On July 4, 2023, Prof. Elina Gertsman delivered the annual Medieval Academy of America lecture at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, UK. Titled “Somatic Entanglements,” the plenary explored the ways that zoocephalic images in Hebrew manuscripts stage a wide variety of complex visual arguments about likeness and difference, and about humanity and animality. This lecture serves as the Academy’s showcase for the important work being done by scholars in North America. One part of Prof. Gertsman’s lecture formed the basis for her forthcoming article in Art History, the flagship journal of the Association for Art History.
Congratulations to Dr. Elina Gertsman, professor of medieval art and Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan Professor in Catholic Studies II, on winning the 2023 Otto Gründler prize for The Absent Image: Lacunae in Medieval Books. Given annually, the Otto Gründler Book Prize recognizes a monograph on a medieval subject that the selection committee determines has made an outstanding contribution to the field. Authors from any country are eligible, and nominations are accepted from readers and publishers. This is not the first honor for The Absent Image, which received the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award from College Art Association in 2022.
On Friday, September 30, Reed O’Mara presented a paper on the Golden Haggadah at the VI Forum Kunst des Mittelalters in Frankfurt, in the session organized by Professor Gertsman and sponsored by the International Center of Medieval Art. Speakers came from Austria, Israel, and the US to discuss the intertwinement of olfaction and memory in medieval material culture. The joint program was also represented by Dr. Lutz who organized a session on the Cleveland’s Table Fountain.
In May and June of 2022, Elina Gertsman was the invited professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris, where she offered several lectures, participated in the seminars of the international project « Arts et Intelligences du Silence », and led discussions with doctoral students in the Groupe d’anthropologie historique du long Moyen Âge. She used this occasion to do extensive research at the Bibliothèque nationale de France; travel to Bourges, Tours, and Amiens; and hold meetings with curators and conservators at several key museums, including the Louvre.
The EHESS (School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) is a graduate-only research institution that has a unique standing in the world of research and higher education in France. It hosts scholars from all over the world, trains students up to PhD level in all disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, and — as part of an extensive global academic network — occupies a central position in French intellectual life. Prof. Gertsman will return to the EHESS as an invited professor for two more years.
Please join us at the College Art Association’s Convocation on February 16 to celebrate Professor Elina Gertsman’s 2022 Charles Rufus Morey Award! CAA will convene the 110th Annual Conference in virtual format. Convocation will be held on Wednesday, February 16, from 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. EST and will feature the official presentation of the Awards for Distinction. With these awards, CAA honors individual artists, art historians, authors, curators, and critics whose accomplishments transcend their individual disciplines and contribute to the profession as a whole and to the world at large.
The event is open to the public; please RSVP to development@collegeart.org.
