William Kynan-Wilson
College roles
Skilliter Centre Research Associate
Biography
Dr William Kynan-Wilson is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at The Open University and a Research Associate of the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies. He did his PhD in History of Art at the University of Cambridge and, before joining the Open University in 2021, he was a Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Bristol and a Lecturer in History at Aalborg University in Denmark. He has published widely on travel writing and travel imagery in the medieval and early modern periods.
His research at the Skilliter Centre focuses on early Anglo-Ottoman diplomacy, where he is Principle Investigator of a new five-year research project (‘The Works of Susan Skilliter’; 2025-2030) that will edit and publish the works of Susan Skilliter, many of which remain unpublished.
Research Interests
William's publications include '"Painted by the Turcks themselves": Reading Peter Mundy’s Ottoman Costume Album in Context', in Sussan Babaie and Melanie Gibson (eds.) The Mercantile Effect: On Art and Exchange in the Islamicate World. London: Gingko Library, pp. 38–50; 'The Ottoman Imagery of Jacopo Ligozzi', in Maurizio Arfioli and Marta Caroscio (eds.) The Grand Ducal Medici and the Levant: Material Culture, Diplomacy, and Imagery in the Early Modern Mediterranean. The Medici Archive Project (3). Turnhout: Brepolis, pp. 101–111; and 'The Origins of Orientalism: A Plurality of Orients and Occidents (c.1500-1800)', in William Greenwood, and Lucien de Guise (eds.) Inspired by the East: How the Islamic World Influenced Western Art. London: British Museum, pp. 32–43.
His most recent book is an edited volume of essays that examines Henry of Blois, one of the most significant figures in twelfth-century Europe and a patron of the arts integral to discussions of the ‘twelfth-century Renaissance’ (Henry of Blois: New Interpretations, Boydell & Brewer: 2021; co-edited with John Munns) and his current research focuses on travel texts and travel images relating to the Ottoman world in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is particularly interested in Ottoman costume albums and unpublished early modern travel accounts of the Ottoman Mediterranean.