Abbey Stockstill

Art History

Assistant Professor

Email

astockstill@smu.edu

Abbey Stockstill received her B.A. in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture from Harvard University. Her most recent work focuses on the intersection of architecture, landscape, urbanism and identity in the medieval Mediterranean, particularly in the region of the Islamic West known as the Maghrib (comprising present-day Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). Her first book manuscript, Marrakesh & the Mountains: Landscape, Identity, and Urban Planning in the Medieval Maghrib (forthcoming), addresses the way the landscape of Marrakesh helps define the ethnosocial identities of two medieval dynasties, the Almoravids and the Almohads. This research has been supported by a number of international institutions including the American Institute of Maghrib Studies, the Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities (TORCH), Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections and the École Nationale d’Architecture du Maroc.

She welcomes applications from prospective M.A. and Ph.D. students with interests in Islamic art and architecture, especially those whose topics may fall under the research categories listed below.

Recent Work

Selected Publications

“From the Kutubiyya to Tinmal: Sacred Space in Muʾminid Performance,” in Liminal Spaces from Sacred to Urban: the Friday Mosque and the City, ed. by Suzan Yalman and Hilal Ugurlu (Intellect, 2020)

“A Tale of Two Mosques: Marrakesh’s Masjid al-jamiÊ¿ al-Kutubiyya,” Muqarnas 35 (2018)

Research

Architecture and urbanism in the Islamic world, in particular the Islamic West; gardens and landscapes of the medieval Mediterranean; time and public space in the late medieval era; phenomenology & digital architectural reconstruction

Course list

The Art & Cultures of Medieval Spain (Fall 2022) ARHS 3324
The Mezquita-Catedral in the Metaverse: Digital Approaches to Art Historical Questions (Fall 2022) ARHS 4320
Catacombs, Cathedrals, & Flying Machines: Art & People of the Medieval and Early Modern World (Spring 2023) ARHS 1301
Orientalism, Postcolonialism, and the Invention of Islamic Art (Spring 2023) ARHS 5316
Abbey Stockstill