Justin Mann
Education
Dr. Mann received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in art and architectural history, where his dissertation focused on the creation and experience of monastic landscapes in Middle Byzantine (ca. 800–1204 CE) Central Greece. He also holds an M.A. in anthropology from East Carolina University and a B.A. in anthropology and history from the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. From 2022-2025, he held the position of Post-Doctoral Fellow in Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. At EMU, he teaches Introduction to Western Art and Art Appreciation, as well as courses on Byzantine art and the reception of medieval aesthetics in video games.
Biography
Justin Anthony Mann joined the Eastern Michigan University School of Art and Design in 2025 and is a specialist in the art and archaeology of Byzantium and the medieval Mediterranean world. His work focuses on the experience of Byzantine space, the architectural history of medieval monasticism, the formation of medieval place, and methodological approaches to landscape archaeology.
Publications and Presentations
2025, Kondyli, F., Makris, G., Günay, G., Sikalidou, D., Mann, J.A., “Beyond the Katholikon of the Kosmosoteira Monastery: The Interplay of Architecture, Environment, and Power.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 80, forthcoming.
2024, Mann, J.A., “Reimagining Hosios Loukas: The Monastery as Landscape.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 78: 143–187.
2024, Mann, J.A. and F. Kondyli., “The Architecture of Religious Affiliation: Lessons from the Byzantine Monastic Communities in Central Greece.” In Byzantine Architecture Made in Byzantium: New Perspectives on Architecture, Decoration and Function, edited by I. Jevtić, N. Kontogiannis, and N. Stanković. (London: Palgrave Macmillian).
2019, Mann, J.A. and B.A. Saidel., “Kütahya Ware Coffee Cups in Rural Cyprus and Greece: Peasant Ware It Is Not.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 23.2: 343–60.
Additional Information
Dr. Mann’s work has appeared in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Religious Buildings Made in Byzantium (Palgrave-MacMillian, 2024), and The International Journal of Historical Archaeology. He is currently writing a monograph that addresses the creation of the monastic landscape and its role in our understanding of the monastery as a medieval cultural institution. In addition, his research also explores the commodification of sugar and coffee; specifically, how these two plants played a role in creating new visual landscapes, cultural rituals, and systems of labor that stretched across both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. He recently curated an exhibition at the Dumbarton Oaks Museum entitled The Stimulant Sea: Sugar, Coffee, and the Acquisition of Taste. These projects have been generously supported by Dumbarton Oaks (Junior Fellow, 2021-2022), the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Associate Member, 2019-2020), and the Fulbright Foundation (Greece, 2019-2020).
His exhibitions include The Stimulant Sea: Sugar, Coffee, and the Acquisition of Taste, Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Coffee and Caffeine Cultures, New York Botanical Gardens.