Meredith Cohen

Meredith Cohen is a Professor in the Department of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She specializes in the art, architecture, and urban development of high medieval Europe (c. 1000–c. 1450), with particular focus on France and medieval Paris.

Professor Cohen received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2004. Before joining UCLA in 2010, she spent a decade conducting research and teaching at universities in England and France.

Her research focuses on the social and ideological functions of art and architecture, production and reception issues, as well as historiography related to medieval architecture, particularly the Gothic in France. She is an expert in the archaeology of buildings and the uses and functions of structures and spaces in medieval contexts. Her methodological approaches range from documentary analysis and building archaeology to digital reconstruction and analysis.

Professor Cohen's publications reveal a consistent focus on how architecture functioned within medieval society, particularly royal and religious contexts, and how these structures have been understood and reconstructed throughout history. Her work demonstrates interdisciplinary connections between art history, architectural history, and urban studies with innovative applications of digital humanities methodologies.

Her notable achievements include:

• Society of Architectural Historians' Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award (2017) for The Sainte-Chapelle and the Construction of Sacral Monarchy: Royal Architecture in Thirteenth-Century Paris
• Fellowships from the Getty Research Institute, Keck Foundation, Kress Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities

Professor Cohen founded the International Medieval Society of Paris in 2003, which brings together international and French scholars of the Middle Ages. She currently serves as Principal Investigator for two major collaborative digital projects: "Paris Past and Present," which digitally reconstructs lost monuments of medieval Paris, and "Enriched Timelines," which visualizes source material and historiographies for Romanesque and Gothic architecture. These projects involve undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and international collaborators.

She teaches courses on Medieval Art, Romanesque and Gothic Architecture, Medieval Paris, and Digital Gothic, offering both undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to engage with primary sources and cutting-edge digital methodologies in the study of medieval art and architecture.