Dr Karen McCluskey

Associate Professor
BA/BFA, MA, PhD

Email: karen.mccluskey@nd.edu.au
Phone: 02 8204 4121

  • Biography

    Karen is an art historian of the European Middle Ages, with a particular research focus on faith, hagiography, and individual and collective experiences. She is currently editing a volume called 'Art and Lived Religion: 800-1800' which pioneers an examination of art history and lived religion as complimentary methodologies. She is also leading a multi-disciplinary project, 'Experiencing Books of Hours: Manuscripts as Cognitive Environments,' which focuses on mediaeval books of hours in Australian collections. Her first monograph 'New Saints in Late-Mediaeval Venice, 1200-1500: a typological study' was published by Routledge in 2020 and a chapter on perceptions of impairment in the painted biographies of Fina of San Gimignano was recently included in the 'Routledge Companion to Art and Disability' (2022).

    Karen is a fellow of the Research Council of Finland's Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences. She was awarded a PhD from the Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Sydney in 2006. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from McMaster University, both in Ontario, Canada.

  • Teaching areas

    Karen teaches courses on many aspects of ancient, mediaeval and early modern history, with a particular emphasis on material culture. She has been consistently commended by the Vice Chancellor for strong teaching performance. Pedagogically, Karen emphasises 'peer to peer learning' in order to engage and empower her students. Furthermore, she prioritises 'experience-based learning' meaning that her students regularly learn out of the classroom at local museums, libraries and historical sites where primary evidence is available to analyse and experience first hand. In this regard, she is an avid participant in the University's 'Experience the World' programme, co-leading courses to Spain (2013, 2017), France (2019) and Cambodia (2024).

    Major teaching areas include:

    • Mediaeval and Early Modern European History
    • Art History
    • Lived Experience in History
    • History of Emotions
    • Historiography
    • Themes in Ancient and Modern History

  • Research interests and current projects

    Research Expertise

    • Art History, Mediaeval History, Lived Religion and History of Experiences
    • Saints' relics, sepulchres and art in mediaeval Italy
    • Historiography and Iconography
    • Legends, Myths, Hagiography
    • Gender and Disability in history
    • Mediaeval Manuscripts
    • Mediaeval pilgrimage

    Supervision

    Phd:

    • '"A phalanx of corseted bosoms": Suffrage Textiles as Political Protest and Personal Solace' (current)
    • 'An Embodied Image Articulates the Soul: Art Practice as Lived Religion' (current)
    • 'Experiencing Print: Parisian Artists and the Book of Hours, 1500-1530' (completed 2022)'
    • 'The Ottoman Renaissance: a Reconsideration of Early Modern Ottoman Art, 1413-1575' (completed 2016)
    • 'Joseph of Nazareth: Man and Father - an emblematic study of Jeronimo Gracian's Summary of the Excellencies of St Joseph (1597)' (completed 2017)

    MA:

    • 'Living Charity: beata Caterina, the Pizzicaiuoli Altarpiece and Lived Religion in 15th-century Siena' (under examination)
    • 'St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, and the Development of an Australian Catholic Identity' (current)

    MPhil:

    • 'Light of Hope: Depictions of Salvation in the Great North Window of St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney' (under examination)
    • 'The Age of de Fer: Maps, Knowledge and the Western World View, 1680-1720' (completed 2023)
    • 'Battlefields and Bedrooms: Negotiating Gendered Arenas of Power within Le Roman de Silence, 13th century' (completed 2022)
    • 'Imagining the Nation: The British Past and Nationalistic Present at the British Museum, 1860-1914' (completed 2020)
    • 'Shadow in the Light: The Dark Romanticism of Francisco de Goya' (completed 2018)

    Honours:

