Elizabeth S. Bolman
Elizabeth S. Bolman is Chair of the Department of Art History and Art, and Elsie B. Smith Chair in the Liberal Arts. She engages with the visual culture of the eastern Mediterranean in the late ancient and Byzantine periods. Professor Bolman is best known for her work in Egypt, in which she has demonstrated the vitality of Christian Egyptian art and a new understanding of the nature of artistic production there in the early Byzantine period. She edited and was the principal contributor to the award-winning Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea (Yale University Press and the American Research Center in Egypt, 2002) and to The Red Monastery Church: Beauty and Asceticism in Upper Egypt (Yale University Press and the American Research Center in Egypt, 2016). This recent book is the product of over a decade-long multidisciplinary project that she founded and directed, which included cleaning and conservation of the Red Monastery’s spectacular paintings. She is the recipient of fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, Fulbright program, National Endowment for the Humanities, Dumbarton Oaks, American Research Center in Egypt, and United States Agency for International Development.
Recent Department News
Medieval Academy Round-Up, Part I
Several grad students joined Prof. Gertsman at the Medieval Academy of America’s centennial meeting at Harvard University. Cecily Hughes delivered an award-winning paper in the session on Scandinavian art (more on that separately!). Claudia Haines reports that she had the opportunity to hear several fascinating papers (on topics ranging from the integration of music into the social fabric of thirteenth-century Lille, to the diaphanous pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels, to the construction of identity in Scandinavian literature, to narratives of enslavement in Iberia, and beyond), visit many of Boston’s fabulous libraries and museums, reconnect with familiar colleagues and meet new ones—all in all, it was a hugely enriching experience! Rebekkah Hart, in her capacity as a member of the MAA Graduate Student Committee, co-organized and co-chaired a panel on working across institutional and disciplinary boundaries. Sarah Frisbie had a wonderful time attending sessions on materiality, optics, and medieval epistemologies, cheering on Prof. Gertsman, Cecily, and Rebekkah, spending her lunch breaks in the Harvard Art Museums, and eating more than one cannoli. Anna Farber, for whom the MAA was her first conference, says that all the sessions, panels, and gallery visits she attended significantly improved her understanding of the diverse methodologies and subjects with which other medievalists are engaging in the field. Tess Artis, who presented her paper, “Prudent Giving: A Gold Girdle Book and the Rise of the Crokes Under Henry VIII,” at the RSA – held at the same time in the same city – nevertheless made her way to Cambridge to partake in several sessions. And Prof. Gertsman organized and chaired a session on “Form, Thought, and the Pleasure of Looking,” which featured Herbert Kessler, (Johns Hopkins), Megan McNamee (Edinburgh), Jeffrey Hamburger (Harvard), and Vincent Debiais (EHESS).
Tracing Jewish Histories Program is up!
We are tremendously proud to announce the Tracing Jewish Histories symposium, co-organized by Reed O’Mara, with sessions introduced and chaired by several of our graduate students! See the full program here.
Works of art and architecture made by or for Jewish communities in the medieval period are often examined through the lenses of persecution and expulsion, or are contrasted against Christian or Muslim “styles.” This symposium seeks to expand and nuance these narratives in order to highlight how works of art and architecture can uniquely trace the history of particular Jewish communities by mapping their movements and traditions across generations and geographies. Medieval Jewish objects and spaces can also serve as loci to examine ideas related to collective memory and cultural identity. To that end, the symposium seeks to open new dialogues regarding the “afterlives” of medieval Jewish art more broadly, initiating discussions regarding the ways in which works of art and architecture continued to bear witness to the richness of Jewish life and culture long after they were created.
Organised by Laura Feigen and Reed O’Mara, this symposium is supported by Sam Fogg and the Mellon Foundation with additional support from The Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University.
Congratulations to Prof. Benay, Dr. Britany Salsbury, and the graduate students who helped to curate the historic exhibition Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community, which opened this weekend at the CMA. This is the first exhibition to feature the work of this important group of Black artists since the...
From Prints to Power 2025
SAVE THE DATE! Dr. Benay will examine relief prints created in the 1940s by Black artists whose contributions have been largely overlooked. By repositioning their work, Benay will illustrate how these artists helped foster an enduring Black art and collecting scene in Cleveland.
Professor Popkin Organizes Symposium in Greece
Professor Maggie Popkin and doctoral student Clara Pinchbeck (pictured here with Professor Tina Howe of the CWRU Religious Studies Department and Dr. Bonna Wescoat, Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens), recently presented paper at the symposium, "Three-Dimensional Experiences of Ancient Environments in Athens." The symposium...
Rebekkah Hart receives the Getty Internship
Congratulations to Rebekkah Hart, third-year PhD student in medieval art, who has been selected as the 2025-2026 Getty Graduate Intern in the Sculpture & Decorative Arts curatorial department! She will be working with an astounding collection devoted to European sculpture and decorative arts dating between around 1200 and 1900....
Cecily Hughes receives the Haugen Memorial Scholarship
Congratulations to Cecily Hughes, third-year PhD student in medieval art, on receiving the Einar and Eva Lund Haugen Memorial Scholarship! Administered by The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS). The Haugen scholarship provides generous support for doctoral research in and about the Nordic regions. Cecily will use the award funding to travel to Norway and Sweden this summer and do research for her dissertation.
GAMS Book Club this Thursday!
Come on, come all! Grad medievalists look forward to seeing you at the book club on Thursday!