History of Art and Architecture

Robyn Barrow is an art historian of medieval Europe in a connected world. She specializes in art, cultural exchange and environmental histories of Scandinavia and the North Atlantic. Her region of study encounters the sovereign homelands of the Inuit and Sámi, and she has traveled extensively in the Arctic. Her manuscript, Tracking North: Art, Ecology and Exchange in the Medieval Nordic World explores cultural systems extending across the vast spaces of the north. The project illuminates the ways that systems of secular and religious power were creatively negotiated by communities across the wide Norse-settled region in the Middle Ages, from Gotland to Greenland. Her second project, Thaw: Revelation and Erasure in the Medieval North, considers the relationship between medieval art and the temporalities of contemporary environmental crisis.

Professor Barrow entertains a wide range of interests in her teaching and mentorship, from the art and architecture of medieval pilgrimage to longer histories of art in Kalaallit Nunaat. In Fall 2026, she will teach the seminar Plunder, Wonder and War: Histories of Collecting in Sweden, 1500-1700.

Her research has been supported by major institutions including the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts; a collaborative initiative between the Fulbright Foundation and National Science Foundation for Arctic Research; and the Swedish Institute. Her published work has appeared in major journals such as The Medieval Globe and Different Visions.

Before joining the department in 2026, Professor Barrow taught at Middlebury College.