Dr. Amanda Luyster is a distinguished medieval art historian and professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her work offers new perspectives on the cross-cultural nature of medieval visual culture, specifically the interactions between western Europe and the Islamic and Byzantine worlds and the movement of silk across broad global networks. 

After graduating from Amherst College summa cum laude and receiving her PhD from Harvard in 2003, she has gone on to secure prestigious fellowships and grants, including support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Paul Mellon Centre, the American Philosophical Society, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. She has been invited to speak at Harvard University, Cambridge University, the University of Oxford, London’s Institute of Historical Research, Yale University’s Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and other locations from Boston to China. Her work has led to international recognition, including election as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) in London and the Medieval Academy of America’s 2024 Monica H. Green Prize for Distinguished Medieval Research. 

Amanda is also dedicated to public-facing scholarship and media outreach. Her research has been featured in the London-based newspaper The Independent, The Times of Israel, and Harvard Magazine, and she has been interviewed on widely followed podcasts such as Gone Medieval (History Hit).  She has lived and worked in multiple European countries and loves travel and photography.