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Meadows celebrates Annemarie Weyl Carr's career
This May, Dr. Annemarie Weyl Carr will retire after a long and eminent career as University Distinguished Professor of Byzantine Art History at SMU. On February 23 and 24, the Meadows School of the Arts celebrated Dr. Carr’s career with presentations from colleagues and former students representing her three decades of influential teaching and scholarship. In a recent interview, she reflected on her experiences at SMU and what drew an East Coast native to Texas.
What brought you here?
When I graduated in the early seventies there were only two art history faculty jobs in my field available nationwide. As I finished my interview lecture, I still remember looking out at those before me and seeing impressive faces, including Roger Winter, Jerry Bywaters, James Surls, Mary Vernon and Larry Scholder, a truly remarkable group of scholars and artists who made up the SMU community. It was Bill Jordan, then chair, whom I consider to be one of the great “eyes” of our times, who hired me. To be among his “acquisitions” was a great honor!
What were your first impressions of Dallas and SMU?
Hot. When I arrived in August 1972, it was 107 degrees and the cheerleading camp was in session. From behind every bush and hedge a group of yelping cheerleaders precipitated itself. What a shock!
What will you miss about SMU?
Most simply, SMU provided me with a forum to be as much as I can be. I remain truly humbled by that.
Tell us about your students.
I feel I got the very best ones! My demands were very serious and they took them seriously. My students have come from all kinds of backgrounds, some very modest, some very foreign, some extremely sophisticated - but all were willing to go into academic inquiry with their whole hearts! Many of them were truly remarkable women who struggled with a range of serious issues -- involving immigration, their children, and difficult home lives -- with extraordinary courage.
What are your thoughts about the symposium and your colleagues and former students who participated?
I am just overwhelmed. One of the things I admire so much about my former students is their professional accomplishments. Justine Andrews, who teaches at the University of New Mexico, came from Cyprus where she is a Fulbright scholar. Kathleen Maxwell serves as department chair at Santa Clara University and Diliana Angelova recently received the Medieval Academy Award for the most outstanding first article. What I have to hold onto is that these people felt I added to their lives, and that is truly a gift.
What have you enjoyed most about your colleagues at SMU?
I have been graced by my colleagues and take obscenely demonstrative pride in them. They are fine scholars, and truly dedicated teachers.
What is next?
Honestly, I don’t know! I am very curious to find out who I will turn out to be!
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Professor Carr joined SMU after having received her master’s degree and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. She has been a visiting professor at numerous universities and has received the Lilly Endowment Fellowship in Religion and the Humanities, as well as fellowships in the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. Her awards while at SMU include the Methodist Church Award for Teacher/Scholar, the Meadows Foundation Distinguished Teaching Fellowship, the "M" Award for Excellence, and the Phi Beta Kappa Perrine Prize for Teaching and Research. Her numerous articles and two books, Byzantine Illumination 1150-1250: The Study of a Provincial Tradition (University of Chicago Press, 1987) and A Byzantine Masterpiece Recovered: The Thirteenth-century Murals of Lysi, Cyprus (University of Texas Press, 1991) focus on Byzantine art and the art of the Mediterranean during the period of the Crusades.
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