Graduate Students

Julia Finch

Europe before 1750

The transmission of information via both text and image during the Middle Ages was essential to the development of a culture of literacy, and Finch is interested in the function of medieval images as compliments to textual and oral communication. Finch's current research involves a study of visual depictions of the reading and educational environment in private and public contexts in the later Middle Ages. She is interested in the depiction of reading as a sacred activity, the nature and various degrees of medieval literacy, the material culture of medieval childhood education, and the act of reading as a pious performance or ritual in the iconography of the Life of the Virgin.

CV Highlights

Education

PhD – History of Art and Architecture, degree expected 2011
MA – University of Pittsburgh, May 2006
         History of Art and Architecture, concentration in Medieval Art and Architecture
       Advisor M. Alison Stones, PhD, FSA
BA – University of Pennsylvania, May 2002
        History of Art and Architecture, summa cum laude

Publications

“Women and Books: Reading as Ritualized Performance in Medieval Culture,” in Visualizing Rituals: Critical Analysis of Art and Ritual Practice, ed. Julia Kim Werts, 2006.

Conferences and Lectures

"The Education of the Virgin: Iconography and Late Medieval Context," Medievalism Transformed Conference, Bangor University, Wales, June 13, 2008.

"Medieval Readers in New Digital Environments," Midwest Modern Language Association
Conference (Society for Critical Exchange panel) Cleveland, OH, November 8-11, 2007.

"The Young Virgin Reads: Education Imagery in Medieval Contexts," Southeastern College Art Conference, Charleston, WV, October 17-20, 2007.

“Reading Images: Representation of Medieval Readers in Context,” 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 10-13, 2007.

“Class in Session: Images of Readers at Chartres Cathedral,” University of Pittsburgh History of Art and Architecture Departmental Colloquium, October 26, 2005.

“Women, Word and Image: Reading as Ritual in Late Medieval Devotional Books,” Cornell University Graduate Symposium, “Visualizing Rituals: Critical Analysis of Art and Ritual Practice,” March 4-5, 2005.

Honors, Awards, and Distinctions

Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh, 2008-09

Friends of Frick Fine Arts Travel Award, May 2008

Austrian Room Committee Scholarship Recipient, March 2007

Elizabeth Baranger Teaching Award Nominee, University of Pittsburgh, 2007

Arts and Sciences Graduate Fellow in the History of Art and Architecture Department, University of Pittsburgh, 2004–2005

Member, Phi Beta Kappa Society

Teaching Experience

Department of History of Art and Architecure, University of Pittsburgh
Teaching Fellow, September 2005–present
Courses: Introduction to Architecture; Introduction to Art; Introduction to the Built Environment.

School of Leadership and Professional Advancement, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Teaching Assistant, September 2002–October 2003
Courses: Renaissance through Modern; Art and Society (Honors).