Profile
Abstract
I study the material culture of the medieval Mediterranean and the Middle East with a focus on late antique, Byzantine, and Islamic art and architecture.
My dissertation examined representations of the divine during the transition from the Greco-Roman to the Christian world, focusing on visionary experiences in textual and visual sources.
My current research studies the Roman heritage in the Byzantine Empire, in Venice, and in Seljuk Anatolia through the lens of spolia (twelfth - thirteenth centuries). The project critically questions academia’s investment in strict categories of periods and cultures by focusing on the juncture of classical and late antique Roman artifacts and their post-classical reception in Islamic, Byzantine, and Western medieval contexts. I link the fragments from the past (spolia) to issues of identity formation across cultures we today often describe as discrete, thereby reshaping our understanding of the ownership of cultural heritage and of history.
Professional career
- since 04/2024
Head of the Department of Art History, University of Leipzig - since 04/2023
Visiting Full Professor for European and Global Art History of the Middle Ages, University of Leipzig - 10/2022 - 03/2023
Visiting Full Professor for Late Antique and Byzantine Art History, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich - 04/2016 - 09/2022
Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, University of Leipzig - 10/2021 - 02/2022
Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), Istanbul - 10/2019 - 03/2020
Postdoc-Fellow, Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Venice - 01/2019 - 09/2019
Andrew W. Mellon Follow, Center for Byzantine Studies, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul - 12/2015 - 03/2016
Postdoc Fellow, Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz (KHI), Florence - 10/2013 - 08/2014
Visiting Scholar, Columbia University, New York, Department for Art and Archaeology (Fulbright Fellow) - 04/2013 - 09/2015
Adjunct Professor, Late Antique and Byzantine Art History, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich - 04/2013
Short-Term Pre-Doctoral Residency, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington D.C. - 04/2012 - 03/2016
Adjunct Professor, Department for Art History, Humboldt University, Berlin - 01/2012 - 02/2012
Pre-doc fellowship, Minerva Foundation, Hebrew University, Israel
Education
- 04/2023
German Habilitation in Art History - 04/2011 - 07/2015
PhD in Late Antique and Byzantine Art History, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, MunichGrade: Summa cum laude - 09/2006 - 06/2007
Erasmus Exchange, Middlesex University London - 10/2003 - 04/2010
Magister (Master), Department for Art History, Humboldt University, Berlin - 06/2002
High school degree, Johann-Joachim-Winckelmann-Gymnasium, Stendal
Panel Memberships
- since 02/2024
Associate committee member, International Center for Medieval Art (ICMA), New York - since 04/2018
Head of the study committee, Department for Art History, University of Leipzig - since 10/0216
Coordinator for the German exchange program PONS - since 09/2017
Committee member, Fulbright Foundation (Archaeology and Art History) - since 01/2022
Committee member, German Academic Exchange Programs (DAAD)
- Medieval Europe, Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, especially Venice and Anatolia between ca. 300–1450 CE
- Transcultural and global studies, entangled histories
- Cultural heritage, transformations, values, identity
- Reuse, Spolia, Pseudo-spolia
- Epistemological critique
- Time and history
- Art and architectural history in Italy and Byzantium
- Seljuk, Beylik, and early Ottoman architectural history
- Late antique and Byzantine hagiography
- Early and high medieval historiography
- Historiography of art history (Byzantine art history and art historical writing in the former Easter German state)
- show detailsMuseum Survey, Archaeological Museum Akşehir, TurkeyBergmeier, ArminDuration: 08/2023 – ongoingInvolved organisational units of Leipzig University: Mittlere und Neuere Kunstgeschichte
- show detailsBergmeier, A.The Production of ex novo Spolia, and the Creation of History in Thirteenth-Century VeniceMitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz . 2020. 62 (2). pp. 126–157.
- show detailsGriebeler, A. P.; Bergmeier, A. (Eds.)Moments of Encounter: Time and Presence in Art (ca. 200-1600 CE)Berlin: De Gruyter. 2022.ISBN: 9783110720693
- show detailsBergmeier, A.Antiquarian Displays of Spolia and Roman Identity: San Marco, Merbaka, and the Seljuk CaravanseraisIn: Jevtić, I.; Nilsson, I. (Eds.)Spoliation as Translation. Medieval Worlds in the Eastern Mediterranean. 2021. pp. 76–96.
- show detailsBergmeier, A.The Traditio Legis in Late Antiquity and its Afterlives in the Middle AgesGesta. 2017. 56 (1). pp. 27–52.
- show detailsBergmeier, A. (Ed.)The Spoliated Past. Heritage, Antiquarianism, and Byzantine Material Culture Across Time and SpaceMitteilungen zur Spätantiken Archäologie und Byzantinischen Kunstgeschichte. 2024. 9.
- Andere herausragende Auszeichnungen: Hans-Janssen-Preis 2018show detailsBergmeier, Armin (Institut für Kunstgeschichte)awarded in 2018 by Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen.
- show detailsVortragsreiheByzanz und der Westen: Kolloquium zur materiellen Kultur im MittelalterMittlere und Neuere Kunstgeschichte; Bibliotheca Albertina; Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas (GWZO)Event Organiser: Bergmeier, Armin; Tripps, Johannes; Heinrich-Tamáska, Orsolya13/12/2016 – 29/02/2020
- show detailsTagungssektionNatural Disasters, Sacred Time, and Eschatology in the Eastern Mediterranean, College Art Association Annual Conference (CAA), New YorkMittlere und Neuere KunstgeschichteEvent Organiser: Bergmeier, Armin; Mostafa, Heba15/02/2017 – 18/02/2017
- show detailsTagunssektionBeyond Transfer and Revival: Narrative Creativity in Medieval Italian Mural Decoration (1000–1250), College Art Association Annual Conference (CAA), New YorkMittlere und Neuere KunstgeschichteEvent Organiser: Bergmeier, Armin; Locke Perchuk, Alison03/03/2022
- show detailsRoundtableBoundless Byzantium: Post-conquest Material Culture After the End of Byzantine Rule (25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies)Mittlere und Neuere KunstgeschichteEvent Organiser: Bergmeier, Armin14/08/2026
- show detailsSommerschuleInternationale StiL-Sommerschule „Living in a Material World“: Understanding Artifacts Through Their MaterialityMittlere und Neuere Kunstgeschichte; Institut für Klassische ArchäologieEvent Organiser: Bergmeier, Armin; Lang, Jörn04/10/2020 – 10/10/2020
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Forgotten Heritage: Writing Art History in the GDR (1949-1989)