Index of Medieval Art: Database Training Session (Nov. 14)

The Index of Medieval Art will be holding a new online training session for anyone interested in learning more about the database! It will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 from 10:00 – 11:00 am EST.

This session, led by Index specialists Maria Alessia Rossi and Jessica Savage, will demonstrate how the database can be used with advanced search options, filters, and browse tools to locate works of medieval art. There will be a Q&A period at the end of the session, so please bring any questions you might have about your research!

Further information and registration can be found here: https://ima.princeton.edu/index_training/

2024 CAARI FELLOWSHIPS

THE CYPRUS AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (CAARI) in Nicosia, Cyprus, welcomes scholars and students specializing in archaeology, history, and culture of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean. CAARI is located in central Nicosia close to the Cyprus Museum and the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus (both with major libraries), as well as the main business and commercial district. In addition to hostel accommodation for a total of twelve residents, the institute has excellent research facilities: a 10,000-volume library, comprehensive map and artifact collections, archival material, and facilities for Internet, scanning, photography, and polarising and optical microscopes.

Recipients of fellowships are required to spend time as residents of CAARI and to submit a written report for the CAARI newsletter.

CAARI offers fellowships specifically for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and scholars at all levels. All application forms can now be found within the CAORC website grant application portal.

For more information, see the Fellowships section of the website: http://caari.org/fellowships/

 

Position Announcement in Armenian Art and Architecture

Position Announcement: Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art and Architectural History, Tenured Full Professor.

Tufts University: School of Arts & Sciences: History of Art and Architecture.

Description
The Department of History of Art and Architecture at Tufts University seeks an outstanding scholar at the rank of tenured full professor to teach and advise undergraduates and graduate students in the MA in Art History and MA in Art History and Museums Studies programs. The department offers majors in Art History and in Architectural Studies, as well as several minors, including Museums, Memory, and Heritage.

Research focus should be on Armenian art, architecture, and visual culture of any time period, with additional interest and expertise in cultural connections, diasporic relations between Armenia and the wider world, as well as issues of cultural heritage preservation, among others. The successful applicant will be expected to teach art history undergraduate and graduate courses on Armenian art, architecture, and visual culture, on specific topics related to their own research, and broader thematic and/or theoretical threads that place Armenian Studies in larger art historical narratives.

Qualifications
The successful candidate will hold a Ph.D. and be internationally recognized, demonstrate outstanding scholarly accomplishments and promise of research, and exhibit a record of excellence in teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The position seeks a tenured full professor, but applicants at the advanced tenured associate professor level will be considered.

Application Instructions
All application materials are submitted via http://apply.interfolio.com/134542

Please provide a cover letter, a CV, a research statement, a teaching statement that includes evidence of the candidate’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, teaching evaluations from the most recent two years of teaching to be uploaded in a single PDF, and a recently published journal article or book chapter of at least 8,000 words. Finalists will be asked to provide the names and contact information for three references.

For any questions regarding this position, please email amy.west@tufts.edu. Review of applications will begin on December 15, 2023, and will continue until the position is filled. All offers of employment are contingent upon the completion of a background check.

 

Connecting Histories: The Princeton and Mount Athos Legacy

From the Index of Medieval Art:

We are excited to announce a new multi-year project, Connecting Histories: The Princeton and Mount Athos Legacy, that aims to create an international team of faculty, staff, and students that will explore and bring awareness to the rich, complex, and remarkable historical and cultural heritage of Mount Athos, and its connection to Princeton. The collaborative team will engage in research, teaching, digitization projects, and descriptive cataloging over three years (2023–2026), exploring holdings throughout the Princeton campus, including Visual Resources and the Index of Medieval Art in the Art & Archaeology Department; the Mendel Music Library; and the Graphics Art Collection and Manuscript Division at Princeton University Library.

