PSU Art History

04/21/2026

Join us for a virtual lecture! The University of Vienna's Professor Sara Kuehn, a leading scholar of Islamic Art History, will present her research on the complex role of dragons in Islamic Art. By analyzing the intersection of astronomical phenomena—specifically the lunar nodes—with visual culture, Kuehn reveals how the dragon symbol evolved into a potent emblem of magical protection and cosmic equilibrium.

Tuesday May 5th, 2026
11am
Zoom

This event is open to the public with advance registration. Registrants will receive the Zoom link the day before the event.

Register Now!
https://www.pdx.edu/arts/events/dragon-medieval-islamic-astrology-and-magical-power-virtual-lecture

This event is made possible through the generosity of the Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic + Ancient Art Fund.

04/13/2026

Fakes or Forgeries? Examining Problematic Examples of Islamic Ceramics

Dr Richard McClary, a Senior Lecturer at the University of York, is a leading expert in Islamic art. He will speak about the proliferation of both heavily restored and newly manufactured examples of decorative ceramic vessels in the art market. The focus is on polychrome mina’i ware as well as pieces with luster decoration.

Thursday, April 16, 2025
11:30am
Zoom

Register at https://pdx.zoom.us/meeting/register/6h74zSqGSrKv7P0Xx116JA #/registration

This virtual lecture is brought to you by PSU's Middle East Studies Center and made possible through the generosity of the Tarbell Mentor Program.
pdx_edu

02/11/2026

April 1, 2026: Don't forget the upcoming deadline for the Art History Research Project Awards!

Art History Research Project Prizes Excellence in research and writing is rewarded with small cash prizes to students who produce outstanding term papers or class projects. These special awards are made possible by the kind contributions of emerita faculty in art history, Jane Kristof and Lisa Andru...

02/11/2026

Deep dives into the archives. 📚 Our PSU art history and cultural history students just explored the John Wilson Rare Book Room. Special thanks to Librarian Rachael Short for an engaging and insightful presentation on material ranging from artist's books to medieval books of hours!

11/10/2025

Our fall Stammtisch is happening on November 13 at 4-6 pm at Schmizza Pub & Grub (415 SW Montgomery Street). This informal get-together is a great way for PSU Art History students and faculty to get to know each other, chat about art history, and eat free snacks. Hope to see you there!

11/04/2025

PSU students explore medieval manuscripts in Millar Library’s Special Collections during Spring 2025 as part of Medieval Portland, a University Studies Capstone taught by Art History Professor Anne McClanan.

In this course, students research medieval objects and artifacts in local collections, as well as medieval-inspired architecture, throughout the greater Portland area. Their findings are featured in the public database medievalportland.org

The course will be offered again in Spring 2026 — don’t miss your chance to uncover Portland’s medieval connections!

10/27/2025

A new review just went live of Prof McClanan's recent book: Griffinology "succeeds in having the content and structure of her text mirror the inherent wild hybridity of its subject. [It's] an engaging entry point to a broader understanding of the origins, development, and interpretations of one of the most iconic mythical beasts of the past."

Read more at
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/42387

10/02/2025

SAVE THE DATE!
Join us for An Introduction to Moroccan Graphic Design Histories with Dina Benbarhim, graphic design professor from the University of Connecticut.

Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 6:30pm

Kiln
1120 SE Madison St
Portland OR 97214

Free - register via Eventbrite (link in bio)

This event is made possible by the generosity of the Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic and Ancient Art fund ❤️

08/21/2025

PAM Art + Conversation: Artemisia Gentileschi with Jesse Locker
Thursday September 4th 2025 10:30 AM

Join us for a special Art and Conversation with Jesse Locker, Ph.D., Professor of Italian Renaissance & Baroque Art at Portland State University, and Lloyd DeWitt, Ph.D.. The Richard and Janet Geary Curator of European & American Art Pre-1930, exploring Artemisia Gentileschi’s Naples period, touching on the painting David and the Head of Goliath, on loan to the museum. Jesse Locker specializes in Italian art and material culture of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, particularly seventeenth-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi. He is the author of a number of studies on various aspects of Italian art.

Jesse Locker specializes in Italian art and material culture of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, particularly seventeenth-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi. He is the author of a number of studies on various aspects of Italian art, including Artemisia Gentileschi: The Language of Painting (Yale University Press), winner of the Helen & Howard R. Marraro Prize for Italian Studies, and articles in Artibus et Historiae, Source, and Gastronomica, Food & History and editor of Rethinking Art in the Late Renaissance: After Trent (Routledge). His current project examines the material world of early modern Italian artists through inventories, archives, and artworks.

This lecture provides a rare opportunity to hear directly from two art history experts, with plenty of time for audience questions and discussion.

10:30 a.m. – Coffee and snacks
11 a.m. – Talk and Q&A with Jesse Locker, Ph.D., Professor of Italian Renaissance & Baroque Art at Portland State University, and Lloyd DeWitt, Ph.D., The Richard and Janet Geary Curator of European & American Art Pre-1930
12:30 p.m. – Visit the galleries as part of Free First Thursday

This event is free, but get your ticket to reserve your seat:

Join us for a special Art and Conversation with Jesse Locker, Ph.D., Professor of Italian Renaissance & Baroque Art at Portland State University, and Lloyd DeWitt, Ph.D., The Richard and […]

06/09/2025

PSU art history students explore the Portland Art Museum's psychedelic posters and Monet exhibits with PAM curator Dr. Mary Chapin.

02/06/2025

SAVE THE DATE! PSU Art History presents Maria Judith Feliciano, researcher, CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), for a guest lecture titled “On the Commercial Movement and Social Lives of Islamic Textiles in Medieval Iberia.”

Thursday March 6, 2pm
Art Building Room 200

The commercial circulation of sumptuous textiles from the Mediterranean and Central Asia has been documented in various Iberian contexts since well before the foundation of the caliphal court at Córdoba in 929. Indeed, the successful commercialization of a great variety of textile products across the Iberian geography characterizes Iberian luxury consumption throughout the medieval period. An exploration of the textile workshops, merchants and intermediaries, patterns of exchange and distribution, and, of course, the textiles’ multiple lives and uses in various Iberian contexts reveals a refined and discerning textile culture that was not defined by a Christian-Muslim divide. Rather, it speaks of an increasingly complex medieval system of commercial exchange that supplied markets with saleable goods and of a diverse and discerning consumer base that knew exactly what it wanted.

María Judith Feliciano is Investigadora Científica at the Art History Department of Spain’s Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Madrid). She specializes in the visual culture of the late medieval and early modern Iberian world with a focus on the influence of the arts of Islam in the artistic developments of Peninsular and Viceregal American societies.

Free and open to the public.