Medieval Manuscripts Lecture Series with Dr. Maeve K. Doyle

Maeve K. Doyle (she/they) is Associate Professor of Art History at Eastern Connecticut State University. Their research interests include the history of portraiture, book arts in the Middle Ages and early modern period, digital art history, and issues of gender in representation. She specializes in the visual and material culture of late medieval Europe.

Maeve received their PhD from Bryn Mawr College in 2015 with a dissertation entitled, “The Portrait Potential: Gender, Identity, and Devotion in Manuscript Owner Portraits, 1230–1320.” Before coming to Eastern, she taught courses on various subjects in art history at Bryn Mawr College, Moore College of Art & Design, Temple University, and Saint Joseph’s University. Maeve is currently co-editing the collection Queering Medieval Art with Gerald B. Guest. In addition, their work has appeared in Manuscript Studies, Studies in Iconography, Different Visions, and Smarthistory, among others, and has been funded by the Fulbright Commission and the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. With Alexander Brey, she is co-PI of the Manuscript Connections project.

Mermaids, Monkeys, and Men Laying Eggs? Interpreting Images in the Margins of Medieval Manuscripts

with Dr. Maeve K. Doyle

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

4:00pm - 5:00 p.m.

Helmerich Browsing Room, OSU Library

reception to follow

Please join us for the inaugural lecture of our new annual speaker series focused on medieval manuscripts, in celebration of the OSU Library’s new collecting area!

How should we interpret the sometimes silly, inane, even shocking images we find decorating the borders of later medieval prayer books and other manuscripts? Using approaches from queer theory and the digital humanities, this talk explores this curious imagery and the roles it played in shaping medieval readers’ experiences of gender, sexuality, embodiment, religion, and more.

image is of scholar maeve doyle seated in front of an old building

This event has been funded by a 2025 Centennial Grant from the Medieval Academy of America. It is co-sponsored by the OSU Center for the Humanities and the OSU Library. Begun in 2025 to celebrate the OSU Library’s exciting new collecting area of medieval and early modern manuscripts, OSU Library and the OSU Center for the Humanities are collaborating on an annual lecture series focused on manuscripts. The first two lectures in the series are funded by a Centennial Grant from the Medieval Academy of America. Dr. Jess Boon, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, presenting in fall 2025 on “Women Praying, Meditating, Imagining, and Envisioning in Early 16^th-Century Spain.”