    • 'Gender Reassignment in the Iconography of St George in the Middle Ages' (current)
    • 'An Artist’s Experience: Jacques-Louis David in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France' (current)
    • 'Fifteenth Century Representations of Joan of Arc' (completed 2023)
    • 'The Dynamic Legacy of the Predella: A Site of Devotional, Historical and Cultural Significance' (completed 2019)
    • 'Juana la Loca in the Nineteenth Century: Repainting the Spanish Queen' (completed 2018)
    • 'Vessels of Meaning: Personal Identity in the University of Sydney's Book of Hours, Ms. 58' (completed 2017)
    • 'Visualising the Saints: An Exploration into the Form of Head Reliquaries of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries' (completed 2015)
    • 'An Exploration of Masculinity in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur (c.1485)' (completed 2014)
    • 'An Analysis of the Viability of the Valley of the Fallen as a Public Monument' (completed 2014)
    • ‘Next Year in Jerusalem’: Visual Expressions of Zionism in the Szyk Haggadah (completed 2013)
    • 'Anna of Savoy: Power and Gender in the Palaiologan Empire, 1306-1365 (completed 2012)
    • 'Hortense Mancini:  the ‘Salon Years’, c .1675-1699 (completed 2012)
    • 'Marcus Aurelius as Philosopher King' (completed 2011)
    • 'Philip II of Macedon: a revision (completed 2010)

  • Books

    • New Saints in Late-Mediaeval Venice: a typological study. Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2020.
    • Art and Lived Religion: 800-1800, coedited with Raisa Toivo (forthcoming 2025).

  • Book chapters

    • ‘The Art of Seeing: St Christopher in Early Modern Venice.’ Art and Lived Religion: 800-1800. Forthcoming 2025.
    • ‘Holy Men and Artful Nuns: what paintings reveal about the lived experience of trecento women.’ Women in Trecento Art and Architecture, edited by Judith Steinhoff. Brepols: Trecento Forum Series [submitted: forthcoming 2024].
    • ‘Gaetano Grezler and the Abbesses of San Lorenzo, Venice: a Study of the Human-Object Relationship in the Face of Suppression,’ The Fabulous Life of Objects and Art, edited by Sally Hickson. Brepols [submitted, forthcoming 2024].
    • ‘The Beautiful Death of the Count of Orgaz: Andres Nunez, El Greco and the Making of a Counter Reformation Saint.’ Death, Disease and Mystical Experience in Early Modern Art, edited by Jennifer Milam and Michael Hill. Amsterdam University Press [submitted: forthcoming 2024].
    • ‘Ability and Disability in the Pictorial Vitae of beata Fina in Fifteenth Century San Gimignano.’ In Routledge Companion to Art and Disability. New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2022. (with Louise St. Guillaume and Daniela da Silva).
    • ‘When the Fury of the Proud Sea Re-awoke’: Water, Devotion and Lived Experience in Renaissance Venice.’ In Lived Religion and Everyday Life in Early Modern Hagiographic Material, edited by Jenni Kuuliala, et al. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan, 2019.
    • ‘Why Study “Dark Age” History?’ In History for the Curious: Why Study History? edited by K. Vaidya et al (eds). Canberra: Curious Academic Publishing, 2017.
    • ‘That Bloody Myth of Venice Again! Noble Blood and Sanctity in Venice.’ In Trunk Volume Two: Blood, edited by S. Boccalatte and M. Jones. Sydney: Boccalatte, 2012.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    Peer-reviewed articles:

    • 'The legacy of Greek Classicism in Australian commemorative monuments, with special focus on Darien Pullen’s Winged Victory 2015' Journal of War and Culture [special feature: Classicism and War in the 20th century (co-editing with Ana Carden-Coyne and Christine de Matos). (forthcoming early 2025).
    • ‘Miraculous Visions: Apparitio in the Vitae of Mediaeval Venetian Saints and Beati,’ IKON, Journal of Iconographic Studies 6 (2013): 167-181.
    • 'Official Sanctity alla Veneziana: Gerardo, Pietro Orseolo and Giacomo Salomani,’ Conserveries mémorielles [En ligne], 14 (2013) [mis en ligne le 01 juillet 2013, consulté le 29 août 2013]. URL: http://cm.revues.org/1718

    Book Reviews:

    • McCluskey, Karen. ‘Review: Peter Howard, et al, eds., Renaissance Religions: Modes and Meanings in History.’ Turnhout: Brepols, 2021; pp. 1-400, Journal of Religious History Volume 46, Issue 3, 2022.
    • McCluskey, Karen. ‘Review: P. Nagy and D. Boquet, Medieval Sensibilities: a History of Emotions in the Middle Ages (Polity: 2018),’ Parergon, 38/1 (2021), 190-192.

