Biography

Alexandra Gajewski (Ph.D., Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 1996) is a Senior Researcher at the CCHS—CSIC, Madrid. She studied Art History first at Münster University, Germany and then at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where she obtained her Ph.D. on Gothic architecture in northern Burgundy. She has taught at various London universities, at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and as Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Her research concentrates on art and architecture in medieval Europe between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, especially on questions of monasticism, cult, patronage, and the role of women. She has published widely on Cistercian architecture in France, the Empire and Bohemia. Her publications include also a review of the work of Emile Mâle and a study of the abbey church at Vézelay in the context of the cult of Mary Magdalene.

Selected Publications

• “The Patronage Question under Review: Queen Blanche of Castile (1188-1252) and the Architecture of the Cistercian Abbeys at Royaumont, Maubuisson, and Le Lys.” In Reassessing the Roles of Women as ‘Makers’ of Medieval Art and Architecture. Therese Martin, ed. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012, pp. 197-244.
• “Gothic Architecture in Burgundy.” In Cambridge History of Religious Architecture (The Middle Ages). Stephen Murray, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2012.
• “Stone Construction and Monastic Ideals: From Jotsald of Cluny to Peter the Chanter.” In Ex quadris lapidibus. La pierre et sa mise en oeuvre dans l’art médiéval, Mélanges d’Histoire de l’art offerts à Éliane Vergnolle. Yves Gallet, ed. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011, pp. 35-49.
• “The abbey church at Vézelay and the cult of Mary Magdalene: ‘invitation to a journey of discovery’.” In Architecture, Liturgy and Identity, Zoë Opačić and Achim Timmermann, eds. Studies in Medieval Art, 1. New York and Turnhout: Brepols, 2011, pp. 221-240.
• “Saint-Germain d’Auxerre: une abbatiale des années 1300.” In Naissance, Transformations et Pérennité, L’architecture gothique à Auxerre et dans sa région du XIIe au XIXe siècle. Arnaud Timbert, ed. Bulletin de la Société des Fouilles Archéologiques et des Monuments Historiques de l’Yonne, 26-27, 2009- 2010, pp. 42-65.
• Alexandra Gajewski and Zoe Opačić, eds. The Year 1300 and the Creation of a New European Architecture. Architectura Medii Aevi 1. Turnhout: Brepols, 2008.
• Ute Engel and Alexandra Gajewski, eds. Mainz and the Middle Rhine Valley: Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology. British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions 30. London: Maney, 2007.

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