Toward a Global Middle Ages: Defining and Curating a Concept

Sponsored by The Getty

Recorded on 12/09/2019
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 102

Global approaches to the Middle Ages have long been part of historical and literary studies, but only over the last ten years or so has a global approach emerged within the field of art history. In this episode, Bryan C. Keene, associate curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, discusses the timeline of assembling his monumental edited volume Toward a Global Middle Ages: Encountering the World through Illuminated Manuscripts, and what a “Global Middle Ages” actually means.


About the guest:

Bryan C. Keene
Associate Curator
J. Paul Getty Museum

Bryan Keene is the associate curator in the Department of Manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. He specializes in Italian manuscript illumination and the global Middle Ages, with a particular focus on the nexus of Afro-Eurasian book culture, portable objects, and materials. His edited volume Toward a Global Middle Ages: Encountering the World through Illuminated Manuscripts is available from Getty Publications (2019). He is currently working on exhibitions about Indigenous traditions of storytelling in the Americas, the fantasy of the Middle Ages, and on queer medievalisms. He began his career at the Getty in the Education Department and cares deeply about teaching and interacting with visitors. Keene holds a PhD from The Courtauld Institute of Art in London and is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University.