Amanda Luyster
Assistant Professor
Biography
Dr. Luyster specializes in the study of the art of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in England and France, with particular attention to secular production and cross-cultural contact with the Islamic and Byzantine worlds. Her recent research on the English Chertsey tiles (c. 1250) and their intersection with global textile movements has been awarded support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, the International Center for Medieval Art (ICMA), and the Kress Foundation, and she has been invited to speak about these and related topics at Harvard University, Cambridge University, the University of Oxford, London’s Institute of Historical Research, Yale University’s Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and other locations from Boston to China. Her work has been published in Gesta, Speculum, Word & Image, Medieval Encounters, Digital Philology, and other journals, exhibition catalogues, and anthologies. She was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the ICMA.
In spring 2023 Luyster curated an NEH-funded exhibition entitled Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, College of the Holy Cross (Jan. 26-April 6, 2023). Both the exhibition and its accompanying edited volume (available at https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9781912554942-1) reveal the impact that art objects manufactured in the Islamic and Byzantine Mediterranean had on the medieval visual culture of England. They also address the complex phenomenon of the Crusades, in which both violence and dynamic cultural interaction coexisted.
Press "Bringing the Holy Land Home"
Interviewed regarding “Bringing the Holy Land Home” for the Times of Israel, “In the Holy Land, clashing Crusaders and Muslims led to a fruitful cultural exchange.” By Rich Tenorio, published 4 April 2023. https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-the-holy-land-clashing-crusaders-and-muslims-led-to-a-fruitful-cultural-exchange/
Interviewed regarding “Bringing the Holy Land Home” for Harvard Magazine, March/April 2023 issue. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2023/03/h2-medieval-disinformation
Interviewed regarding “Bringing the Holy Land Home” for University of Chicago professor Anthony Kaldellis’s podcast, “Byzantium & Friends.” Podcast aired on Jan. 26, 2023. https://byzantiumandfriends.podbean.com/e/86-how-to-organize-a-museum-exhibition-–-and-bring-the-holy-land-home-with-amanda-luyster/
My research was the subject of an article in the London newspaper the Independent, “Revealed: London’s long-lost medieval palace recreated after 500 years. Medieval art investigator, Amanda Luyster, has managed to digitally reassemble most of a mosaic pavement design, originally created for use in the palace.” By David Keys, published on Jan. 24, 2023. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-royal-palace-mosaic-b2268030.html
Interviewed regarding the Chertsey tiles for the “Gone Medieval” podcast, part of the “History Hits” network, “a growing range of podcasts presented by and featuring historians at the forefront of research and debate.” Podcast aired on Jan. 24, 2023. https://shows.acast.com/gone-medieval/episodes/crusades-chertsey-tiles
The subject of an article regarding “Bringing the Holy Land Home” by Menachem Wecker for the wire Religion News Service, in partnership with the Associated Press. Published Jan. 10, 2023. https://religionnews.com/2023/01/10/a-restored-medieval-depiction-of-the-crusades-shows-how-england-embraced-islamic-culture/