We have two short-term research opportunities opening up and details can be found in the ‘Announcements’ page of the website: https://athoslegacy.project.princeton.edu/

One of the two research positions is a part time graduate opportunity at the Index of Medieval Art. This is a two to three-month remote, part-time research opportunity to help incorporate key works of art on Mount Athos into the Index database. The position would require the student to examine the Index legacy records, update the metadata, identify new color images, and incorporate them on the online database. They will be trained in Index norms in cataloging works of art, describing the iconography, transcribing inscriptions, and adding bibliographic citations. This opportunity offers a stipend of $2,500 and has been generously funded by the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, with the support of the Dimitrios and Kalliopi Monoyios Modern Greek Studies Fund and Art & Archaeology Department at Princeton University.

For more details about eligibility criteria and the application process, please check the ‘Announcements’ page: https://athoslegacy.project.princeton.edu/announcements/

Lecture: The Ethical Museum: Reflections on Cultural Mission and Civic Responsibility in a Changing Landscape

In “The Ethical Museum: Reflections on Cultural Mission and Civic Responsibility in a Changing Landscape,” Daniel H. Weiss explores the evolving civic role of the art museum while facing longstanding challenges and an increasingly polarized environment.

Where Oak Room, Dumbarton Oaks and via Zoom

When November 9, 2023 06:00 PM to 07:00 PM

For more information, and to register, see the Dumbarton Oaks website: https://www.doaks.org/events/byzantine-studies/public-lectures/the-ethical-museum-reflections-on-cultural-mission-and-civic-responsibility-in-a-changing-landscape

The American art museum has experienced sustained levels of growth and increasing popularity across generations, yet it is today at a crossroads, facing unprecedented challenges to its historic mission, cultural identity, and sense of purpose. Notwithstanding recent progress in expanding collections, generating new programs, and serving increasingly diverse audiences, new approaches are required to face longstanding challenges and sustain recent progress in an increasingly polarized environment.

This lecture will explore the context for the current environment and the evolving civic role of the art museum, considering the need to balance historic mission with the expectation for greater transparency and new thinking on such issues as cultural property rights, sustainable funding and problematic donors, diversifying collections and programs, responding to activism and protests, uses of AI and digital platforms, and especially the need for higher levels of public trust. To achieve these objectives the museum must continue to evolve while placing greater emphasis on the ethical components of its civic mission.

Daniel Weiss is Homewood Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University and President Emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he served from 2015-2023. Previously Weiss was the 14th President of Haverford College, the 16th President of Lafayette College, and the James B. Knapp Dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts & Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, where he also served as professor and chair of the History of Art Department.

Weiss has written or edited seven books and numerous articles on the art of the Middle Ages, higher education, the Vietnam War, museums, and other topics. His most recent books include Why the Museum Matters (2022) and In That Time: Michael O’Donnell and the Tragic Era of Vietnam (2019). His work has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies at Harvard University, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations, Weiss is Vice Chair of the Board of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Vice Chair of the Library of America, a member of University Council at Yale, and a trustee of the Wallace Foundation and the Posse Foundation.

Daniel Weiss holds a PhD in the History of Art from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

 

Lecture: Measuring Weather: The Windvane and the Nilometer in Byzantine Art and Texts

The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture is pleased to announce the next lecture in our 2023–2024 lecture series.

Monday, November 6, 2023 | 12:00 PM EST | Zoom
Measuring Weather: The Windvane and the Nilometer in Byzantine Art and Texts
Paroma Chatterjee, University of Michigan
This lecture draws attention to the monumental scientific devices that appear in the Byzantine literary and pictorial tradition. Specifically, it focuses on the windvane (anemodoulion) that stood for centuries in Constantinople before its destruction during the Fourth Crusade (1204 CE), and the Nilometer used for measuring the rising levels of the Nile, and which is depicted in textiles, mosaics, and other media. In considering these objects, the lecture makes the case that bucolic imagery (which we find associated with the windvane and the Nilometer in its visual representations) was deemed most suitable for devices linked to measuring and signaling weather patterns. Finally, the lecture proposes that the bucolic mode was linked to these objects as its conventions articulated the contingency of the relations between humans, non-humans, and nature.

