2020 Retiring Faculty

Carol Neuman de Vegvar

Frank L. & Eva L. Packard Professor of Fine Arts
(1988-2020)

Dr. Carol Neuman de Vegvar is retiring after serving on the Ohio Wesleyan faculty for 32 years.

A native New Yorker, Dr. Neuman de Vegvar received her B.A. in art history from Bryn Mawr College (1974) and her Ph.D. in art history from the University of Pennsylvania (1981). Before coming to Ohio Wesleyan, she taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Tyler School of Art, and Muhlenberg College and held term positions at Gettysburg, Union, and Skidmore colleges.

At Ohio Wesleyan, Dr. Neuman de Vegvar taught Survey of Art History I as well as Classical, Medieval, Islamic, Italian Renaissance, and Baroque Art. With the late and much-missed Dr. Sally Livingston, she co-led the Travel-Learning Course Italian Renaissance Art and Thought to Siena and Florence and initiated the History of the Book course for the Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies Program. For the Honors Program, she taught first-year honors tutorials on early English archaeology (Gold to the Ground), on women artists (Women, Art and Culture), on feasting in visual culture (A Feast for the Eyes), and, with Dr. Kay Ebel, on imagining the ideal city (From Mudbricks to the Matrix).

Dr. Neuman de Vegvar’s research has centered on early medieval art and archaeology in England and Ireland, addressing the interactions of objects with their cultural contexts through display, identity formation, and transcultural exchange. Major threads over the years have included a study of drinking horns in the early medieval world and the culturally formative and transformative roles of women in early medieval visual culture.

She has authored or co-edited four books, most recently Roma Felix — Formation and Reflections of Medieval Rome (2008, with Prof. Éamonn Ó Carragáin, University College Cork) and has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and far too many book reviews. She has lectured at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Rome (La Sapienza), and Kenyon College; and she has spoken regularly at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo and the International Conference on Insular Art. In fall 1997 she held a one-term visitorship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton and in 2003 she was elected to the Society of Antiquaries of London. She was the winner of the Welch Award for Scholarly or Artistic Achievement for 2014-2015.

At Ohio Wesleyan, Dr. Neuman de Vegvar was Program Director for Ancient Medieval and Renaissance Studies from 1991 to 2004 and coordinator of the faculty-student Medieval Latin Reading Group (1996-98 and 2001-02). She served several terms on the Executive Committee of the Faculty and the Committee on Honorary Degrees, and she was a longtime member of the Honors Board.

In “retirement,” Dr. Neuman de Vegvar plans to write two books, one on the drinking horns project and the other on gendered sightlines in early medieval churches. She also will continue to work for the preservation of early medieval sculpture currently undergoing deterioration from acid rain.