Colleen M. Thomas
I am an art historian with a particular research interest in monumental sculpture. My primary expertise is in the sculptured stone crosses and cross-slabs of early medieval Ireland and Scotland. I have brought this interest forward to consider nineteenth-century Celtic crosses which are in many ways later iterations of their early medieval inspirations.
In my museum career, early opportunities at the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led to a more significant post at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon. In Oregon, I also served as the president of the Board of Directors for a community art centre.
I hold a masters in Art History from UNC Chapel Hill where my research focused on third-century frescoes painted in early Christian catacombs in Rome. Returning to academia, I earned a doctorate in the History of Art from Trinity College Dublin with a specialization in early medieval monumental sculpture. Since then I have lectured at TCD and have been a post-doctoral researcher on the Survey of Museums in Ireland Project at University College Dublin and on the Early Irish Manuscripts Project at Trinity College Dublin. In 2018 I was named a Royal Irish Academy Charlemont Scholar.
Currently I am pursuing research while also working for UCD Research. I am a member of the UCD Humanities Institute and give occasional lectures for the School of Art History and Cultural Policy. I have been a member of the Editorial Committee for Artefact: Journal of the Irish Association of Art Historians. In 2019 I was elected for a three year term to the Advisory Group for the University College Dublin Research Managers and Administrators Network. At present I also serve as a member of the managing Council for the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
Inventing the Celtic Cross 