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Congratulations to Anna Farber, a first-year MA student in medieval art, who presented her paper “Issues of Blood: Profuse Menstruation in Medieval Art” at the SECAC’s annual conference, held this year in Cincinnati. The session, “Tidal Flux: The Representation of Menstrual Periods in Art,” featured both art historians and practicing artists who examined menstruation’s often-unexplored impact on the visual record. While at the conference, Anna had the opportunity to visit several Cincinnati arts institutions, including the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and meet colleagues from all over the world to discuss common issues facing our field. We look forward to Anna’s paper at the Cleveland Symposium this Friday!

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Claudia Haines presents at the Warburg

Congratulations to Claudia Haines, third-year PhD student in medieval art, who recently traveled to London to present her paper “Suffering and Salvation: The ‘Wound Man’ Iconography in Late Medieval Medical Manuscripts” at the international symposium “‘As stiffe twin compasses’: Allegory and Sciences, 1300–1700,” held at the Warburg Institute on October 24–25. The two-day event brought together scholars from across Europe and North America to explore how allegorical modes shaped—and were shaped by—the emerging disciplines of natural philosophy, astronomy, medicine, and early modern science. During her trip, Claudia had a chance to see several exhibitions of medieval medical manuscripts, the potential focus of her dissertation.

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Scandinavian Pilgrimages

Congratulations to Cecily Hughes, fourth-year PhD candidate in medieval art, who traversed Scandinavia over the past few months to present at two international conferences and conduct dissertation research. In Reykjavik, Iceland, Cecily attended the 31st Congress of Nordic Historians where she delivered her paper “A Place to Shine: Darkness and Light in a Medieval Swedish Sacrament Niche.” Crossing the Baltic Sea to Helsinki, Finland, Cecily discussed “The Measure of a Saint: Size, Movement, and Meaning in St. Olaf Pilgrim Badges,” at the 14th triennial NORDIK Conference of Art History in the Nordic Countries. On the Swedish island of Gotland, Cecily visited twenty-two medieval churches, documenting their vivid wall paintings, art objects, and architecture.

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Rethinking the Middle Ages: CWRU art historian reframes abstraction

The groundbreaking work of Prof. Elina Gertsman, Distinguished University Professor and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, and her colleague and co-author, Vincent Debiais, Research Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, was featured in The Daily. Read here about their collaboration and about the integral role their graduate students played in this international multidisciplinary project!

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Medieval PiIgrimage for Gamers

Reed O’Mara, PhD candidate in medieval art and Mellon Foundation Fellow, recently completed a year-long curatorial internship at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA. While there, Reed helped to produce and write an in-gallery video game, The Pilgrimage Road. The game takes players through the Camino de Santiago, a popular medieval pilgrimage to see the relics of St. James, and was part of the exhibition Going Places: Travel in the Middle Ages. You can read more about the game and Reed’s work here.

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On behalf of the Graduate Association of Medieval Studies (GAMS), welcome to the Fall 2025 semester! We have many exciting academic and social events coming up.
September 10th, 7:00 PM — Cleveland Archaeological Society Lecture. Nasser Malit, “Echoes of the Ancestors: Uncovering Medieval Burials in Kenya’s Central Highlands,” CMA Lecture Hall.
September 14th, 11:00-4:00 PM — Medieval Market and Brunch. Public event at Mahall’s 20 Lanes (13200 Madison Ave, Lakewood) with free admission. More information at this link.
September 19th, 6:00 PM — GAMS Movie Night. We will meet at Mather 100 on campus. Please RSVP to this event using this form.
September 23rd, 3:30 PM — Mellon Visiting Fellow Lecture. Elisabeth O’Connell, “Material Matters: The Hay Archive of Magical Spells on Leather,” CMA Lecture Hall.
September 28th, 2:00-3:00 PM — Dr. John and Helen Collis Lecture. Alicia Walker, “Virtue and Adornment in Byzantium: Beautiful Bodies in the Christian East,” CMA Gartner Auditorium.
October 1st, 6:00 PM — GAMS Book Club with Prof. Gertsman. We will be discussing A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters.
Stay tuned for our October and November events including medieval art lectures by Melanie Holcomb and Margaret Graves!

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Congratulations to PhD student Luke Hester and TWDC’s Programming and Marketing Manager Rebekah Utian (CWRU Art History MA ‘24) who co-organized a Pop-Up Museum, “Storied Threads: Natural Fibers from Past to Present,” hosted by the Tremont West Development Corporation as part of its Arts in August series. The Pop-Up...

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Department’s faculty and graduate students take pride of place in art/sci magazine

Just two more weeks to see Prof. Elina Gertsman’s and Dr. Gerhard Lutz’s Creation, Birth, and Rebirth show, which was a central feature in this issue of art/sci magazine, and was reviewed in the print version of Plain Dealer and on cleveland.com. The feature highlights the collaboration between the program and the museum, as well as the role of graduate students in the making of the show and writing its didactics. The magazine, in its new online format, further links to the December interview with Prof. Maggie Popkin about the NEH Public Scholars award given in support of her new book on souvenirs, and announces international symposia convened by Prof. Elizabeth Bolman and Reed O’Mara.

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