Please save the date for the 51st Annual Cleveland Symposium, to be held on Friday, November 14, 2025 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This year’s theme is “Love and Desire.” Stay tuned for the call for papers!
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Join us for the Provost’s Forum for Breaking Boundaries, where Professor Elina Gertsman and Maggie Popkin will present their ground-breaking research into mixed-reality modeling and their collaborative work with institutions across campus! More information on the event here.
Please join the department in congratulating MA candidate Madalyn Fox on her recent publication in CAN Journal! The article discusses the riveting work of sculptor Hannah Bates, whose work is now on view at the Sculpture Center. https://canjournal.org/reviving-the-rust-belt-hannah-batess-aggregate-at-the-sculpture-center/
We are utterly delighted to announce that our very own alumna Dr. Nikki DeLuca just published her first book, Shades of Meaning: Shadows in Medieval Manuscript Illumination. Through the lens of fifteenth-century manuscript painting, the book investigates visual, metaphorical, and supernatural shadows in art to discover what they meant to the medieval viewer. Click here to go to the table of contents, acknowledgments, and other preliminary matter — and look out for copies at the KSL and the Ingalls!
Congratulations to Vivian Lewis, our very own graduate and now an MA student in library science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who presented a version of her BA capstone, “Stronger Than Lions: Meaning-Making in a Medieval Jewish Aquamanile,” at the 24th Annual Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies, co-hosted this year by UNC and Duke! This was a full-circle event for Vivian, who chaired a session as an undergraduate when CWRU hosted Vagantes just a few years ago. Vivian’s paper examined the Walters aquamanile, a rare 13th-century bronze lion-shaped vessel inscribed with a Hebrew prayer, to uncover a nuanced narrative of Jewish identity, resilience, and cultural adaptation in medieval Europe. One of the conference attendees, a fellow of the Medieval Academy, wrote to Prof. Gertsman about Vivian’s wonderful “presentation and contextualization of this amazing piece,” and added that “the depth of knowledge apparent in her answers to questions was truly impressive.” Well done, Vivian!
Don't miss the Edge of Tomorrow screening with introduction and discussion by Prof. Steve Ciampaglia on April 10 at 7 pm at the CIA Cinematheque! Buy tickets here.
Please join us for the annual Julius Fund Lecture in Byzantine Art presented this year by Pau Stephenson of Towson University! Entitled “Devastating Beauty: Some Reflections on Two Roman Things in the Cleveland Museum of Art,” the talk will take place at the Eldred Auditorium on CWRU's campus on...
Congratulations to Prof. Erin Benay and Prof. Elina Gertsman who were both nominated for the 2024-2025 Jackson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring! The Jackson Award celebrates faculty and staff who have guided a student in their academic and career paths; fostered the student's long-term personal development; challenged the...
Congratulations to Prof. Elina Gertsman and Prof. Maggie Popkin who were both nominated for the 2024-2025 John S. Diekhoff Award for Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring/Teaching! The award, created in 1978, recognizes exceptional contributions to graduate student education at CWRU through exemplary advising, teaching, and mentoring. Up to four winners...
Cecily Hughes, third-year PhD student in medieval art, was awarded the coveted Graduate Student Paper Prize by the Medieval Academy of America! Cecily presented her award-winning paper, “A Place to Shine: Darkness and Light in a Medieval Swedish Sacrament Niche,” in the New Perspectives on Medieval Scandinavia session held on the second day of the Academy’s annual meeting at Harvard University. Congratulations, Cecily!