Karl Whittington

Karl Whittington is a Professor and Chair of the Department of History of Art at The Ohio State University, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. He specializes in Medieval European Art and Architecture, with a focus on intersections between art, science, gender/sexuality, and materiality. His research bridges art history and queer theory, examining how medieval artists' material practices engage with embodied desire. He holds a Ph.D. (2010) from UC Berkeley, alongside an M.A. (2006) and B.A. (2004) in Art History.

Whittington authored Body-Worlds: Opicinus de Canistris and the Medieval Cartographic Imagination (2014) and Trecento Pictoriality: Diagrammatic Painting in Late Medieval Italy (2023), with a forthcoming book Queer Making: On Artists and Desire in Medieval Europe (2025). His work has been supported by prestigious fellowships from ICMA, CAA, CASVA, and the Kress Foundation. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, recognized by the 2015 Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award and 2017 Ratner Award.

His research explores medieval intersexuality, queer desire in artistic creation, and diagrammatic forms in medieval art. He actively advises graduate students on European and Mediterranean medieval art topics.