Betsy Anderson recently completed a master’s degree in landscape architecture at the University of Washington. Her thesis, “Deconstructing Hydrologies: Reviving the Memory of Water in Dumbarton Oaks Park,” proposes a storm water–mitigation design for Beatrix Farrand’s naturalistic garden, now a unit of the national park system adjacent to the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens. A reexamination of Farrand’s praxis, including her original aesthetic and performance goals for the site, supports an approach to cultural-landscape stewardship that embraces changing social and ecological contexts and acknowledges the heritage of water in this valley landscape. The site- and archival-based research for this project was supported by a predoctoral residency in Garden and Landscape Studies in September 2013.
Thanasis Vionis is assistant professor of Byzantine archaeology and art in the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Cyprus. While at Dumbarton Oaks, he has undertaken specialized bibliographical research for an extensive article on the evolution of settlements in Byzantine Greece from the mid-sixth to the mid-fourteenth century. This project evolved out of a public lecture he delivered at the University of Cyprus in February 2013 on the occasion of his evaluation for promotion to assistant professor. This study primarily evaluates and interprets the archaeological evidence collected during the course of an intensive surface survey in the chora of the ancient city-site of Tanagra in Boeotia (central Greece) by the Ancient Cities of Boeotia Project (Universities of Leiden and Ljubljana).
Erin Jordan is associate professor of history at Old Dominion University. Her work focuses on issues of gender, politics, and religion in the Middle Ages. Her current project, “In a Spirit Strong and Prudent”: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Latin East, examines the lives of Melisende, Alice, Hodierna, and Iveta, the four daughters of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, in order to better understand the interplay of gender and power in the Latin East during the twelfth century. At Dumbarton Oaks, Professor Jordan perused the extensive collection of Byzantine seals and the numerous volumes in the Library and Rare Book Reading Room relating to the history of the Crusades.
Boris Sokolov is professor of art history at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow. Professor Sokolov is working on the first Russian translation of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venice, 1499).
Matthew Gin is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University. He was recently awarded a predoctoral residency at Dumbarton Oaks to work on his dissertation, “Royal Representation and the Formal Landscape in Ludovican France, 1643–1715.”