Paroma Chatterjee is Professor of Byzantine and medieval Mediterranean art history at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Advance registration required at https://maryjahariscenter.org/events/lecture-by-measuring-weather

Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.

BSC: register, join BSANA, and the ArriveCan app

Please see below for announcements regarding the upcoming Byzantine Studies Conference:
Sent on behalf of the Nominating Committee:
For members attending the Byzantine Studies Conference, please send nominations and self-nominations for the Governing Board to BSANA President Lynn Jones as soon as possible (email: bsana.president@gmail.com).
Sent on behalf of Brad Hostetler, Program Committee Chair:
Get ready for the Byzantine Studies Conference in Vancouver, October 26–29!
Remember to register for the conference: https://www.sfu.ca/hellenic-studies/bsc2023.html
All speakers must be a member of BSANA in good standing. Join or renew your membership today: https://bsana.net/members/
It might be helpful for folks arriving from the US who are not Canadians or Landed Immigrants to know that they can speed up their time getting through Canadian customs and immigration with the ArriveCan app.
See you in Vancouver!

Reminder: DOP Virtual Open House

The editors of Dumbarton Oaks Papers wish to remind you about our Virtual Open House on Wednesday, October 18, from 12:00–1:00pm EDT.

Join Colin Whiting and Nikos Kontogiannis for a conversation about Dumbarton Oaks Papers. We will cover the scope and current direction of DOP, the submission and review process, and tips for submitters. Following our discussion, there will be an open Q&A in which audience members are welcome to ask the editors any questions about the journal.

The event will take place on Zoom; registration is required at the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dumbarton-oaks-papers-virtual-open-house-tickets-722788599157?aff=oddtdtcreator

Dumbarton Oaks Fellowships (Deadline Nov. 1)

Dumbarton Oaks Fellowship Programs welcome applications for 2024-2025. Since 1940, the institution has supported scholarship in the Humanities through its fellowships and grants.

Applications and instructions are available online. The deadline to apply for these opportunities is Wednesday, November 1 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.


Research Fellowships

Fellowships are awarded to scholars who hold a PhD or appropriate final degree at the time of application, or who have established themselves in their field, and wish to pursue their own research.

Junior Fellowships are awarded to degree candidates who at the time of application have fulfilled all preliminary requirements for a PhD or appropriate final degree, and plan to work on a dissertation or final project while at Dumbarton Oaks, under the direction of a faculty member from their own university.

Fellowships and Junior Fellowships are normally awarded for the academic year, and recipients are expected to be in residence at Dumbarton Oaks to devote full time to their study projects without undertaking any other major activities.


William R. Tyler Fellowships are for Harvard graduate students in art history, archaeology, history, and literature of the Pre-Columbian/early Colonial or Mediterranean/Byzantine worlds; or in Garden and Landscape history.


Intended to expand significantly the opportunities offered by Dumbarton Oaks to study the history and future of landscapes through the lenses of democracy, race, identity, and difference, Mellon Fellowships in Democracy and Landscape Studies are available, with preference given to candidates with terminal degrees, such as a PhD or MLA.


The Flora Clancy Summer Fellowship in Maya Studies for Latin American Researchers is available to scholars in the field of Maya studies on any level of advancement beyond the first year of graduate study (post-Licenciatura) who are academically based in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, or El Salvador.


The I Tatti–Dumbarton Oaks Joint Fellowship for Eastern Mediterranean Studies is available to early- and mid-career scholars whose work explores cross-cultural contacts in and beyond the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean.

Grants

Project Grants support scholarly projects by applicants holding a PhD or the equivalent. Support is generally for archaeological investigation as well as for the recovery, recording, and analysis of materials that would otherwise be lost.

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