Veronica Kalas - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

I am an art and architectural historian as well as an archaeologist specializing in the late antique and Byzantine periods. My research focuses on the art, architecture, and archaeology of the Christian east. I also teach in the related fields of Ancient Mediterranean (Greek and Roman), Medieval Western European (Early Medieval, Romanesque, and Gothic) and Islamic art history. I thus span both the eastern and western traditions of art history in the ancient and medieval periods. I am very interested in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches to the history of art and archaeology and am particularly devoted to the exploration of the medieval sites, monuments, and landscapes of the east Mediterranean, Anatolia, and the Near East. I have presented many papers and published several articles on my research that has been supported by the American Research Institute in Turkey, the Program in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, and Dumbarton Oaks Research Libraries and Collections in Washington, D.C. I have participated in archaeological field projects and architectural surveys in Tunisia, Greece, and Turkey. In addition I have enjoyed filming for the History Channel, lecturing to the public, and leading archeological study tours for Smithsonian Journeys Educational Travel, Archaeological Tours, Andante Travel, and Spiekerman Travel.

I am now completing a book-length manuscript that fundamentally reevaluates the art and architecture of Byzantine Cappadocia. Located in central Turkey, the region is famous for its many colorful valleys of volcanic rock formations in which hundreds of churches and multi-story dwellings were carved. When European travelers first encountered the area’s unusual environment, they conceived of the rock-cut structures as monastic forms within a sacred landscape. Subsequent scholarship elaborated upon this interpretation by focusing on the religious paintings found inside the carved churches, to the neglect of many secular aspects of Cappadocia’s rich material culture. My discovery, documentation and analysis of a group of rock-cut, courtyard complexes from the Peristrema Valley provide compelling evidence that most of the Cappadocia’s Byzantine remains were in fact secular and residential. Thus my investigation fills a critical void in both medieval studies and the history of art and architecture more generally. In addition to my work on Cappadocia, I am investigating the medieval monuments of the abandoned Armenian, Byzantine, and Seljuk city of Ani in northeastern Turkey. I also conduct research on the historiography of early medieval architectural history by examining the life and contributions of Gertrude Bell, one of the most remarkable explorers of the Middle East in the early twentieth century.

Complementing this multi-dimensional research trajectory, both theoretical and hands-on, I enjoy teaching a wide variety of courses from undergraduate art history surveys to graduate-level seminars. I have taught courses on such topics as Ancient Rome, Byzantine Constantinople, Greek and Roman Art, Art History before 1400, and Medieval Art at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor and Dearborn), Western Michigan University, Wayne State University, Albion College, as well as in Ankara, Turkey.

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