Jelena Bogdanović is an Assistant Professor of Architectural History at the School of Art and Design. She also participates in ECU’s programs in Russian and Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Here at ECU, Jelena offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in architectural history and monumental arts. 

Jelena specializes in the architectural history of medieval period. In particular she examines the architectural and artistic heritage of the Byzantine, Slavic, Western European, and Islamic medieval cultures, with an emphasis on cross-cultural and religious themes of architecture and artistic hybridity in the Mediterranean basin. Her main research is on canopies ― four-columned architectural structures with or without roofs ― and their role in defining relationships between the sacred space, human body, and memory. Academic interests include various concepts of sacred space, cultural and religious appropriations, copies and emulations, destruction and revisionism, anachronisms, preservation of architectural heritage, as well as themes on architectural profession and women architects. 

Trained both as an architect and an historian of art and architecture, Jelena has done archaeological, architectural, visual, and textual studies in Brazil, Bulgaria, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and the U.S. She has presented her work at numerous professional conferences nationally and internationally, contributed articles in scholarly journals, entries for the Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Encyclopedia of the Hellenic World, book chapters on medieval architecture and arts for The Middle East in Focus, Spatial Icons. Textuality and Performativity, Approaches to Byzantine Architecture and Its Decoration, and edited two professional books on modern architecture. In addition to presenting at scholarly venues, she has been invited to talk about architectural and art accomplishments for various multimedia, including the Voice of America, and served as a consultant for the acquisition of the early Christian ciborium (canopy) for the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. Her current research projects include the preparation of edited volumes about political landscapes of capitals (with J. Christie) and modernist architecture and arts in Serbia (1918-41) (with L. Robinson) as well as a book-length manuscript on canopies and the framing of sacred space in the Byzantine ecclesiastical tradition (ca. 300-1500). 

EDUCATION
Ph.D. Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
M.A. Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
M.A. Art History, Vanderbilt University
B.Arch. Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Serbia

COURSES OFFERED
Undergraduate
ART 1906: Art History Survey I: Prehistoric to Medieval (FC:FA)
ART 2920: Art of the Middle Ages (WI)
ART 2925: Byzantine Art and Architecture (WI)
ART 3950: Architectural History of the Middle East Before 1600 (FC:FA)
ART 3951: Introduction into Architectural History (WI)
ART 3953: Russian Art and Architecture
ART 4950: Twentieth-Century Architecture
ART 3500: Independent Studies
ART 5500: Independent Studies
MRST 2400: Introduction to Medieval Studies (FC:HU)
MULT 3500: Research in Multidisciplinary Studies (WI)
MULT 4999: Seminar in Multidisciplinary Studies (WI)

Graduate
ART 6906: Twentieth-Century Architecture
ART 6910: Art of the Middle Ages
ART 6950: Architectural History of the Middle East Before 1600
ART 6951: History of Architecture
ART 6952: Byzantine Art and Architecture
ART 6953: Russian Art and Architecture
ART 6500: Independent Studies

PUBLICATIONS
“The Performativity of Shrines in a Byzantine Church: The Shrines of St. Demetrios” in Spatial Icons. Textuality and Performativity, ed. A. Lidov [Moscow, forthcoming]

“The Art and Architecture of Egypt” in The Middle East in Focus: Egypt, ed. M. Russell [forthcoming]

“Life in a Tower in the Late Byzantine Period: Examples from Northern Greece” in Approaches to Byzantine Architecture and Its Decoration: Studies in Honor of Slobodan Ćurčić, eds. M. J. Johnson, R. Ousterhout, and A. Papalexandrou (Ashgate, 2011) [forthcoming]

“Regional Developments in Late Byzantine Architecture and the Question of ‘Building Schools’: An Overlooked Case of the Fourteenth-Century Churches from the Region of Skopje” Byzantinoslavica 69 (2011) [forthcoming]

“On the Architecture of the Konaks in Serbia (1804-1830s),” Serbian Studies 21/2 (2007) [publication date 2010]: 161-180.

“The Original Tomb of St. Simeon and Its Significance for the Architectural History of Hilandar Monastery,” Hilandarski Zbornik 12 (2008): 35-54.

“Jelisaveta Načić: The First Serbian Female Architect,” Serbian Studies 18/2 (2004): 403-410.

“Architect Nikola Dobrović – A Member of the Heroic Generation,” Serbian Studies 17/1 (2003): 87-100.

“The Proclamation of the New Covenant: The Pre-Iconoclastic Altar Ciboria in Rome and Constantinople,” Athanor 18 (2002): 7-19. http://www.fsu.edu/~arh/images/athanor/athxx/AthanorXX_bogdanovic.pdf

“Apofatični videz mavzolejev kraljevske dinastije Nemanjićev,” Apokalipsa 55/56 (2002): 95-105. / “The Apophatic Appearance of Royal Mausolea of the Nemanjić Dynasty,” Annales d'Esthétique 41A (2001/2): 127-139. [The same article has been published twice, in Slovenian and English by invitation]

“Political Ideology and Architecture” (with N. Stanković), Compendium of the works done in the Belgrade Open School (Belgrade, 1999). [Published as the best-written paper in the humanities done in the Belgrade Open School for the 1993-98 period]

Abstracts and Proceedings
“The Relational Geopolitical Landscape of Constantinople, the Capital of the Byzantine Empire” Abstracts of Papers. 98th College Art Association Annual Conference (Chicago, 2010): 27.

