Nicole C. Paxton specializes in the art of Byzantium and the history of memory in the medieval eastern Mediterranean. Focusing on the interplay between art making and cognitive processes, her research explores questions of memory and communal transformation that speak to societies in flux.
Her current book project, The Byzantine Art of Memory, presents the first comprehensive study of the theorization and practice of memory in the medieval eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1000–1500). Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the book investigates shifts in the theorization of memory and uncovers how these changes both defined and were informed by visual culture.
Further research interests include: the art of medieval Serbia; the rock-cut churches of medieval southern Italy; narratives of exile following Constantinople’s fall in 1453; cultural memory in the post-Byzantine diaspora; early modern and contemporary perceptions of “Byzantium”; the relationship between word and image; and cross-cultural dialogues on memory.
Paxton received her Ph.D. from Yale University, and holds an MA in Art History from the University of Notre Dame. Her research has been supported by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame, and the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton University.
She teaches courses on the history of medieval art and architecture across the Mediterranean. Course topics include Byzantine art, Islamic art and architecture, pre-modern memory, and the history of medieval Art History.
