Dr Joanne Anderson

Dr Joanne Anderson
Dr Joanne Anderson
Dr Joanne Anderson

Reader

Accepting PhDs

About
Email Address
joanne.anderson@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number
+44 (0)1224 272619
Office Address
406 50/52 College Bounds
Old Aberdeen Campus
College Bounds
AB24 3DS

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School/Department
School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History

Biography

Joanne is Reader in Art History and Honorary Curatorial Fellow. Prior to Aberdeen, she worked at the Warburg Institute in London (2015-2019) and in the art history departments at Birkbeck College, the University of Sussex and the University of Warwick.

Joanne is a leading specialist of Mary Magdalen and has appeared on BBC4's Britain's Lost Masterpieces and BBC R4's In Our Time on the topic of the saint. She was a member of the scholarly advisory committee for Mary Magdalene: the Exhibition (Museum Catherijneconvent, Utrecht, 2021-22) and contributor to its accompanying publication (2022). More broadly, she works on late medieval art in the mountains, mobility and experience of art, artistic production and patronage, as well as 20th-century exhibition history.

  

Book JA.jpg     MM Utrecht Exh.jpg  Image Journeys.jfif

Qualifications

  • PhD History of Art 
    2010 - University of Warwick 
  • MA History of Art 
    2003 - Courtauld Institute of Art 
  • MA (Hons) English and History of Art 
    2001 - University of Aberdeen 

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships

Head of Art History Department

Honorary Curatorial Fellow, Museums and Special Collections

Director: MLitt Christianity and the Visual Arts

External Memberships

External Examiner for Art History, The Open University (2020-24).

Member of the Renaissance Society of America 

Latest Publications

  • The Magdalen: cultural icon

    Anderson, J.
    Mary Magdalen: Chief Witness, Sinner, Feminist. Wijnia, L. (ed.). 1st edition. Waanders & de Kunst Publishers, pp. 78-85, 8 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Next to Chur We are Still Poor: Art and the relationality of Poverty in the Rhaetian Alps

    Anderson, J.
    The Art of the Poor: The Aesthetic Material Culture of the Lower Classes in Europe 1300-1600. Duits, R. (ed.). 1st edition. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 65-76, 12 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Arming the Alps through Art: Saints, Knights and Bandits on the Early Modern Roads

    Anderson, J.
    Travel and Conflict in the Early Modern World. Gelléri, G., Willie, R. (eds.). First edition. Taylor and Francis Ltd., pp. 81-107, 27 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • The Loom, the Lady, and Her Family Chapels: Weaving Identity in Late Medieval Art

    Anderson, J. W.
    Medieval Clothing and Textiles. Wright, M. L., Netherton, R., Owen-Crocker, G. R. (eds.). Boydell & Brewer, pp. 157-181, 25 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
  • Cultural Life and Politics in Wartime London

    Anderson, J.
    Image Journeys: The Warburg Institute and a British Art History. Anderson, J., Finch, M., Von Mueller, J. (eds.). Dietmar Klinger Verlag, pp. 43-51, 8 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

View My Publications

Research

Research Overview

Joanne is a specialist of Mary Magdalen and particularly her late medieval cult and image. More broadly her research encompasses late medieval art in the mountains, mobility and experience of art, artistic production and patronage, as well as 20th-century exhibition history. 

 

 

 

Research Areas

Accepting PhDs

I am currently accepting PhDs in Art History.


Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.

Email Me

Art History

Supervising
Accepting PhDs

Research Specialisms

  • History of Art
  • Gender Studies
  • History of Religions
  • Cultural Studies
  • Museum Studies

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Current Research

Slow Art - Late Medieval Art in the Mountains

Joanne’s current research project focuses on art in the landscape, proposing a new way of approaching images and objects from the standpoint of experiential viewing. She is particularly in interested in how environment and time influences the production, function and perception of art produced for Alpine communities as linked to the seasonal migrations of artistic workshops. The project springs from her previous work in the Alps and questions raised whilst travelling on foot in the mountains during varying weather conditions.

This research builds on her recent publications on the experience of looking at imagery on the outsides of buildings when travelling through the mountains and the relationality of art to poverty in this environment.

Frescoes from Florence

Joanne's second project is a monograph dedicated to the touring exhibition, Frescoes from Florence/The Great Age of Fresco (1968-72). The book focuses on questions of logistics, educational strategy and reception in popular and academic domains as it moved across continents and between diverse institutions in the name of cultural patrimony.

 

Past Research

Joanne has published extensively on Mary Magdalen, her late medieval cult and cultural icon status since 2012, including her 2019 monograph, Moving with the Magdalen. She maintains this research interest.

