Distinguished art historian to speak about illustrated medieval texts at Hall Center

LAWRENCE — Anne D. Hedeman, Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Professor of Art History, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, in the Lied Center Pavilion. Her lecture, "Imagining the Past: Interplay between Literary & Visual Imagery in Late Medieval France," is an installment of the Hall Center for the Humanities' 2013-2014 Humanities Lecture Series. The event is free and open to the public.

This event is supported by the Friends of the Hall Center.

Hedeman is a scholar of late Medieval and Northern Renaissance art and the history of the book, particularly the illustrations in medieval manuscripts and early printed books. Her research examines the relationships between text and image in vernacular late medieval French manuscripts. She studies how pictures in illuminated manuscripts explain and translate classical stories to late medieval French readers.

Hedeman received her bachelor's from Princeton University and her master's and doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Previously, she has worked as Professor of Medieval Studies, Professor in the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and professor of art history at the University of Illinois. She has also acted as consultant for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011-12.

Her book in progress, "Virtual Translation and the First French Humanists," analyzes this dynamic in works owned or made by three early 15th-century French humanists. She is the author of several scholarly monographs, including "Imagining the Past in France, 1250-1500" and "Translating the Past: Laurent de Premierfait and Boccaccio's 'De casibus.'" Hedeman also co-curated an exhibition at the Getty titled "Imagining the Past in France, 1250-1500."

Founded in 1947, the Humanities Lecture Series is the oldest continuing series at KU. More than 150 eminent scholars from around the world have participated in the program, including author Salman Rushdie, poet Gwendolyn Brooks and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Recent speakers have included Stephen Greenblatt, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Mary Oliver. Shortly after the program’s inception, a lecture by one outstanding KU faculty member was added to the schedule. For information on the series, visit the Hall Center website.