Kirsten Ataoguz completed her doctorate in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University in 2007, after receiving her AB from the Department of Religion at Princeton University. Before coming to IPFW, she taught at Framingham State College, Florida State University, Mount Ida College, Excelsior College, and Suffolk University. At IPFW, Professor Ataoguz oversees the art history curriculum of the Fine Arts Department and the Minor in Art History. She teaches the two-semester survey introduction to the History of Art as well as upper-level surveys of the art of the ancient, medieval, and early modern periods. Each semester, she also offers a higher-level seminar-style course in medieval art. In her research, Professor Ataoguz specializes in the art of the early medieval Mediterranean – Western, Byzantine, and Islamic – from the emergence of Christian art in the third century through the end of the first millennium. She is currently developing her dissertation, "The Apostolic Commissioning of the Monks of Saint John in Müstair, Switzerland: Painting and Preaching in a Churraetian Monastery", into a series of articles and a book. The Monastery of Saint John preserves an extensive cycle of frescoes on the walls of its main church, and Professor Ataoguz interprets them according to their historical, functional, and pictorial contexts. Her broader interests include the representation of gesture in early medieval art and text; the productive relationship between narrative cycles on church walls and the sermons that would have been read aloud within these spaces; the role of visual images in magic and the evidence in the pictorial arts for the practice of magic; the use of images, such as of the Last Judgment, to shape behavior; and the decoration of churches as evidence of cross-cultural exchange.
Publications
Review of Catherine Johns, The Hoxne Late Roman Treasure: Gold Jewellery and Silver Plate. London: British Museum Press, 2009, Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2011)
“Medallion of Thekla Bound to Two Beasts,” “Cross with Prayer to Thekla,” “Oval Pendant with Thekla,” “Chalice Dedicated by Sarra”, “Chalice Dedicated by Anthousa and Ardabarios,” “Necklace with Tablet Cases and Pendant Cross,” and “Gold Tablet”, Byzantine Women and their World (2003)
Conference Papers
Negotiating the Boundary between Monastic Seclusion and Apostolic Mission in the Bishopric of Chur around the Year 800 (2011)
By virtue of their lifestyle and learning, early medieval monks were particularly well-suited to serve...
Altering the Tradition: The Traditio legis at the Monastery of Saint John (2011)
The main church of the Monastery of Saint John in Müstair, Switzerland preserves on its...
Visual Preaching in the Early Middle Ages: The Healing Arts at the Carolingian Monastery of St. John in Müstair, Switzerland (2008)
Around the year 800, the church of the monastery of John the Baptist in Müstair,...
Public Talks and Appearances
Works in Progress
Painting and Preaching in an Early Medieval Monastery, including chapters on the Last Judgment, Magic, and Healing, In preparation (2015)
Altering the Tradition: The Traditio legis at the Monastery of Saint John in Müstair (Switzerland), In preparation (2012)
Apostolicity and the Ascension at the Monastery of Saint John in Müstair (Switzerland), In preparation (2012)