Eleanor Goerss

Eleanor Goerss serves as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Art History within the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Tübingen, working since 2023 on the DFG-funded project 'History as a Visual Concept: Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae' under Prof. Andrea Worm’s direction. Her position involves reconstructing medieval visual epistemology through manuscript analysis and digital editing methodologies.

Her academic foundation includes a PhD in History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University (2016–2023) and a dual BA in Art History and Mathematics from Columbia University (2012–2016). This quantitative-humanistic training informs her analytical approach to medieval diagrammatic systems.

Goerss specializes in the visual representation of knowledge in 13th–14th century Europe, with particular focus on Lullian art, genealogical diagrams, and manuscript transmission networks. Her research interrogates how medieval thinkers encoded theological and philosophical concepts through recursive visual structures, examining the interplay between mathematical logic and religious epistemology in diagrammatic forms. This work bridges art history, cognitive science, and medieval studies through rigorous paleographic analysis.

Her 2024 publications reveal a cohesive trajectory exploring recursive structures in Lullian figures, manuscript adaptation of dialogue forms, and Peter of Poitiers’ historiographical diagrams. Collectively, these works demonstrate how medieval visual systems functioned as cognitive tools for knowledge organization, with particular attention to the materiality of manuscripts and cross-institutional transmission patterns across European intellectual centers.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• Kress Institutional Fellowship at Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris (2021–2023)
• DAAD Research Grant at University of Freiburg (2019–2020)
• Frederick Sheldon Traveling Scholar Grant from Harvard University (2019–2020)
• Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University (2018–2019)
• Art History Senior Thesis Prize, Columbia University (2016)

As lead researcher on the DFG project, Goerss directs manuscript digitization efforts and develops analytical frameworks for reconstructing Peter of Poitiers’ genealogical systems. Her grant portfolio demonstrates consistent success in securing competitive funding from German, French, and American institutions, reflecting the international significance of her work. Though no current advisees are documented, her Harvard teaching award indicates pedagogical excellence in undergraduate instruction.

She operates within the DFG project team at Tübingen’s Institute of Art History, collaborating with Prof. Andrea Worm on the scholarly edition of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium. This interdisciplinary team integrates codicology, digital humanities, and historical theology to produce critical editions and visual reconstructions of medieval knowledge systems.