Medieval Art Historians?

[bakhtingothic]

Anybody apply for / thinking of doing a PhD in Medieval? Have any advice about good programs? The pickings seem pretty slim as far as late medieval art goes, besides architecture, that is. 

[storiadell'arte]

Hi! I applied as a medievalist, looking at intercultural exchange between the Mediterranean and the Islamic world. There are a few pretty good programs, in my opinion. Did you apply this cycle already?

[bakhtingothic]

Yes, well I did notice a lot more programs for intercultural exchange, particularly early Middle Ages/Byzantine. I applied to several programs this cycle, but few of the big art history departments seem to have late medieval art historians interested in manuscript or decorative art culture (Columbia, Penn, CUNY, INFA, Berkeley, etc.).

[medievalmanu]

ICMA website and the Search Results Byzantine Studies Association of North America site has a pretty good list! Other schools like IU (where I'm currently studying), Case Western, Toronto, WUSTL, etc. have pretty good programs and professors.

 

[rosehip]

What about Harvard (Hamburger), UChicago (Kumler), WUSTL (Smith) and Yale (Jung)? 

[Caussin]

And the Courtauld (Nash/Bovey)? 

[unanachronism]

I'm a medievalist, currently finishing my MA and in the midst of waiting to hear back from PhDs. The schools rosehip mentioned are at the top of the list certainly, there's also Johns Hopkins (Christopher Lakey, Nino Zchomelidse), Columbia (Stephen Murray, Avinoam Shalem), and Berkeley (Beate Fricke). NYU has Robert Maxwell... Princeton has a younger western medievalist, Beatrice Kitzinger, and Charlie Barber in Byzantine. Those are just the places off the top of my head.

What precise kind of approach are you taking to the art? You might find someone who is a good fit "methodologically" if not the precise person for your exact period/place.

[TJGreenbergFried]

Beate Fricke has moved to Bern. Just so you all know.

[bakhtingothic]

I'm interested in Northern European manuscripts, mostly post-1300, as object studies. Harvard/Chicago/Courtauld are certainly up there, that I know, but I couldn't imagine having to pay for a PhD at the Courtauld and living in London at the same time. Have any Americans succeeded in getting funding? Plus you'd have to go in with a fully formed dissertation proposal. Harvard appears to have already sent out their acceptances...so there's that. Kitzinger seems to do really early stuff and she doesn't have tenure yet. Jung does mostly sculpture and Columbia seems to be an architecture place. And I can't imagine someone studying medieval Islamic art would be super interested in working with late medieval European manuscripts.

[rosehip]

I'd also throw in Northwestern (Normore). All this is to say, there's plenty of great people out there! 

[LexiqueSymbole]

Someone already said Case Western (Gertsman and now also Bolman) that has a joint program with the Cleveland Museum of Art and its awesome medieval art collection that has loads of manuscripts. They are object-oriented. Somebody also already said Rice (Wolfthal) -- late medieval and northern Renaissance manuscripts. Also object-oriented. If you want to apply abroad, consider St. Andrews (Rudy) and Courtauld (Nash and Bovey). I would just check out the reputation of any potential adviser in terms of their treatment of advisees / flexibility in dissertation topics.