Christopher Richards

Christopher T. Richards is a medieval art historian with a specialization in late-medieval illuminated manuscripts of French poetry. His research considers the history of sexuality, medieval image theory, and especially their intersection. He is currently in the process of publishing a series of articles on the subject of medieval artistic practice, including "Fabulous History: Painting History in Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 5069," and medieval queer theories of art and the artist, most recently "Couverture: Transing the Medieval Manuscript," Future publications include: an exploration of depictions of Amazons in fourteenth-century manuscripts, a trans* reimagining of the western canon, and new reading of the bearded Medusa in Archaic Greek vase painting and late-medieval manuscripts. When he is not investigating medieval illuminated manuscripts, Prof. Richards considers contemporary queer and feminist art, and even collaborates with contemporary artists who aspire to tell queer and feminist histories through their artworks (most recently as part of "The Invention of Truth" exhibition at 601Artspace in New York City). Prof. Richards is also invested in making scholarship, particularly queer theoretical scholarship, more accessible to undergraduate students and the public at large. Recent efforts in this regard include art criticism in the Brooklyn Rail and appearances on podcasts. Above all, Prof. Richards loves working in the classroom with students, encouraging them to discover the fundamental queerness of what is a distant, strange, and long-lost medieval past.

Interests: Gothic art, medieval France, image theory, medieval poetry, book history and manuscript studies, Lacanian psychoanalysis, queer and trans theory, queer modern and contemporary art, the imagination.