Sarah Thompson
Associate Professor, Art - History
Tuesdays 11-1
Sarah Thompson
Associate Professor, Art - History
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), and she will coedit an upcoming volume of studies on Gothic architecture and sculpture in honor of William W. Clark. Her current book project analyzes the postmedieval visual representation of Gothic architecture.
Select Scholarship
Edited Book
Thompson, Sarah, and Jennifer Feltman, eds. The Long Lives of Medieval Art and Architecture. Routledge, 2019.
Selected Articles and Book Chapters
“Rewriting History on the Façade of Saint Denis.” In Facciate palinsesto: monumenti medievali nei processi di rifacimento, edited by Laura Cavazzini. Officina Libraria, 2025: 10-22. In press.
"Negotiating Distance: North American Scholars and Gothic Fieldwork." American Gothic: Reflections on Gothic Architectural Scholarship in America, 1925-2025. Robert Bork, ed. Brill, 2025.
“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. Brill, 2022.
“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. Routledge, 2019.
“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.
Selected Conference Papers
“Antiquarianism or Innovation? Characterizing Gothic in Twelfth-Century Étampes,” Session in Honor of William “Bill” Clark, 61st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 2026.
“Medieval Building Knowledge, Backward and Forward,” Conceptualizing the Knowledge of Artists and Builders in the Global Middle Ages, Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting, University of Notre Dame, March 2024.
“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.
Currently Teaching
In the News
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December 2, 2022
Exploring art history and experimenting with clay in an interdisciplinary classroom
Developed and taught by Assistant Professor Peter Pincus, the course Josiah Wedgewood’s Legacy is a unique meld of art history, philosophy, and ceramics education and encourages students of all majors to explore and learn freely through experimentation and trial and error.