2026 Joseph Burke Lecture In Art History

2026 Joseph Burke Lecture in Art History
Medieval Art of the Eastern Mediterranean: Global Networks in a Pre-Global World?

Trinity College, University of Melbourne, in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Art History, invites you to the Joseph Burke Lecture in Art History. 

Returning in the anniversary year of the founding of the Herald Chair of Fine Arts and the beginning of university teaching in art history at the University of Melbourne, the 2026 Joseph Burke Lecture will be delivered by Alicia Walker, Professor at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania.

Date: Thursday 30 April 2026

Time: 6.30pm

Venue: Craig Auditorium, Gateway Building, Trinity College, 100 Royal Parade, Parkville VIC 3052

RSVP: By Friday 24 April, 2026

Tickets: Free, but bookings essential

Enquiries: Linda Purves | events@trinity.unimelb.edu.au

Professor Walker will explore the medieval art and architecture of the eastern Mediterranean, questioning common assumptions that the Middle Ages were a time of isolation and cultural retrenchment.

Instead, vibrant intercultural encounters and fluidity characterised artistic production in this region, especially between Byzantium and the Islamic world. Even in the midst of political friction and military confrontation, trade, pilgrimage, and diplomatic exchange forged channels of communication and networks of circulation.

Should these phenomena be seen as evidence of “globalism” in the pre-modern world? Or is such framing anachronistic, imposing presentist values and structures on a medieval past that should be understood on its own terms?

About the lecturer

Alicia Walker is Professor of Medieval Art and Architectural History at Bryn Mawr College. Her primary fields of research include cross-cultural artistic interaction in the medieval world and gender issues in the art and material culture of Byzantium.
She is an author and co-editor of several major essay collections on medieval artistic exchange. Her work examines themes including intercultural transmission, women in Byzantine art and culture, and early Byzantine marriage jewellery. Her research has appeared in leading journals such as Muqarnas, Gesta, and The Art Bulletin.