Carly Boxer joined the Department of Art History this fall as the Robert J. Carney Postdoctoral Fellow in Medieval Art and Architecture and is currently leading a new course, "HART 377/577: Medieval Manuscripts," this semester. Prior to joining Rice, Boxer held the Council on Library and Information Resources Mellon Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources and earned her Ph.D. in Art History at the University of Chicago with research focusing on medieval art whose work centers on the connections between medieval image-making practices and period ideas about vision, knowledge, and the capacity of images to structure and guide thought. Boxer’s current book project examines manuscripts related to medicine, health, and healing made in late medieval England to propose that images in these books functioned as pedagogical tools.
Next spring, Boxer will be teaching a new undergraduate course, "Radical Bodies in Medieval Art," which will investigate the representation and perception of bodies, human and otherwise, in medieval visual culture by focusing on bodies that were thought to be “different.” By focusing on approaches to representing bodily differences and attitudes toward perceived difference, the course will place special emphasis on how medieval ideas about gender, sexuality, and race found expression in art objects.
Before this semester wraps, Boxer will be presenting at the department Brown Bag Lecture to discuss her current research to art history faculty and graduate students.