Research/Areas of Interest:

Medieval art, architecture, and visual culture in Europe and the Byzantine-Slavic cultural spheres; image theory; historiography; patronage; monasticism; cross-cultural interactions

Education

  • PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States, 2017
  • MA, Williams College Graduate Program in Art History, Williamstown, United States, 2010
  • BA, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, United States, 2008

Biography

Alice Isabella Sullivan is a historian of medieval art, architecture, and visual culture, specializing in the artistic production of Eastern Europe and the Byzantine-Slavic cultural spheres. Her current projects focus on the history, art, and culture of regions of the Balkan Peninsula and the Carpathian Mountains (especially in modern Romania), which developed at the crossroads of the Latin, Greek, and Slavic traditions between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Her research has been supported by fellowships and grants from Tufts University, Princeton University, the University of Michigan, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (The Center), Dumbarton Oaks (DO), the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Getty Foundation, the Medieval Academy of America (MAA), the Renaissance Society of America (RSA), the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA), the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA), the Kress Foundation, the VolkswagenStiftung, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among others.

She has published in peer-reviewed journals including The Art Bulletin, Speculum, Gesta, Studies in History and Theory of Architecture, Museikon, Metropolitan Museum Journal, Romanian Medievalia, PHRONEMA, Studia Universitatis Babe�-Bolyai Theologia Orthodoxa (SUBBTO), and Rutgers Art Review.

She is author of two books:
- The Eclectic Visual Culture of Medieval Moldavia (Visualising the Middle Ages, 15) (Leiden: Brill, 2023) - winner of the 2023 Book Prize, Early Slavic Studies Association – for the best book published between September 1, 2021 and August 31, 2023 in the field of early Slavic Studies (pre-1800)
- Europe's Eastern Christian Frontier (Past Imperfect) (York: Arc Humanities Press, 2024)

And co-editor of the following volumes:
- Byzantium in Eastern European Visual Culture in the Late Middle Ages (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450, 65) (Leiden: Brill, 2020)
- Eclecticism in Late Medieval Visual Culture at the Crossroads of the Latin, Greek, and Slavic Traditions (Sense, Matter and Medium: New Approaches to Medieval Material and Literary Culture, 6) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022)
- Natural Light in Medieval Churches (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450, 88) (Leiden: Brill, 2023)
- Lateness and Modernity in Medieval Architecture (AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art, 16) (Leiden: Brill, 2023)
- Routledge Handbook of Byzantine Visual Culture in the Danube Regions, 1300–1600 (New York: Routledge, 2024)

Alice is the co-founder of several digital projects:
- North of Byzantium and Mapping Eastern Europe are two initiatives that explore the history, art, and culture of the northern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire in Eastern Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries.
- Sinai Digital Archive initiative makes the collections of religious icons, manuscripts, and liturgical objects from Saint Catherine Monastery at Mount Sinai – held in archives at the University of Michigan and Princeton University – better known and accessible to students, teachers, researchers, and the wider public. This digital project is the winner of the 2023 Digital Humanities and Multimedia Studies Prize from the Medieval Academy of America.

Alice serves on the Board of Directors of several scholarly organizations:
- Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Technology, Science, and Art (AVISTA, 2023–2026)
- Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA, 2023–2025)
- President, 2024; Outgoing President, 2025
- International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA, 2021–2024)
- Chair, Programs & Lectures Committee, 2023

Other service:
- Member, Centennial Program Committee, Medieval Academy of America (2023–2025)
- Steering Committee Member, New England Medieval Consortium (NEMC, 2021–2024)
- Network Member, Connected Centra