Meredyth Winter lectures in the arts of the medieval Islamic world at The Courtauld, specialising in craft and the transmission of artistic knowledge of medieval Iraq and Iran. Her research centres on the processes underlying art-making in a variety of media, from weaving to brick masonry. Favouring a technical art historical approach, her work blends material culture and art historical perspectives to reconstruct historical labour networks through an investigation of materials and techniques. Her work studies how artists carried out their crafts, the means by which they learned and preserved these skills, and how the resulting craft traditions facilitated ongoing artistic and technological developments.
She earned her doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies and the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University and also holds a master’s degree from the Bard Graduate Center (NYC) in Material Culture. In addition to previous teaching appointments, Meredyth was the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Costume & Textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2021-2024, where she carried out research on the museum’s archaeological holdings from Erich Schmidt’s 1931-36 digs at Rayy, south of Tehran. Her research has also received support from the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Art & Architecture, the American Institute for Iranian Studies, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University.
Teaching
MA Special Option: Art that Counts: Mathematical and Aesthetic Understanding in the Arts of Medieval Iraq and Iran c. 900-1300
BA2: Approaches to Islamic Ornament c. 650-1350
BA1: Craft and Material Culture in Medieval Islamic Art c. 650 – 1250
Publications
“Towering Tombs & Forgotten Memories” in Recovering Rayy: The Archaeological Expeditions of Erich Schmidt, ed. Renata Holod, Brill (in preparation).
“Beyond the Surface: Technical Analysis of Egyptian Textiles, 5th–12thCentury,”co-authored with Julie H. Wertz (HAM), Robin Hanson (CMA), and Meredith Montague (BMFA), Social Fabrics: Inscribed Textiles from Medieval Egyptian Tombs, Harvard Art Museums Publications (2022).
“When Curtains Fall: A Shape-Shifting Silk of the Late Abbasid Period” in Medieval Re-Creations: Recycling, Revision, and Relocation in/of the Middle Ages, eds. Hannah Weaver, Joseph Shack, and Daniel Smail, Medieval Globe, Vol. 6.1, 2020.
“Put a Bird on it: What an Aviary Preoccupation Reveals about Medieval Silks” in a guest edited issue of The Textile Museum Journal, vol. 45: Transposing Textile Materiality in the Middle Ages, special ed. Patricia Blessing; series ed. Sumru Krody, 2018.
“The Image and the Drawing in Qajar Iran.” An Album of Artists Drawings from Qajar Iran, ed. David J. Roxburgh. Harvard Art Museums Publications, 2017.
“[Review of] Friedrich Spuhler, Early Islamic Textiles from along the Silk Road (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2020) in The Journal of the Oriental Rug and Textile Society, Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring 2021.
“[Review of] Isabelle Dolezalek, Arabic Script on Christian Kings, Textile Inscriptions on Royal Garments from Norman Sicily (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2017)” in West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 27, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2020.
