Umbra Professor Presents at Conference
Professor Adrian Hoch will be representing the Institute at an upcoming conference in Paris.
Academia is sometimes accused of being mainly scholars who only talk to others in their specific discipline.
Umbra Art History professor Adrian Hoch is part of the solution to that problem; Dr. 
Hoch is a member of an academic organization, the International Medieval Society-Paris, which focuses on establishing links between English and French speaking scholars who do work in France. Each summer the organization organizes a conference with a theme, and this year’s conference, entitledTranslatio (“translation” in Latin), will feature an interdisciplinary approach, bridging the gap between art history, history, religious studies and literature.
Professor Hoch’s research concentrates on, in part, the Angevin dynasty in Naples (late 13th-early 15th centuries) who were originally French. Her specific subject for the conference will be on what one French historian calls “aristocratic Franciscanism,” involving a prince and heir to the throne of Naples, Louis of Anjou, who become a Franciscan favoring apostolic poverty. After his death at the age of twenty-three his family and the more conservative branch of the Franciscans would “rewrite his résumé,” turning him into more traditional and safe figure who also become one of the patron saints of Marseille.
Umbra is proud to encourage both excellence in the classroom as well as a continued commitment by its faculty to research and publication.
Image: Simone Martini, “Altar of St Louis of Toulouse,” c. 1317
Tempera on wood, 200 x 138 cm (with predella)
Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples