Sarah Thompson
Associate Professor
Sarah Thompson
Associate Professor
Education
BA, University of California at San Diego; MA, Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara
Bio
Dr. Thompson's research addresses concepts of Gothic, and she has published on the historiography of Gothic, medieval architectural design process, the role of Saint-Denis as a French national monument, and the functions of Gothic ruins. With Jennifer Feltman (University of Alabama), she is the coeditor of The Long Lives of Medieval Art and Architecture (Routledge, 2019). Her current book project analyzes the postmedieval visual representation of Gothic architecture.
Select Scholarship
Edited Book
Sarah Thompson and Jennifer Feltman, eds., The Long Lives of Medieval Art and Architecture (Routledge, 2019)
Articles and Book Chapters
“Adaptation and Audience: Remodeling Notre-Dame d’Étampes in the Thirteenth Century,” The Worlds of Villard de Honnecourt: The Portfolio, Medieval Technology, and Gothic Monuments. George Brooks and Maile S. Hutterer, eds. (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 431-459.
“The Power of Absence: The Missing North Tower of Saint-Denis,” The Long Lives of Medieval Art and Architecture, Sarah Thompson and Jennifer Feltman, eds. (New York: Routledge, 2019), 297-316.
“Building Brick City: The Design of RIT’s Henrietta Campus,” Transforming the Landscape: 50 years on the New RIT Campus, Becky Simmons, ed. (RIT Press: 2018), 1-13.
“Adaptation and Audience: Remodeling Notre-Dame d’Étampes in the Thirteenth Century,” AVISTA Forum Journal 22, 57-70.
“Recycling Ruins: The Critical Reception of John Aislabie’s Work at Fountains Abbey and the Changing Function of Gothic,” Third Text 25:6, 675-686.
Conference Sessions
Restoring Medieval Art and Architecture I, II, III: Technology in Documentation and Research; Technology and Concepts of Authenticity; Technology and Access, 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University (virtual), May 2022.
Decoding Destruction and Decay, College Art Association Annual Meeting, New York, February 2017.
Trends and Taste in Medieval Art, 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2012.
Revisiting La Transition: Twelfth Century Architectural Change, Society of Architectural Historians Annual Conference, New Orleans, April 2011.
Conference Papers
“Interrogating Style in Porter’s Paradigm,” Session: Arthur Kingsley Porter 100 Years Later II, 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2023
“Gothic Images, Images of Gothic: The Promotion of Gothic in 19th-Century Photography,” Session: Drawing (New) Stories, 111th College Art Association Annual Meeting, New York, February 2023.
“Rebuilding a Medieval Tower at Saint-Denis,” Session: Restoring Medieval Art and Architecture III: Technology and Access, 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University (virtual), May 2022.
“Encountering Gothic in Early Modern Travel Literature,” Session: Buildings on the Move: Architecture and Travel Across the Pre-Modern World, College Art Association Annual Meeting (virtual), February 2022.
“Rewriting History on the Façade of Saint Denis,” Session: Arte in facciata, CIRICE 2020 IX Convegno internazionale: La città palinsesto, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, June 2021.
“Reconstruction à l'identique: Restoration, Authenticity, and Digital Models in French Gothic Patrimony,” Digital Spaces, Physical Places, Mellon Digital Humanities Symposium, University of Rochester, May 2020.
“Between Materiality and Ephemerality: Popular Representations of Gothic Architecture in the Late 18th Century,” Session: Artistic and Musical Responses to Medieval Remnants, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, July 2019.
“Parish Rivalry in Medieval Étampes.” Session: New Research on Parish Churches. 54th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2019.
“Expanding the Temporal Frame at Notre-Dame d’Étampes,” Sewanee Medieval Colloquium, University of the South, Sewanee, TN, April 2019.