Collaborations

Joanne was the Co-Investigator of the AHRC Research Network, A Vision for Europe: Academic Action and Responsibility

Principle Investigator: Mick Finch (Central St Martins, University of the Arts London)

Project Partner: Johannes von Müller (Bilderfahrzeuge Project, The Warburg Institute)

The network investigated the material archive of the 1941 exhibition, English Art and the Mediterranean, organised by Fritz Saxl and Rudolf Wittkower, then director and photographic collection curator of the Warburg Institute. This exhibition, and its later publication, British Art and the Mediterranean, argued for a common European cultural tradition in a time of international crisis. The network brought together artists, historians, media theorists, curators, journalists, photographers and activists to reactivate this unique archival resource and explore its historical significance and contemporary resonance in the current Brexit climate.

Joanne co-curated the exhibitions, Bilder auf Wanderschaft. Das Warburg Institute und eine britische Kunstgeschichte (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich 29 May-30 June 2019) and  Ruins in the Archive: Constructing Visual Histories in Photography and Broadcast Media (British School at Rome, 14-430 Nov 2019) and co-edited the accompanying catalogue, Image Journeys. The Warburg Institute and a British Art History (Passau: Klinger Verlag, 2019).

https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/research-at-csm/a-vision-for-europe

Information about the 2016 pilot event can be found at: http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/whats-on/events/vision-europe

Image Journeys.jfif     ZfK exhibition.jpg

Supervision

My current supervision areas are: Art History.

I have co-supervised doctoral projects on pre-modern miraculous imagery, portraiture and mural painting and modern art collectors. I am currently supervising a project on the late medieval cult and image of St Catherine of Alexandria in England and France.

Funding and Grants

Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Network Grant, 2019-20 - A Vision for Europe: Academic Action and Responsibility in Times of Crises

Teaching

Programmes

Teaching Responsibilities

Joanne contributes to teaching across all levels of the undergraduate Art History programme. She offers two research-led courses and one vocational course at honours level:

  • Materialising Faith: Women, Art and Religion, 1150-1500 co-taught with Dr Marie-Luise Ehrenschwendtner (Divinity and History);
  • Italian Mural Painting and the Making of Visual Cultures, 1400-1500
  • Curation: Theory and Practice, co-taught with Museums and Special Collections

She also contributes to School interdisciplinarity by teaching sessions for:

  • Power and Piety (History)
  • Like a Prayer: The Bible in Art, Literature and Film (Divinity)

Joanne directs the MLitt Christianity and the Visual Arts, co-taught with Divinity. She coordinates:

  • Researching Art and Faith
  • Dissertation in Christianity and the Visual Arts

 

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

Joanne is a personal tutor and provides support to students in and beyond the Department of Art History across all levels of study. 

Publications

Page 1 of 2 Results 1 to 10 of 13

  • The Magdalen: cultural icon

    Anderson, J.
    Mary Magdalen: Chief Witness, Sinner, Feminist. Wijnia, L. (ed.). 1st edition. Waanders & de Kunst Publishers, pp. 78-85, 8 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Next to Chur We are Still Poor: Art and the relationality of Poverty in the Rhaetian Alps

    Anderson, J.
    The Art of the Poor: The Aesthetic Material Culture of the Lower Classes in Europe 1300-1600. Duits, R. (ed.). 1st edition. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 65-76, 12 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Arming the Alps through Art: Saints, Knights and Bandits on the Early Modern Roads

    Anderson, J.
    Travel and Conflict in the Early Modern World. Gelléri, G., Willie, R. (eds.). First edition. Taylor and Francis Ltd., pp. 81-107, 27 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • The Loom, the Lady, and Her Family Chapels: Weaving Identity in Late Medieval Art

    Anderson, J. W.
    Medieval Clothing and Textiles. Wright, M. L., Netherton, R., Owen-Crocker, G. R. (eds.). Boydell & Brewer, pp. 157-181, 25 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
  • Cultural Life and Politics in Wartime London

    Anderson, J.
    Image Journeys: The Warburg Institute and a British Art History. Anderson, J., Finch, M., Von Mueller, J. (eds.). Dietmar Klinger Verlag, pp. 43-51, 8 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
  • Image Journeys: The Warburg Institute and a British Art History

    Anderson, J. (ed.), Finch, M. (ed.), Von Mueller, J. (ed.)
    Books and Reports: Anthologies
  • Moving with the Magdalen: Late Medieval Art and Devotion in the Alps

    Anderson, J.
    Bloomsbury Visual Arts, New York. 272 pages
    Books and Reports: Books
  • Review: Ruth S. Noyes, Peter Paul Rubens and the Counter-Reformation Crisis of the Beati Moderni

    Anderson, J.
    Renaissance Quarterly , vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 274-275
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Review: Subject Matter in Italian Renaissance Art: A Study of Early Sources. Joseph Manca

    Anderson, J.
    Renaissance Quarterly , vol. 70, no. 4, pp. 1494-1495
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
  • Review: A Printed Icon in Early Modern Italy: Forlì’s Madonna of the Fire. Lisa Pon

    Anderson, J.
    Renaissance Quarterly , vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 1051-1052
    Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles
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