Rate My Professor Ruth Kolarik

Professor Ruth Kolarik serves as Professor in Art and Russian & Eurasian Studies at Colorado College, where she has been on the faculty for more than forty years. She earned a B.A. from the University of Kansas in 1969, an M.A. from the University of Kansas in 1970, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1982. Kolarik teaches survey courses in the history of the built environment, architecture, and landscape design, combining historical perspectives with discussions of contemporary architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism. She advises students in the Integrative Design and Architecture track of the Art Major and offers upper-level classes in ancient and medieval art history, including The Golden Age of Greece, Mosaics: Tesselated Perspectives, Late Antiquity, Byzantine Art, and Islamic Art. Regular courses include AH105 Ideologies of Landscape, AH120 Global Architecture I: Pyramids to Cathedrals, AH121 Global Architecture II: Renaissance to the 21st Century, AH202 Art and the Landscape, and AH210 Islamic Art.

Her research interests center on the art and architecture of Late Antiquity from 200 to 600 CE, examining the adaptation of the built environment and visual arts to evolving political, cultural, and religious contexts, especially in the Balkan Peninsula. As an archaeologist at the ancient city of Stobi in North Macedonia, she has investigated mosaic floors in residences, synagogues, and churches. Key publications include “The Earliest Christian Floor Mosaics: A Reassessment” presented at the 14th International Congress of the Association International pour l'Etude de la Mosaïque Antique (2018, in press 2023), “Canopies over Baptismal Fonts: The Episcopal Basilica Baptistery at Stobi” (2018, in press), "The Mosaic from the House of Peristeria at Stobi" in Studies in the Antiquities of Stobi IV (2018), “A Study of Mosaic Workshops—Macedonia Secunda and Epirus Nova” (2017), "Transitions in Mosaic in the Age of Constantine" (2016), “Synagogue Floors from the Balkans: Religious and Historical Implications” (2014), and “Mosaics of the Early Church at Stobi” in Dumbarton Oaks Papers (1987). She is Vice President of the North American branch of the Association International pour l'Etude de la Mosaïque Antique and represents Colorado College on the managing committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.