In April 2024, Dr. Brad Hostetler (PhD ’16) was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of Art History at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Dr. Hostetler joined the Kenyon faculty in 2017 as a Visiting Assistant Professor for two years before being promoted to a tenure-track position. He teaches courses on the ancient and medieval Mediterranean, including Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic art.
“Kenyon is a dream job. I can teach courses in my area of expertise, and discover new topics that I want to learn more about. The students are extremely bright, and continually challenge me to both stay current and grow as a scholar.“
Dr. Hostetler specializes in the art and material culture of Late Antiquity and Byzantium, with a particular emphasis on portable luxury objects. He completed his dissertation, “The Function of Text: Byzantine Reliquaries with Epigrams, 843–1204” in 2016 under the direction of Dr. Lynn Jones, and is currently developing this research into a book.
He has also published articles on Byzantine signet rings in the Journal of the Walters Art Museum and Byzantinische Zeitschrift. In 2022, Dr. Hostetler and Dr. Jones collaborated with their students to publish a catalog of Ethiopian objects in the Blick-Harris Study Collection at Kenyon College for a special issue of Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture. The journal includes contributions from Dr. Erika Loic as well as doctoral candidates Sonia Dixon, Madison Gilmore-Duffey, Sarah Mathiesen, and Caitlin Mims.
“The success of my career would not have been possible without the many and varied opportunities that I received at FSU. What made me an attractive hire to Kenyon was the fact that I had such rich teaching and mentoring experiences as a graduate student: Dr. Bearor, Dr. Gerson, Dr. Neuman, Dr. Niell, and Dr. Leitch visited my classes, commented on drafts of syllabi, and provided feedback on my assignments. As an assistant in the Media Center, under the guidance of Jean Hudson, I was able to learn valuable skills in image editing, photography, and cataloging. Assisting Dr. Jones in her fieldwork in Türkiye provided me with practical training in how to conduct fieldwork, including planning, documentation, managing students, and adjusting to unexpected challenges. I am grateful to FSU’s art history program for its dedication in training excellent teacher-scholars.“
This fall, Dr. Hostetler will lead Kenyon’s study abroad program in Rome, where he will teach courses on medieval mosaics and the museums of Rome.
