Felix Jäger

Dr Felix Jäger is a Lecturer in Early Modern Art and Material Cultures at The Courtauld Institute of Art. Specializing in early modern art histories and material cultures of the body, his work explores how images and objects shaped understandings of bodies, behaviors, and experiences in the global early modern era. He employs interdisciplinary and critical methodologies to challenge traditional canons.

Previously, he taught at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and worked as a research associate at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte. He has held research positions at the Warburg Institute (London) and the Kunsthistorisches Institut (Florence). His research focuses on armor’s role in body politics, disability studies, and art’s intersection with psychology and legal imagery.

Research Interests include material cultures of the early modern period, disability studies, art and psychology, legal iconography, and the history of art history. His monograph Die Ungestalten des Souveräns: Rüstungskunst und Körperpolitik der Renaissance (2024) investigates armor’s entanglement with humanist body politics and colonial discourses. Co-edited volumes like Dis_ability Art History (2020) and East German Art History and Global Marxisms (2024) reflect his commitment to interdisciplinary and critical frameworks.

Awards include the Zentralinstitut’s Applied Arts Prize for his doctoral thesis on early modern armor. His work often bridges art history with neurology, as seen in Bilder als Denkformen (2020), which explores Japanese and German visual studies.

Teaching includes courses like BA1: Early Modern Histories of Art and MA Special Option: Violent Materials: Art and War in the Early Modern World. He co-leads research initiatives on disability and materiality, such as workshops at the Warburg Institute and Wellcome Collection.

Labs/Teams include collaborations with institutions like the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte and the Kunsthistorisches Institut, focusing on apotropaic imagery, material histories, and global Marxist art historiography.