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Caroline Bruzelius

Caroline Bruzelius

Director Emerita, Wired! Lab; Anne M. Cogan Professor Emerita of Art, Art History & Visual Studies
Caroline Bruzelius

Caroline Bruzelius works on architecture, sculpture, and urbanism in the Middle Ages. She has published on French Gothic architecture (for example, the abbey church of St.-Denis and Notre Dame in Paris) as well as on medieval architecture in Italy, in particular Naples in the 13th and 14th centuries (in both English and Italian editions). She recently published a book on Franciscan and Dominican architecture, Preaching, Building and Burying: Friars in the Medieval City (Yale U. Press, 2014). Bruzelius has also published numerous articles on the architecture of medieval nuns and architectural enclosure, an area in which she did pioneering work.

Her 1991 catalogue of the Brummer Collection of Medieval Sculpture at Duke is now being revisited as a series of interactive display installations being developed in collaboration with Mark J. V. Olson. She has been awarded numerous grants and prizes, including grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Max-Planck Institute (Hertziana Library), and the Fulbright Association. She is former Director of the American Academy in Rome, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and at the Medieval Academy. Bruzelius is co-Director of a database on images of the monuments in the medieval Kingdom of Naples, and is working on two new studies: a book called “The Cathedral and the City,” and a general study of architecture in the Medieval Kingdom of Sicily.

Past Collaborations

Sta. Chiara Choir Screen

Scholarship

Books & Book Chapters

  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Imperialism, Orientalism, and the North European Encounter with Palermo.” Exhibition catalogue: Chiaromonte. Lusso, prestigio, politica e guerra nella Sicilia del Trecento Un restauro verso il futuro, Palermo. In press.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Visualizing Venice: An International Collaboration.” In Lo spazio narrabile. Scritti di storia inonore di Donatella Calabi, edited by Rosa Tamborrino and Guido Zucconi, 155-160. Venice: Quodlibet, 2014.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. Preaching, Building and Burying: Friars and the Medieval City. London: Yale University Press, 2014.
  • Huffman, Kristin L., Andrea Giordano, and Caroline Bruzelius, eds. Visualizing Venice: Mapping and Modeling Time and Change in a City. New York: Routledge, 2019.

Public-Facing Scholarship

Articles

  • Bruzelius, C., A. Giordano, L. Giles, L. Repola, E. De Feo, A. Basso, E. Castagna. “L’eco delle pietre: History, Modeling, and GPR as Tools in Reconstructing the Choir Screen at Sta. Chiara in Naples.” Archeologia e Calcolatori Supplemento 10 (2018): 81-103. doi:10.19282/ACS.10.2018.06.
  • Bruzelius, C., and P. Vitolo. “Recovering the Architectural Patrimony of South Italy: The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database.” Archeologia e Calcolatori Supplemento 10 (2018): 15-28. doi:10.19282/ACS.10.2018.02.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, and Hannah L. Jacobs. “The Living Syllabus: Rethinking the Introductory Course to Art History with Interactive Visualization.” Art History Pedagogy & Practice 2, no. 1 (2017).
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, and Paola Vitolo. “The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database.” Visual Resources 35, no. 1-2 (2019): 74-87. doi:10.1080/01973762.2019.1558994.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, and Paola Vitolo.“The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database.” Archeologia e Calcolatori no. 27 (2016): 107-130. doi:10.19282/AC.27.2016.06.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, Paola Vitolo, and Joseph C. Williams. “Historical Images and the Recovery of the Past. The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database.” In 7th AIUCD congress (Italian Association for Digital Humanities): Patrimoni culturali nell’era digitale. Memorie, culture umanistiche e tecnologia/Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age. Memory, Humanities and Technologies, Bologna, Italy, (2018): 135-138.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Digital Technologies and New Evidence in Architectural History.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 76, no. 4 (2017): 436-439. doi:10.1525/jsah.2017.76.4.436.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Teaching with Visualization Technologies: How Does Information Become Knowledge.” Material Religion 9 (2013): 246-253. doi:10.2752/175183413X13703410896654.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “The Norman Cathedral of Sant’Agata in Catania,” L’Officina dello sguardo. Scritti in onore di Maria Andaloro. Rome, 121-126. Bruzelius, Caroline. “Visualizing the Medieval Past. The Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Project.” Quei maledetti normani. Studi offerti a Errico Cuozzo per i suoi settant’anni. 109-116.