“The Rhetoric of Architecture and Memory of the Holy Sepulchre in Byzantium” Abstracts of Papers. Byzantine Studies Conference 36 (2010): 38-39. / “The Rhetoric of Architecture and Memory of the Holy Sepulchre in Byzantium” Abstracts of Papers. Byzantine Studies Conference 35 (2009): 84-85. [The same abstract has been published twice for 2009 and 2010]

“The Performativity of Shrines in a Byzantine Church: The Shrines of St. Demetrios” Spatial Icons. Textuality and Performativity. ed. A. Lidov (Moscow: Indrik, 2009): 54-58.

“The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin at Matejić. Regional Re-interpretation of Middle Byzantine Constantinopolitan Architecture in the Palaeologan Era?” Abstracts of Papers. Byzantine Studies Conference 29 (2003): 18-19.

Entries in Encyclopedia / Dictionaries / Bibliographies / Databases / Websites
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. R. E. Bjork (Oxford University Press, 2010)
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Reference/?view=usa&ci=9780198662624
Art and Architecture: Russian; Art and Architecture: Serbian; Arch; Ark of the Covenant; Aureole; Corbel; Diaconicon; Exonarthex; Fleuron; Locus Sanctus; Mandylion; Minaret; Mihrab; Minbar; Opus Francigenum; Opus Mixtum; Opus Reticulatum; Opus Sectile; Pilaster; Pilaster Strip; Rose Window; Sacristy; Spandrel; Stringcourse; Tetraconch; Trefoil; Voussoir; Wheel Window

The Encyclopedia of the Hellenic World (2008) www.ehw.gr
- Hagia Eirene (Αγία Ειρήνη); http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=10895
- Late Byzantine Religious Architecture in Constantinople (Υστεροβυζαντινή ναοδομία στην Κωνσταντινούπολη); http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=10893
- Sculpture in Constantinople (Γλυπτική στην Κωνσταντινούπολη); http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=10941
- Water Supply in Constantinople (Σύστημα ύδρευσης στην Κωνσταντινούπολη); http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=12507
- Cisterns (Κιστέρνες); http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=12427
- Basilica Cistern / Yerebatan Saray (Βασιλική Κιστέρνα / Γιερεμπαντάν Σαράι); http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=10881
- Tetrapylon (Τετράπυλο); http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=12429
- Chalke Gate / Entrance of Great Palace (Χαλκή Πύλη / Είσοδος του Μεγάλου Παλατιού) http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=12432

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
“The Rhetoric of Architecture and Memory of the Holy Sepulchre in Byzantium” 36th Annual Conference  of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America, Philadelphia, PA, 2010

“The City Wall and the City Gate: Creating the Sacred Urban Experience in the Middle East before 1600 C.E.” International conference – Cityscapes in History: Creating the Urban Experience, Center for Advanced Studies, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Münich, Germany, 2010

“The Relational Geopolitical Landscape of Constantinople, the Capital of Byzantine Empire.” Panel: The Political Landscapes of Capitals [co-chaired with J. Christie], 98th College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, 2010

“Votive Imagery and Healing in the Mediterranean: Medieval Roots and Contemporary Practices.” Panel: Contemporary Issues in Healing: Spirituality and Medicine; Program supporting traveling exhibition Everyday Miracles: Medical Imagery in Ex-Votos (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/exvotos/) organized by the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda MD and the William E. Laupus Health Sciences Library, Greenville NC, 2010

“Beyond ‘Robin Hood: Men in Tights’ in a Crisis of Wealth.” Panel: The Humanities in the Modern United States: Building Bridges from Research to Real Life, Downtown Dialogues organized by the Humanities Advisory Council at ECU, 2009

“Two-Dimensional Canopies and their Origin in the Opus Sectile Floors of Serbian Medieval Churches” 40th AAASS National Convention Philadelphia, PA, 2008

“Contemplating the Epitaphios of King Milutin (r. 1282-1321) as a Fourteenth-Century Replica of Christ’s Burial Shroud” 38th AAASS National Convention, Washington, D.C., 2006

“ “…and you shall make holy garment for Aaron…:” Un-Veiling Liturgical Mysteries in the Byzantine Church” Hellenic Studies Workshop, Princeton University, 2006

“The Architectural Structure above the Bodily Remains of Hosios Loukas in His Monastery in Boeotia, Greece” Southeastern College Art Conference, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 2006

“The Moving Ciborium. The Fifteenth-Century Major Sakkos of Metropolitan Photios in Use” Medieval Liturgy Group, Museum of Biblical Art, New York, New York, 2006

“On the Architecture of the Konaks in Serbia after 1804” 36th AAASS National Convention, Boston, MA, 2004

“The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin at Matejič. Regional Re-interpretation of Middle Byzantine Constantinopolitan Architecture in the Palaeologan Era?” 29th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, Bates College, Lewiston, ME, 2003

“The Role of Mid-fourteenth Century Skopje in the Development of Byzantine Church Architecture” Round Table on Palaeologan Culture, Oxford University, Oxford, UK, 2003

“Jelisaveta Načić – The First Serbian Woman Architect” 34th AAASS National Convention, Pittsburgh, PA, 2002

“Architect Nikola Dobrović – A Member of the Heroic Generation” 33rd AAASS National Convention, Crystal City (Arlington), VA, 2001

“The Apophatic Appearance of Royal Mausolea of the Nemanjić Dynasty” The First Mediterranean Congress of Aesthetics: Aesthetics on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, Athens, Greece, 2000

EDITORSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL BOOKS
M. R. Perović, Modern Architecture – Anthology of Texts, vols. 2/A and 2/B (Belgrade: School of Architecture, 1999 and 2000)

MEDIA COMMENTARY
“Wooden Churches and Their Significance” television commentary for the Voice of America (April 2nd, 2010; in Serbian language) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKxUlSrgaAA

LANGUAGES
Serbian (native)
Modern Greek, Russian, German, and French (reading knowledge)
Latin and Classical Greek (basic)