Lora Webb is currently a PhD candidate in Art History at Stanford University. Her dissertation is on eunuchs in the Middle Byzantine court (from the end of Iconoclasm in 843 to the Fourth Crusade in 1204). It investigates how eunuchs were visually present in the Byzantine court where they enjoyed close contact with the imperial family as they managed their affairs. The project addresses three interrelated aspects of court eunuchs: 1) their visual representation, 2) their patronage of art objects, and 3) because they were "made" through the act of castration, the way that elite eunuchs themselves could be construed as art objects. Through eunuchs, her dissertation explores concepts of liminality within manuscripts, metalwork, and ritual. Before Stanford Lora studied art history at Oklahoma State University where she earned a B.A. (2011) and at Tufts University where she earned a M.A (2013) for papers on the Holy Crown of Hungry and "Veneto-Saracenic" spherical incense burners.
"Transfigured: Mosaic and Liturgy at Neo Moni.", in Aural Architecture, ed. by Bissera Pentcheva. London: Routledge/Ashgate, 2017.