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Heather Hunter Crawley

PhD in Classics & Ancient History

Email: hc7188@bristol.ac.uk

Research:

My PhD project addresses the role of the senses in the Late Antique experience of the divine. I am implicating a Sensory Archaeology in analysis of religious material culture from the period, from private and public, Christian and non-Christian, contexts, such as liturgical silverware and apotropaic amulets. My thesis is that traditional attention to doctrinal text involves the imposition of contemporary sensory hierarchies and Cartesian dualism, and is insufficient in revealing the rich sensory world that early Christianity inhabited and shared with non-Christians. Through the physical sensory experience of ritual, Christians and non-Christians engaged with the divine in their religious practices. The world beyond text mattered, and it mattered significantly; sensory experience within the material world was a path to spiritual salvation.

Supervisors: Dr. Shelley Hales (Classics & Ancient History), & Dr. Beth Williamson (History of Art).

General Research Interests: Christianity, Late Antiquity, Byzantium, Mystery Cults, The Senses, Sensory Archaeology, Visual & Material Culture, Ancient Art & Architecture, Classical Archaeology, Religion in the Ancient World, Ritual, Icons, Hagia Sophia.

Publications:

• 'The Sensory Function of Pilgrimage Souvenirs in Late Antiquity', in submission to FACTA, A Journal of Roman Material Culture Studies.
• ‘Embodying the Divine: The Sensational Experience of the Sixth-Century Eucharist’ in Jo Day (ed.) Making Senses of the Past: Toward a Sensory Archaeology, Centre for Archaeological Investigations, Carbondale, Illinois (forthcoming 2012).

Papers:

• 'Light and Divine Presence: Reinterpreting the Cross in Byzantine Syria', University of Newcastle, Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies Spring Symposium 2011 (entitled 'Experiencing Byzantium') 10th April 2011; also delivered at the University of Bristol Department of Art History, 25th May 2011.
• ‘Making Sense of Ascetics and Pilgrims in Late Antiquity’, University of Bristol Department of Classics & Ancient History, 24^th August 2010.
• ‘Multi-sensory Religious Experience in Late Antiquity: A New Approach’, Cardiff University, Classical Association Conference, 4^th April 2010.
• ‘The Senses and the Divine in Late Antique Material Culture’, Southern Illinois University Carbondale USA, Center for Archaeological Investigations Conference ‘Making Senses of the Past: Toward a Sensory Archaeology’, 27^th March 2010.
• ‘The 6^th Century Eucharist as a Sensational Experience’, University of Bristol Department of Art History, 1^st March 2010.
• ‘Interdisciplining Ourselves’, University of Bristol, One-day PG Conference in Classics ‘Interpretation and Methodology in Classics’, 9^th September 2009.
• ‘Experiencing Immaterial Presence in Early Byzantine Christianity’, UEA School of World Art & Museology, 8th Annual World Art PG Symposium ‘Beliefs, Concepts & Things:  Materiality & the Immaterial’, 15^th May 2009.
• ‘Sacred Gazing and the End of Antiquity’, University of Bristol Department of Classics & Ancient History, 17^th March 2009.
• ‘Icon or Idol? Controlling Sacred Art in Late Antique Iconoclasm’, University of Leeds, Interdisciplinary PG Conference ‘Art & Power’, 27^th September 2008.

Conference Organisation:

• ‘Sensory Experience in Late Antiquity’, Cardiff University, Panel for Classical Association Conference, 4^th April 2010.
• ‘What we do, and why: interpretation and methodology in Classics.  The 8^th BIRTHA Postgraduate Conference’, University of Bristol, 9^th September 2009.
• Assistant to the Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities & Arts (BIRTHA), and the Institute of Greece, Rome & The Classical Tradition (IGRCT) for event organisation 2008-2009.

Teaching Experience:

• 2010-2011 Teaching Assistant to HART10204 ‘Introduction to Medieval and Early Modern Art’
• 2009-2010 Teaching Assistant to CLAS17003 ‘Pagan Religions of the Roman Empire’.
• 2009-2010 Teaching Assistant to CLAS12368 ‘Using Visual Culture’.

Awards & Scholarships:

• 2009-2010 University of Bristol School of Humanities Postgraduate Teaching Assistantship Award.
• Numerous small awards for conference attendance/organisation from sources including The Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, The Bristol Alumni Foundation, The Classical Association, The Thomas Weidemann Memorial Fund and BIRTHA.