  • Conference papers

    • HEX, University of Tampere, Finland March 2023, Experiences of Masculinity: Mobility Impairments in Italian Visual Hagiographies.
    • Renaissance Society of America, Dublin, Ireland April 2022, Holy Men and Artful Nuns: what paintings reveal about he lived experience of Trecento women
    • Material Culture Symposium, NAS, Sydney Feb 2002, The Beautiful Death of the Count of Orgaz
    • Renaissance Society of America, Virtual April 2021, Art and Lived Religious Experience in Renaissance Venice: the case of St Christopher
    • Society for the History of Emotions, University of Ottawa, Canada October 2019, El Greco’s Burial of the Count of Orgaz: conflict, creativity and a counter-reformation saint
    • Anzamems, Victoria University, Wellington NZ February 2017, From Local Obscurity to Civic Heroes: the elevation of Domestic Saints and Beati in 17th century Venice
    • World History Association, Ghent, Belgium 2016, Ajax and Anzacs: Greek Classicism, Australia and the Great War (with Christine de Matos)
    • 'Acqua Alta: Venice, Water and Saints'. Finish Institute in Rome Workshop. Rome Italy.
    • 'From local obscurity to civic heroes: the elevation of domestic saints and ‘beati’ in Venice in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries' Australia and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS), Victoria University, Wellington New Zealand
    • 'Ajax and Anzacs: Greek classicism, Australia and the Great War' World History Association Conference Ghent, Belgium (in collaboration with Dr Christine de Matos, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney)
    • 'Medieval Festival: a journey of interdisciplinary learning and teaching' Sydney 2015 Forum: Team-based learning and teaching The University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney (in collaboration with Jane Bergeron and Michael Pigott [theatre studies] and Renee Kohler-Ryan [philosophy], University of Notre Dame Sydney)
    • El Greco’s Burial of Count Orgaz: a problem of interpretation, UNDA Art History Mini-Conference2013
    • 'Bellum iustum: hagiography and Venetian imperialism in the later Middle Ages', WHA conference: Faith, Empire and Conflict, Fremantle, WA
    • 'Local Sanctity in Late-Mediaeval Venice: convergences and divergences' Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference, San Diego, USA
    • 'Happiness for Dummies: Saints' Lives and the Possibility of Happiness in the Later Middle Ages', Happiness Symposium, Arts and Sciences, UNDA Sydney
    • 'Miraculous Visions: Apparitio in the Vitae of Mediaeval Venetian Saints and Beati', 'Visions' 6th International Conference of Iconographic Studies, University of Rijeka, Croatia
    • 'Official Sanctity alla veneziana: Pietro Orseolo, Gerardo da Venezia and Giacomo Salomani', Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference, Venice, Italy

  • Professional affiliations

    • Research Council of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences
    • Italian Art Society
    • Anzamems (Australia and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies)
    • Hagiography Society
    • Renaissance Society of America
    • Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences
    • Italian Art Society
    • Anzamems (Australia and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies)
    • Hagiography Society
    • Renaissance Society of America

  • Awards

    • Visiting Fellowship (HEX and University of Tampere), Tampere, Finland (2023)
    • Italian Art Society/Kress Foundation International Conference Travel Grant, New York (2022)
    • Kress Foundation Travel Bursary Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York (2012)
    • Research Incentive Scheme Grant (Special Projects), University of Notre Dame Australia (2010)
    • Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Award for Venetian Research, Warwickshire, UK (1999)
    • International PG Research Scholarship and IPA, University of Sydney and DETYA (6 semesters)
    • Embassy of Italy Scholarship Embassy of Italy (Toronto); Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Rome (1996)