Anne F. Harris (Professor of Art History, DePauw University) is a founding member of “The Material Collective,” a consortium of medieval art historians that encourages innovative scholarship “that concerns itself with the ethical and moral challenges of the present day, even as it seeks to shed light on the past.” Dr. Harris will consider how medieval art has entered into our popular culture with particular attention to memes.  Thus, she will inquire: How is a certain image of “the Middle Ages” constructed to legitimize cultural norms or political ideologies? How do they reflect on the modern technological fantasy of “access” to the Middle Ages? A Middle Ages that serves as a ready-made prologue to our contemporary culture?