My research interests are centered around the art and architecture of the Mediterranean World in the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods, especially on issues of materiality, cross-cultural interactions, and historiography and theory. In 2023, I graduated from Ohio State University with two B.A.s in History and History of Art.
My most current research focused on a Late Antique silver plaque of Saint Simeon the Elder. Raising new questions regarding the plaque’s purpose and phenomenological effect on the viewer, and paying special attention to the material of the object, I concluded that through the imprint of Simeon’s image, charis was imbued into the object, causing it to act more like a relic than an ex-voto in the viewer’s experience. Ultimately, I argued that the plaque represents an important marker in bridging the gap between the cult of relics and the cult of saints with the later cult of icons.
Continuing in this vein, I hope to engage with a more globalized study of history through the addition of material-based, cross-cultural, and cross-disciplinary methodologies to Lutheran logocentric historical research.