the IAS Program Committee Chair (programs@italianartsociety.org) by 31 March 2021.
Online submission form – https://www.italianartsociety.org/conferences-lectures/caa/
IAS Submission Guidelines at http://italianartsociety.org/conferences-lectures/ias-conference-submission-guidelines/
IAS-Sponsored sessions (https://www.italianartsociety.org)
Sixteenth Century Society & Conference (https://sixteenthcentury.org)
San Diego, 28 October—31 October 2021
Hilton San Diego Bayfront
The IAS is seeking complete session proposals that address any issue relevant to Italian art and architecture during the long sixteenth century. The Sixteenth Century Society & Conference (SCSC) was founded to promote scholarship on the early modern era (c.1450-1600), and actively encourages the participation international scholars as well as the integration of younger colleagues into the academic community.
IAS members interested in putting together a panel linked panels should send a brief abstract (250 words max.); session title; a list of speakers with their affiliations and paper titles; and the name of the chair (with email address(es), affiliation(s), and one-page CV(s) to the IAS Program Committee Chair (programs@italianartsociety.org) by 12 April 2021.
In addition to the usual session with three to four papers, note these new formats:
· Round Tables sponsored by affiliated societies.
· Workshop A: Discussion of pre-circulated papers in a workshop format (limit of 5 participants).
· Workshop B: Analysis of thorny translation or paleography questions; pre-circulation is not required (limit of 4 participants).
· Workshop C: Examination of a big issue or question with brief comments from presenters and lively audience participation. These are similar to round tables but with more audience engagement (limit of 4 participants).
The SCSC welcomes graduate student speakers who are within one or two years of defending their dissertations. However, all sessions must include at least one speaker who has received the PhD or other terminal degree, and predoctoral speakers should present dissertation research, not term papers.
IAS Deadline: 5 April 2021
Completed panels are due to SCSC (19 April 2021)
Please also see the IAS Submission Guidelines at http://italianartsociety.org/conferences-lectures/ias-conference-submission-guidelines/
Online submission: https://www.italianartsociety.org/events/sixteenth-century-society-conference-scsc-2021/
Renaissance Society of America (https://www.rsa.org)
7-10 April 2021
Convention Center, Dublin, Ireland https://www.theccd.ie
The IAS will sponsor up to four sessions at the annual conference of the Renaissance Society of
America (RSA) in Dublin, Ireland, 7-10 April 2021. Sessions are typically comprised
of three 20-minute papers. IAS members interested in putting together a panel or linked panels on
any topic of Italian Art c.1300-1650 should send a brief abstract (150 words max) with session
title(s) of less than 15 words each, keywords, name of organizer(s)/chair(s) with email addresses
and affiliation, a short list of potential or desired speakers (they need not be confirmed), and a onepage
CV.
The deadline for submission to the IAS is 15 April 2020.
For any questions and to submit proposals contact programs@italianartsociety.org.
Sixteenth Century Society & Conference (https://sixteenthcentury.org)
Baltimore MD, 29 October-1 November 2020
Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel
IAS Deadline: 10 March 2020
The IAS is seeking complete session proposals that address any issue relevant to Italian art and architecture during the long sixteenth century. The Sixteenth Century Society & Conference (SCSC) was founded to promote scholarship on the early modern era (c.1450-1600), and actively encourages the participation of international scholars as well as the integration of younger colleagues into the academic community. IAS members interested in putting together a panel or linked panels should send a brief abstract (250 words max.); session title; a list of speakers with their affiliations and paper titles; and the name of the chair(s) with email address(es), affiliation(s), and one-page CV(s) to the IAS Program Committee Chair (programs@italianartsociety.org) by 10 March 2020.
Please note that the SCSC welcomes graduate student speakers who are within one or two years of defending their dissertations. However, all sessions must include at least one speaker who has received the PhD or other terminal degree, and predoctoral speakers should present dissertation research, not term papers.
Completed panels are due to SCSC (date to be announced)
https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gifPlease also see the IAS Submission Guidelines at http://italianartsociety.org/conferences-lectures/ias-conference-submission-guidelines/
Citation - from the MAA Website:
"The Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize recognizes a first article in the field of medieval studies of outstanding quality. It is awarded this year to Alison Locke Perchuk’s powerful and original article, “Schismatic (Re)Visions: Sant’Elia near Nepi and Sta. Maria in Trastevere in Rome, 1120-1143,” Gesta 5 (2016): 179-212. In this gracefully interdisciplinary article, Perchuk draws on diverse material and textual sources to recover a lost history: the political use of church architecture and icon replication by early twelfth-century popes Calixtus II and Anacletus II to assert their authority against competing claims by the emperor and rival popes—a history erased when competitors such as Innocent II gained recognition as legitimate. In doing so, Perchuk revisits the question of how ecclesiastical architecture around Rome served to encode political messages as the reforming popes attempted to impose their vision of authority on Rome’s landscape. In particular, Perchuk makes innovative and provocative use of ideas of center and periphery and of reception theory to show how politicized monuments can lose their original meaning and how other monuments can become repoliticized. She cogently reinterprets the architectural history of a church outside Rome long seen as an example of provincial Romanesque, Sant’Elia, to reveal it instead as a significant monument to papal Romanitas and as a crucial boundary marker for papal authority. As she shows, one marker of Sant’Elia’s original status as a monument to papal power was its incorporation of the image of the Madonna della Clemenza, a politicized icon that also played a role in the Roman church of Sta. Maria de Trastevere. The twelfth-century renovations of this church have long been attributed to Innocent II, but Perchuk’s sensitive reading of the building reveals instead an alternative history of papal legitimacy promoted by Anacletus II and later erased and reconfigured by Innocent II. Perchuk’s impeccably researched and beautifully written article thus reveals a palimpsest that contradicts the official version of papal history. With its important and provocative reinterpretations of papal and architectural history, its broad-ranging conclusions, its sophisticated use of theory, and its detailed and comprehensive scholarship, “Schismatic (Re)Visions” is an exemplary first article."
Robert J. Meyer-Lee
Daniel Hobbins
Amy G. Remensnyder (Chair)