Karin Krause

We are pleased to announce that as of July 1st, Prof. Krause will be Associate Professor of Byzantine Theology and Visual Culture.  We asked Professor Krause to answer some important questions about her work and time in Chicago.

How did you come to do the work you do?  What do you like about it?

I had a vivid interest in art, history, and archaeology when I was a young teenager, and I spent several of my summer breaks at archaeological excavations of ancient Roman sites in Germany. It was mostly through travel in the Mediterranean area, especially in Italy and Turkey, that I first encountered early Christian and Byzantine art. I was fascinated by these monuments and wanted to learn more about them, so I read what I could get hold of. The universities of Bonn and Munich, where I was later enrolled for my master’s and doctoral studies, respectively, are renowned for their programs in my fields of specialization, Art History and Byzantine Studies. I have very fond memories of my years as a university student because I received a lot of encouragement and support to pursue my research, practically from day one. For my doctoral thesis on the illustrated homilies of St. John Chrysostom, I traveled extensively to study Greek manuscripts, many of them previously unpublished, that are now scattered across libraries in Europe and the United States. Discovering new material, and making connections between seemingly disparate things, is what drives me, and I hope to encourage a similar kind of curiosity in my own students.

Tell us a bit about your upcoming projects.

I have recently completed a monograph on Divine Inspiration in Byzantium that will be published this spring by Cambridge University Press. Analysis of a wide range of texts and images enabled me to show in what ways conceptions of authenticity were employed in the Byzantine Empire to substantiate claims to holiness, orthodoxy, and religious authority. I found that assertions of divine inspiration were ubiquitous in Byzantium and highly formative for Greek Orthodox religious and cultural identity. I am currently working on several new projects, including an article on visual exegesis in Byzantine psalters. My ongoing book project about religious artifacts that were transferred from Byzantium to Venice during the Middle Ages is especially dear to me and nearing completion. I have a long-standing interest in phenomena of cultural transfer and artistic mobility in pre-modern Europe, particularly Italy. For my book, I am examining the different forms of response to the imported objects in Venetian literature and the visual arts between the late Middle Ages and ca. 1800. The project sheds further light on Byzantium’s role as a prestigious cultural model for the rest of Europe, inspiring emulation and manifold forms of appropriation even beyond the empire’s fall in 1453.

What do you enjoy about living in Chicago -- now that you've been here for a few years to experience all the seasons and gotten to know the city?

I have the privilege of living near the lakeshore and am always fascinated by the swiftly changing blues and greens of the water depending on the light conditions. I am also very fond of the city’s architecture which I find simply breathtaking! The University of Chicago campus also has several architectural marvels. Newer landmarks like the Campus North Residential Commons and the David Rubenstein Forum wonderfully complement the more traditional buildings around the quadrangles. We are blessed with an exceptionally beautiful campus, and I firmly believe that beauty makes an important difference in human life, and helps us thrive.

And what about teaching here now?

My own decision to join this university and the Divinity School entailed several major transitions for me. It took time to get used to living in Hyde Park and to working in an academic environment that is different in many ways from the European universities where I learned and taught previously. Additionally, I teach fields that do not usually form part of the academic study of religion, particularly visual culture. The value of the insights that visual hermeneutics have to offer to the field of religious studies is difficult to overestimate, though, given the pivotal role that material artifacts have played in many faith traditions and religious rituals. Teaching here requires a willingness to experiment, also some persuasion, and a lot of patience. I am grateful for the personal and intellectual generosity I have received from colleagues as well as students over the years.

Over the last few years the university has become more diverse in many respects. I like that students in my classes come from all kinds of academic fields and cultural backgrounds, which adds interesting perspectives and valuable expertise to our discussions.  I am very excited about the Divinity School’s expansion in recent years and its hires of new faculty to include several additional fields of inquiry. Faculty affiliations across campus facilitate interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration, which I also find inspiring for my work.  All in all, The school’s wide range of faculty expertise in both traditional and less common areas makes it a very special, indeed, unique, place for the study of religion.