The W. John Bennett Distinguished Visitorship

A programme designed to bring senior international scholars to Toronto to play an active role in the academic life of the Institute

History of the Visitorship Programme

In 2010, the Institute, with a grant from the Bickell Foundation and in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies, established a Distinguished Visiting Scholar programme designed to bring senior international scholars to PIMS and Toronto during their academic leave or sabbatical year. The Visitor is asked to give a public lecture, attend Institute post-doctoral seminars where appropriate, consult with graduate students, and play an active role in the academic life of the Institute while pursuing his or her own research.

The Visitorship was endowed through the generosity of Mr W. John Bennett of Montreal, and the first appointment was made in 2010. The Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of Toronto, through the generosity of the University’s former chancellor, the Hon. H.N.R. Jackman, has since provided an equal endowment in support of the Visiting Scholars Programme. These gifts have been recognized through the naming of the W. John Bennett Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies and the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto.

The Current Distinguished Visiting Scholar

Alixe Bovey is Professor of Medieval Art History at The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. Her publications focus on medieval art and visual culture, particularly illuminated manuscripts, pictorial narrative, and the relationship between images, texts and material culture. Her books include Monsters and Grotesques in Medieval Manuscripts (2002), The Chaworth Roll (2005), The Tacuinum Sanitatis (2005), and The Book of Hours of Jean de Carpentin (2011). Her essays have explored subjects including the Gothic marginalia and the ethics of mirth, art historical periodisation, art and immateriality, and Eucharistic imagery. She is a contributor to the publication accompanying the British Library’s exhibition Conquest: The Making of Norman England (opening in 2027). She is editor-in-chief of the open access journal British Art Studies, published by the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art and the Yale Centre for British Art, and sits on the PMC’s publications committee. She is engaged in the conservation and interpretation of historic buildings through membership of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England and the Fabric Advisory Committee for Canterbury Cathedral. She joined The Courtauld as Head of Research in 2015, and served as Executive Dean and Deputy Director 2020–25.

W. John Bennett Distinguished Visiting Scholars from Past Years

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