Dr Krisztina Ilko

I am a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford. Before coming to Oxford, I served as an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. I completed my PhD as a Lander Scholar at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, supported by sequential Predoctoral Fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2018–20). My previous research focused on medieval Italy and the peninsula’s interconnectivity with the rest of the globe, with recent articles published in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History (2021), Gesta (forthcoming) and The English Historical Review (forthcoming).

Research Interests

My project, ‘The Pawns of History: A New Approach Towards the Global Middle Ages,’ uses the game of chess and surviving chess pieces to find a tangible approach towards the global medieval past. In contrast to previous histories which have focused on the development of gameplay, my project employs chess to study cross-cultural communication in the Afro-Eurasian world between 800 and 1400. Scholars have often approached the multicultural Middle Ages either through its connectivity or as a period of barrier making and cultural difference. Chess, however, opens up the possibility to trace interconnectivity between different geographies, cultures, and social strata, but also show how the same connections could be used to create separation and distinctiveness. The primary goal is therefore a critical rethinking of wider processes, practices, and products of cross-cultural interaction. Ultimately, my project addresses how the ‘global’ was experienced in the medieval era, and contributes to broader discussions about how the Middle Ages overlaps but also differs from the modern global world.

My scholarship has been generously supported by, amongst others, the Royal Historical Society (RHS), the British Academy, the International Center of Medieval Art (ICMA), the Italian Art Society (IAS), AHRC, the Francis Haskell Memorial Fund of The Burlington Magazine Foundation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Delaware Valley Medieval Association, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto, Pembroke College, Kettle's Yard, and the History of Art Department at Cambridge.