Who We Are

The Standing Committee on Medieval Studies promotes and coordinates work on medieval subjects throughout the University, including at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. and Villa i Tatti in Florence, Italy. Its members are drawn from Harvard's extensive medievalist faculty, ranging across a large number of departments and schools. As a program committee within the Faculty of Arts and Science, it offers a number of undergraduate and graduate courses each year, coordinates a Secondary Field in Medieval Studies for Ph.D. students and a Secondary Field in Medieval Studies for undergraduates, and collaborates with the Program in History and Literature to offer a concentration field in "The Medieval World". Although Harvard has no Ph.D. program specifically in Medieval Studies, the Committee does offer a special Ph.D. Program in Byzantine Studies; it also can administer interdisciplinary ("ad hoc") Ph.Ds in liaison with a departmental program.

Working in collaboration with many departments and centers at Harvard--including the Houghton Library, the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture, the Harvard Art Museums, the Center for the Study of World Religions, the Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies—a number of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences workshops, as well as the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross, the Committee on Medieval Studies sponsors frequent events and activities of interest to medievalists. Among these are the meetings of the Mahindra Humanities Center's Medieval Studies Seminar, the biannual Houghton-Medieval Studies Lectures and Workshops on Early Book History, twice-yearly receptions for medievalists throughout the Boston area, an interdisciplinary graduate student workshop in Medieval Studies, and special seminars and conferences in Medieval Studies. The committee also maintains the Medieval Studies Library on the third floor of Widener Library.

The Standing Committee's chair in 2026-2027 is Dimiter Angelov, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History. The Committee's curricular, research, and programming work is managed by three subcommittees: Strategy and Planning, Events and Reseach, and Curriculum and Student Affairs. In 2026-2027, the members of these committees are:

Strategy and Planning: Dimiter Angelov (History; chair), Josiah Blackmore (Romance Languages and Literatures), Sean Gilsdorf (Medieval Studies, ex officio), Christina Maranci (NELC and History of Art & Architecture), David Roxburgh (History of Art & Architecture), Xiaofei Tian (East Asian Languages and Civilizations), and Nicholas Watson (English)

Events and Research: Dan Smail (History; chair), Dimiter Angelov (History, ex officio), Daniel Donoghue (English), Sean Gilsdorf (Medieval Studies, ex officio), Luis Girón Negrón (Romance Languages and Comparative Literature), Jinah Kim (History of Art & Architecture), and Fernanda Garcia-Oteyza (graduate student in Religion and Medieval Studies program assistant, ex officio).

Curriculum and Student Affairs: Brian FitzGerald (Medieval Studies and Religion, chair), Sean Gilsdorf (Medieval Studies), Ambrogio Camozzi Pistoja (Romance Languages and Literatures), Eurydice Georganteli (History of Art & Architecture), Paul Russell (Celtic Languages & Literatures), and Anna Suh (graduate student in English and coordinator of the GSAS Medieval Studies Interdisciplinary Workshop, ex officio).