Dr. Rachel Moss

Associate Professor

Research interests

I am an art and architectural historian with a particular interest in medieval Ireland. My research has developed from doctoral studies in Romanesque architecture and sculpture to focus on the later medieval period, in particular the social context of medieval art and architecture. I am also interested in the extended biographies of medieval buildings - how the architecture of the Middle Ages came to be perceived and managed after the mid-sixteenth century. I was editor and principal author volume 1 of the RIA Art and Architecture of Ireland series, published by Yale University Press in November, 2014. Recent research projects have included the IRC-funded Monastic Ireland, Landscape and Settlement Project and the Bank of America Merrill Lynch-TCD Gospel Books Project.

Selected recent publications

R. Moss, ‘Irish Parish Churches: 1350-1550’ in P. Barnwell (ed.),Places of Worship in the British Isles: 1350-1550 (Donington, Shaun Tyas, 2019), pp. 174-90
R. Moss ‘Material culture: c. 1200-1550’ B. Smith (ed.), Cambridge History of Ireland. Volume 1 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018), pp. 532-63
R. Moss, F. O'Mahony and J. Maxwell (eds), An Insular Odyssey: Manuscript Culture in Early Christian Ireland and Beyond (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2017)
R. Moss,The Book of Durrow (London, Thames and Hudson, 2018), pp. 174-90S.
Bioletti and R. Moss, ‘The Art and the Pigments: A study of four Insular Gospel Books in the Library of Trinity College Dublin’ in S. Panayotova and P. Ricciardi (eds), Manuscripts in the Making: Art and Science (London and Turnhout, Brepols, 2017), pp12-20 ,
R. Moss ‘Collective memory and municipal identity in the early modern Irish town’ in Dany Sandron ed.), Le Passé dans la Ville, (Paris, Presses de l'université Paris-Sorbonne, 2016), pp165 - 182
R. Moss, The Art and Architecture of Ireland, vol 1. The Medieval Period c. 400-1600 (Dublin, New Haven and London, 2014)

Teaching

My teaching covers medieval art and architecture. I teach modules on Insular art, early medieval art in Europe and art and architecture in late medieval Ireland. Past and present post-graduate students have worked on topics including‘Archaic’ Architectural Sculpture in 11th-13th Century Tuscany, late medieval Irish window tracery, Passion symbolism in Irish ar and the conservation of Irish high crosses. I welcome discussion with suitably qualified prospective students with relevant research interests.