Danya Crites
As a lecturer in art history at 51²è¹İapp College, I get to introduce students to the fascinating fields of medieval and Renaissance art from Europe and the greater Mediterranean. Though I love the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris, and the Sistine Chapel, I am particularly interested in art that questions the traditional ways these periods and regions have been divided. The inadequacy of these divisions is perhaps most conspicuous in my area of specialization, the art of medieval Iberia. My dissertation, “From Mosque to Cathedral: The Social and Political Significations of Mudejar Architecture in Late Medieval Seville,†and subsequent publications explore the multifaceted relationships among Spain’s Muslim, Christian, and Jewish populations through the art and architecture they produced, which looked both to northern Europe and West Asia for various aspects of their designs. Monuments such as the and manuscripts like the challenge the assumptions that medieval people were strictly segregated according to region, religion, gender, and modern definitions of race.
In addition to using art history to engage my students to think critically about how we categorize art and people (both past and present), I also see it as a vehicle for building community. Many of my classes have provided students with the opportunity to present what they’ve learned to community members outside of the College, making art history accessible to a wider audience and building relationships among people with a variety of experiences and backgrounds.