This lecture explores aspects of the history and art of Eastern Europe, which developed at the intersection of competing traditions and worldviews for much of the Middle Ages. Byzantium played a key role in shaping local artistic developments in regions of the Balkan Peninsula, the Carpathian Mountains, and further north, as did contacts with Western and Central Europe. Key objects and monuments reflect aspects of local negotiations among competing traditions, and the shifting meanings and functions of cultural heritage during moments of change, crisis, and conflict. Examples from regions of modern Ukraine, Romania, and North Macedonia, among others, underscore the importance of putting Eastern Europe in focus temporally, geographically, methodologically, and theoretically within the study of medieval, Byzantine, post-Byzantine, and early modern art history.

Alice Isabella Sullivan, PhD, is Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Tufts University. She specializes in the artistic production of Eastern Europe and the Byzantine-Slavic cultural spheres in the period between the 14th and 16th centuries. Sullivan is the author of the award-winning book The Eclectic Visual Culture of Medieval Moldavia (2023), Europe’s Eastern Christian Frontier (2024), and co-editor of several volumes. In addition, she is co-director of the Sinai Digital Archive, and co-founder of North of Byzantium and Map­ping Eastern Europe – two initiatives that explore the history, art, and culture of the northern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire in Eastern Europe during the medieval and early modern periods.

This event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture. Attendees can join in-person in ARCH 104 or virtual via Zoom (https://temple.zoom.us/meeting/register/YEJDqOhrSdGUT4v7hktfUQ)

The Jackson Lecture in Byzantine Art is generously sponsored by Lynn Jackson, with additional support from Temple University's General Activities Fund (GAF).