Laura McCloskey (Remote Speaking Engagements Preferred)
Laura McCloskey is an Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of West Georgia (since 2019) and has been a regular instructor of history and art history at George Mason University since 2008. She conducted her Ph.D. studies at Trinity College Dublin and was a recipient of an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship and a predoctoral fellowship in Byzantine studies at Dumbarton Oaks.
Laura specializes in Irish history and art history, focusing on the artistic connections between the medieval Mediterranean and Ireland and the relationship between historiography, artistic expression, and nationalism in Ireland in the modern period. Additional areas of research include Japanese art and spirituality, particularly Zen Buddhism, and socio-cultural exchange between Japan and Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries as evidenced in visual art and literature.
She is on the Executive Board of Southeastern Medieval Association, she was on the editorial board of the journal Eolas, and she has also served as a lecturer for the Smithsonian Associates program in Washington, D.C.