About Dr Niamh Bhalla
Dr Niamh Bhalla is Assistant Dean, Associate Professor in Art History and Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Northeastern University London. Niamh came to Northeastern University London in 2018, having previously lectured and worked on research projects at The Courtauld Institute of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She is the author of Experiencing the Last Judgement (Routledge, 2021).
Qualifications
PhD, History of Byzantine Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art (2014)
MA History of Classical and Byzantine Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art (2010)
BA History of Art/Theology, Trinity College Dublin (2009)
Dr Niamh Bhalla's Research
Niamh’s research focuses on the lived experience of late-classical and Byzantine imagery. She also works on the modern reception of Byzantium.
Selected Publications
Books
Bhalla, N. Experiencing the Last Judgement (Routledge, 2021)
Bhalla, N. and Kotoula, D. A Handbook to the Modern Reception of Byzantium (Commissioned for Routledge, 2024)
Journal Articles
Bhalla, N. ‘Containing the Uncontainable: Kinaesthetic Analogies and an Early Christian Box’, The Art Bulletin (Sept, 2022)
Book Chapters
Bhalla, N. ‘Chapter 16: Ivory’, The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the Art and Archaeology of Late Antiquity, O. Brandt, J. Magness & L. Rutgers (eds.) (Forthcoming, Cambridge University Press, 2022)
Bhalla, N. ‘Christian Ivories: containment, manipulation and the creation of meaning’, M. Ellison & M. E. Jensen, (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Early Christian Art (Routledge, 2018)
Reviews
Bhalla, N., ‘From Istanbul to Byzantium, 1800–1955 / İstanbul’dan Bisanz’a, 1800–1955. İstanbul, Pera Müzesi 2021’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 115/3 (Oct, 2022).
Bhalla, N., ‘Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages’, The Burlington Magazine (Nov, 2018)
Bhalla, N., ‘Egypt: Faith after the Pharaohs’, The Burlington Magazine (May, 2017)
Online Publications
Bhalla, N. ‘Modelling Euro-centricity? Revisiting Architectural Models in the Ottoman Empire‘, V&A Blog (November 2017)
Selection of Research Papers Given:
Birth, death and protective imagery in a rock-hewn church from tenth-century Cappadocia. Research paper given by invitation at the Medieval Works in Progress Seminar, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Nov 2023
Seeing beyond the Surface: Representations of Women in Rural Byzantine Cappadocia, Beyond Exceptionalism II, John Rylands University, Manchester, July 2022
There is more to an Artwork than meets the Eye: The Impossibilities of a Purely Visual Literacy, The Bedford Square Festival (July 2019)
Anamnesis after Aristotle: Heart, Mind and Matter as the Receptacles of Memory in Byzantium, History Research Seminar, Northeastern University London, March 2018
Picturing Heaven, Hell and Purgatory in the Later Middle Ages, The Courtauld Institute of Art (Jan 2016)
Picturing the Last Judgement in Byzantium: Time, Space and Orchestrated Experiences of Death, Newcastle University (May 2015)
Protective Letters and Prophylactic Names: The Image of the Last Judgement at Yilanli Kilise, University of Cambridge (Mar 2014)
Time, Space and Embodied Experience: Imagery in the Narthex of St Herakleidios at the Monastery St John Lampadistes, Cyprus, King’s College, London (Feb 2014)
Memory, Agency and the Last Judgement in Byzantium, Oxford University (Feb 2012)