This thematic area offers a global and comparative approach to the study of material culture in the Middle Ages, or Late Antique, broadly defined as the formative period between the ancient and modern worlds. Emphasizing connectivity rather than disjunction, exchange rather than isolation, and mobility rather than stasis, this area encompasses a complex cultural, economic, and political context for the study of material things.
With a focus on broad geographical domains such as the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, the Sahara, or the Eurasian Steppe, courses in this area investigate the making, circulation, and changing meanings of materials, objects, and images in a wide variety of temporal and geographical contexts. Offerings range from tightly focused investigations of specific media, regions, and periods, to thematic, issue-oriented seminars that take a cross-cultural, trans-regional, and trans-historical viewpoint. Recent courses include “The Occult and its Artifact in the Middle Ages,” Tang China and the Silk Road, 600-900,” “Mongol China, 1200-1400,” and “Global Materials along the Nile, ca. 3400 BCE-500 CE.” We convene the Global Middle Ages lecture series and have organized pioneering conferences such as Rethinking the Wearable in the Middle Ages and New Perspectives on the Liao.
With a focus on broad geographical domains such as the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, the Sahara, or the Eurasian Steppe, courses in this area investigate the making, circulation, and changing meanings of materials, objects, and images in a wide variety of temporal and geographical contexts. Offerings range from tightly focused investigations of specific media, regions, and periods, to thematic, issue-oriented seminars that take a cross-cultural, trans-regional, and trans-historical viewpoint. Recent courses include “The Occult and its Artifact in the Middle Ages,” Tang China and the Silk Road, 600-900,” “Mongol China, 1200-1400,” and “Global Materials along the Nile, ca. 3400 BCE-500 CE.” We convene the Global Middle Ages lecture series and have organized pioneering conferences such as Rethinking the Wearable in the Middle Ages and New Perspectives on the Liao.
