Meredyth Winter lectures in the arts of the medieval Islamic world at the Courtauld Institute, specialising in craft and the transmission of artistic knowledge of medieval Iraq and Iran. Her research centres on the processes underlying art-making in a variety of media, from weaving to brick masonry. Favouring a technical art historical approach, her work blends material culture and art historical perspectives to reconstruct historical labour networks through an investigation of materials and techniques. Her work studies how artists carried out their crafts, the means by which they learned and preserved these skills, and how the resulting craft traditions facilitated ongoing artistic and technological developments.
She earned her doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies and the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University and also holds a master鈥檚 degree from the Bard Graduate Center (NYC) in Material Culture. In addition to previous teaching appointments, Meredyth was the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Costume & Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2021-2024, where she carried out research on the museum鈥檚 archaeological holdings from Erich Schmidt鈥檚 1931-36 digs at Rayy, south of Tehran. Her research has also received support from the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Art & Architecture, the American Institute for Iranian Studies, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University.
Teaching
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MA Special Option: Art that Counts: Mathematical and Aesthetic Understanding in the Arts of Medieval Iraq and Iran c. 900-1300
BA2: Approaches to Islamic Ornament c. 650-1350
BA1: Craft and Material Culture in Medieval Islamic Art c. 650 – 1250
Publications
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听鈥淭owering Tombs & Forgotten Memories鈥 in听Recovering Rayy: The Archaeological Expeditions of听Erich Schmidt,听ed. Renata Holod,听Brill (in preparation).
鈥淏eyond the Surface: Technical Analysis of Egyptian Textiles, 5th鈥12thCentury,鈥漜o-authored with听Julie H. Wertz (HAM), Robin Hanson (CMA), and Meredith Montague (BMFA),听Social Fabrics:听Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs, Harvard Art Museums Publications (2022).
鈥淲hen Curtains Fall: A Shape-Shifting Silk of the Late Abbasid Period鈥 in听Medieval Re-Creations:听Recycling, Revision, and Relocation in/of the Middle Ages,听eds. Hannah Weaver, Joseph Shack, and听Daniel Smail,听Medieval Globe, Vol. 6.1, 2020.
鈥淧ut a Bird on it: What an Aviary Preoccupation Reveals about Medieval Silks鈥 in a guest edited issue听of听The Textile Museum Journal, vol. 45:听Transposing Textile Materiality in the Middle Ages,听special听ed. Patricia Blessing; series ed. Sumru Krody, 2018.
鈥淭he Image and the Drawing in Qajar Iran.鈥澨An Album of Artists Drawings from听Qajar Iran, ed. David听J. Roxburgh. Harvard Art Museums Publications, 2017.
鈥淸Review of] Friedrich Spuhler,听Early Islamic Textiles from along the Silk Road (New York: Thames听& Hudson, 2020) in听The Journal of the Oriental听Rug and Textile Society, Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring 2021.
鈥淸Review of] Isabelle Dolezalek,听Arabic Script on Christian Kings, Textile Inscriptions on Royal听Garments from Norman Sicily (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2017)鈥 in听West 86th: A Journal of听Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 27, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2020.
