The questions that pique my curiosity and the subjects that drive my research arise from intersections of medieval studies and art history, especially where arts, sciences, and cultures converge. How did medieval artists, architects, and craftspeople directly and indirectly respond to their environments? How did the diverse cultural traditions comprising the Middle Ages contribute to their understanding of “nature” and “wilderness”? What lines of ecocritical inquiry can best be applied to visual arts? And how might visual arts better contribute to the study of environmental history? After focusing on questions involving time, the calendar, and the heavens in a twelfth-century manuscript--made by and for women (!)--in my first book, Painting the Hortus Deliciarum: Medieval Women, Wisdom, and Time (Penn State, 2016), I have published on topics ranging from cloister gardens to sixth-century bird-of-prey brooches to representations of Terra (Earth) across the Middle Ages. These topics and many others inform my Medieval classes. Additionally, I teach courses on the art and architecture of the Ancient and Renaissance eras as well as the arts of Islamic cultures.
