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Home » News » November 28: Visiting Scholar Robert Ousterhout Presents The Enigma of Cappadocia

November 28: Visiting Scholar Robert Ousterhout Presents The Enigma of Cappadocia

Published December 1, 2017

Robert G OusterhoutThe Department of Art History invites you to a public lecture by visiting scholar Robert G. Ousterhout on Thursday, November 28 at 6 pm in WJB 2004. Ousterhout, Professor Emeritus of History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, will present “The Enigma of Cappadocia,” a talk centered on his extensive investigations of the Byzantine rock-cut structures in the unique geological region of Central Anatolia.

A recognized specialist in Byzantine architecture, Ousterhout’s research focuses on the documentation and interpretation of the vanishing architectural heritage of the eastern Mediterranean. He is the author of numerous publications on Byzantine art and architecture, including Master Builders of Byzantium (University of Pennsylvania Museum Publications, 2008), A Byzantine Settlement in Cappadocia (Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 2011), John Henry Haynes: Archaeologist and Photographer in the Ottoman Empire 1881-1900 (2nd revised edition, Istanbul: Cornucopia, 2016), and most recently, Visualizing Community: Art, Material Culture, and Settlement in Byzantine Cappadocia (Harvard, 2017).

Professor Ousterhout has taught in the History of Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania since 2007.  Previously he was Professor of Architectural History at the University of Illinois, where he taught for more than twenty years. At Pennsylvania, Ousterhout served as Director of the Center for Ancient Studies 2008-16.  He has been a Fellow in residence at Dumbarton Oaks and is currently serving as Senior Fellow. He has also been both President of U.S. National Committee for Byzantine Studies and of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America. At Illinois Ousterhout was honored as University Scholar (1992-95), Outstanding Faculty in the College of Fine and Applied Arts (1991, 2002), Associate at the Institute of Advanced Study (1993-4, 2006), and he received their Alumni Achievement Award in 2011.