Colum Hourihane is an Irish-born art historian, iconographer, and editor formerly of Princeton University, specializing in medieval art and iconographic studies.[1] From 1997 to 2014, Hourihane was the director of the Index of Christian Art, the largest thematic and iconographic index of medieval art and architecture in the world. Here, he stewarded the project during its early days of digitization and developed an annual conference program which placed the Index at the forefront of medieval art scholarly exchange. He first studied archaeology at University College Cork and the National University of Ireland Galway (1977) before earning a PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1984.[2]
Hourihane has published on the subjects of iconography, Index history and methodology, and Gothic Irish art.[3] He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy[4] and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. In 2012, Hourihane edited the "Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture" for Oxford University Press, and was the editor for the "Routledge Companion to Medieval Iconography" in 2017. Between 2008 and 2011, he was president of the International Center of Medieval Art.