Presentations

  • Baltes, Elizabeth P., Caroline Bruzelius, Hannah L. Jacobs, and Timothy Shea. “Digital Thinking and Art History: Re-Imagining Teaching, Research, and the Museum.” Paper presented as part of the Intermezzo Speaking Series, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC, September 29, 2015.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, and Hannah L. Jacobs. “Demonstration: Using a Neatline Syllabus in the Introductory Art History Survey.” Paper presented as part of the panel “Art Historians Interested in Pedagogy and Technology: ‘A Signature Pedagogy for Art History in the Twenty-First Century’” at the College Art Association Annual Conference, Washington, D.C, February 3, 2016.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, and Hannah L. Jacobs. “Wired! Full Immersion: Neatline and the Digital Syllabus.” Paper presented at Media Arts + Sciences Rendezvous, Duke University, Durham, NC, March 19, 2015.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, and Rachael Brady. “Digital Technology and the Humanities,” Paper presented at Mount Holyoke College and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 2012.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, and Victoria E. Szabo. “The Lives of Places and Cities: New models of representation and their conceptual implications for the past and present.” Paper presented at Seminario Internazionale: Promosso dagli insegnamenti: Storia dell’architettura e Disegno edile, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy, June 9, 11, and 16, 2014.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, Mark J.V. Olson, Donatella Calabi, Andrea Giordano, Victoria E. Szabo. “Visualizing Venice.” Panel presentation at “Florentia Illustrata. Digital Mapping and Techniques of Visualizing the Pre-modern Italian City,” Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, Florence, Italy, June 17, 2013.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, Mark J.V. Olson, Guillermo Sapiro, Mariano Tepper. “The Lives of Things.” Paper presented at NED Talk, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC, October 4, 2015.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline, William Broom, and John Taormina. “The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database Project: From Conceptual Design to Management.” Paper presented at Digital Matters in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC, April 6-7, 2018.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Apps, Maps, and Models –The Digital Revolution and History.” Paper presented at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, March 27, 2017.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Digital Thinking and Art History: Re-Imagining Teaching, Research, and the Museum.” Paper presented at University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, November 5, 2015.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Digital Urban History: la storia della città tra ricerca e musei.” Paper presented at the University of Turin, Turin, Italy, February 2-4, 2015.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Revolutionizing Teaching with Technology.” Paper presented at Clark University, Worcester, MA, April 2010. Bruzelius, Caroline. “Robert Willis and Architectural Taxonomy.” Paper presented at the International Congress: Sant’Andrea di Vercelli e il Gotico Europeo all’inizio del Duecento, Vercelli, Italy, May 29-June 1, 2019.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Teaching with Technology.” Paper presented at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, January 2012.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Tecnologia visuale e la Storia dell’Arte.” Paper presented at La Sapienza, Rome, Italy, April 2014.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Teconologia e l’insegnamento.” Paper presented at Ca’Foscari University, Venice, Italy, October 2011.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “The Kingdom of Sicily Image Database: Creating a Scholarly Resource.” Paper presented at Australia National University, Canberra, Australia, November 2, 2015.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “The Kingdom of Sicily Image Database: Creating a Scholarly Resource.” Paper presented at Australia National University, Canberra, Australia, November 2, 2015.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Transforming Art History in the Digital Revolution.” Paper presented at the Digital Art History Research Group, The Courtault Institute of Art, London, UK, June 12, 2017.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Visual Space and Technology.” Paper presented at TEDxDuke, 2012. Bruzelius, Caroline. “Visualizing Venice: The Story of a City Through Maps and Models.” Paper presented at Save Venice Boston, Boston, MA, February 6, 2018.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “Visualizing Venice.” Paper presented at the Digital Art History Symposium, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, November 2014.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “What Can Digital Technologies Do for the Humanities?” Paper presented at the Annual meeting of Art Libraries Society/Southeast, Duke University, Durham, NC, 2011.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “What Does Technology have to do with the Humanities?” Paper presented at St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO, 2012.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “What Does Technology have to do with the Humanities?” Paper presented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 2011.
  • Bruzelius, Caroline. “What is Architectural History? The Neapolitan Drawings of Robert Willis (1800-1875) and the Origins of Architectural Analysis.” Paper presented at the Dipartimento di Architettura, Università di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy, December 2, 2019.
  • Olson, Mark J.V., and Caroline Bruzelius. “Learning by Making: Digital Methods and the Wired! Experiment at Duke University.” Paper presented at the Inaugural Lecture, Wesleyan Digital and Computational Knowledge Initiative, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, March 6, 2013.
  • Szabo, Victoria E., Caroline Bruzelius, Maurizio Forte, Copper Frances Giloth, Louis P. Kaplan, Stefania Zardini Lacedelli, Radu Leon, Kerry Loewen, Diana Ndiaye, Mark J.V. Olson. “Digital Cultural Heritage as Public Humanities Collaboration.” Session organized at the College Art Association Conference, Washington, DC, February 4, 2016.

Dissertations & Theses

  • Giles, Lucas. “Historic Architecture and Digital Modeling: The Reconstruction of the Choir Screen at Santa Chiara in Naples.” MA thesis, Duke University, 2016.
  • Williams, Jessica Caitlin. “Robert Willis (1800-1875) and the Historiography of Italian Gothic Architecture.” Undergraduate thesis, Duke University, 2019.

Funding & Sponsorships

“The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database.” National Endowment for the Humanities, Collaborative Research Grant. 2011-2014. “The Medieval Kingdom of Sicily Image Database.” The International Center of Medieval Art. 2018.