Dr. Snezhana Filipova

Full professor

Professor Filipova Snežana was born in Skopje. She graduated (1987) at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje, and received her master’s degree (1994) at the CEU in Budapest at the Institute for Medieval Studies. She had a specialist research stay in the winter semester of 1995 at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London mentored by Professor Robin Cormack.

She has received Herbert Manning Award for Best Student of the Generation in 1987. She has conducted study visits at universities in Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, England, Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia and Greece.

In July 1988 Filipova was employed at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje as a trainee, and a year later she was elected a junior assistant at the Institute of Art History and Archaeology. She earned her MA degree at the Department of Medieval Studies at CEU, Budapest in 1994. She became Doctor of Science in Art History at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, Serbia, in January 2005. The same year she was elected assistant professor, and in 2010 she was elected associate professor. In 2014 she was elected full time professor, and again re-elected in 2019.

She wrote six scholar art history books, the 7th one is in print. She has published over 60 professional and scholarly papers, including articles in the prestigious art history and archaeology journal BCH, Paris; and ICON, Rijeka (published by Brepols Publishers), as well as book section/article for Rutledge and another one for Brepols Publishers. She has participated in over 80 scientific conferences and congresses in the country and abroad, including: the International Congress of the Academies of Sciences and Arts of Serbia, Russia and Poland in Krakow, World Congresses of Byzantine Scholars in London and Belgrade, and at the RSA in Chicago, at conferences and congresses organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Lipetsk, BAS of Bulgaria (in Sofia and Yambol) etc.

She was the ECTS coordinator of the Institute of Art History and Archaeology until 2006, secretary and then head of postgraduate studies at the Institute in 2007-2009 and again in 2013/14. She was a member of the editorial board of the Annual of the Faculty of Philosophy from 2012-2016, published by the Faculty of Philosophy, UKIM, Skopje, and of the Board of Haemus Journal, electronic Journal for history and archaeology. She is member of the teaching commission of the Faculty of Philosophy starting from 2018.

Professor Filipova is a member of: the Macedonian Archaeological Association MAND since 1986, The International Academy for the promotion of Historical Studies since 2003, Renaissance Society of America since 2016, MECERN (Medieval Central Europe Research Network); she was member and founder of the Macedonian Heraldry Association since 2003-2010, and participates in the establishment and work of the Committee for Byzantology and Medieval Studies of the Republic of Macedonia since 2017.

She held a series of lectures on Early Christian Art and Medieval Art in Macedonia at the invitation of the University of Zagreb, the Institute of Art History, Faculty of Philosophy and the MIMARA Museum in May 2009, as well as the Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka, Institute of Art (in 2008, 2014) and the Faculty of Philosophy in Maribor, at the Institute of Art History (2014), as well as at the Academy in Lipetsk, Russia in September 2015 and at the Sorbonne, June 2018. The Museum of Macedonia invited her on two occasions and she held lectures in 2009 and 2014 on The New Heraldic Art Sources in Macedonia.

She wrote a script for the educational documentary on Macedonian heraldry in 2009, as well as for the TV serial Symbols of Macedonia in 2018, broadcasted on Macedonian National TV Service, and was a co-author of scripts for twenty episodes in the field of cultural heritage for TV Sonce, during 2011-2014.

At the Office for Protection of Cultural Heritage of R. Macedonia she took part in a commission for evaluation of reports for revaluation of museum collections in 2009. She took part at several national and international scholar projects, among which the Tempus Project of the Faculties of Philosophy in the region (2002-2005), the project for activities for the restoration of the newly discovered basilica in Bargala in 2009/10 at the Museum and National Gallery Štip, together with colleagues from BAN, and also was a member of the capital project for Bargala in 2014. She took part in The Moving Byzantium Project of the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, University of Vienna in the 2014-2016, and the EdMuse project – Education and Museum: Cultural Heritage for science learning is a two-year Strategic Partnership (2015-2017) funded by the EU Programme Erasmus+, Key Action 2 Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. She also took part in the project The Role of UNESCO CHAIRS in promoting the medium term strategy 2014-2021 in the Balkan Peninsula in 2016 in Cavalla. She took part in the project LaBedia Encyclopedia of Late Antique Balkans, late 4th C., in 2019, and the Project of the Princeton University Mapping Eastern Europe in the 13th-17th Centuries in 2020.

Filipova is fluent in English and Serbian. She is also dedicated to photography, and had several photo exhibitions in Štip, Gostivar, and Smederevo. She has also been singing in the MKC choir.

Research interests: Early Christian and medieval art, methodology of art history, heraldry, archaeology.

Prof. Dr. Filipova Snezana is engaged in teaching and seminars of the courses:

The second cycle of studies:
  • 1

    [U101Z / 18] Methodology and theory of art history

  • 2

    [U112Z / 18] Medieval art between East and West

  • 3

    [U215I / 18] The Art of Late Antiquity and Early Christianity

  • 4

    [U226I / 18] Heraldic sign system

  • 5

    [FU104I/18] Sacral architecture, iconography and Christian ritual

На третиот циклус студии:
  • 1

    [FZF24] Scholar and research methodology with examples and praxis in the field of art history

  • 2

    [IUA19] Early Christian church: history, liturgy, art (together with prof. Filipovski Toni)

  • 3

    [IUA24] Medieval manuscripts


Selected Bibliography

Sacred and Healing Springs in the Republic of N. Macedonia, in: Sacred Waters: A Cross-Cultural Compendium of Hallowed Springs and Holy Wells, Rutledge 2020

Essay on artistic solutions, reason for choosing iconography and circulation of models and ideas and art history terminology, Patrimonium 18, 2020, 345-350

Early Christian iconography, the role of the cross and variant of crosses present in the art works in Macedonia, in: The basilica of St. Sophia during the transition from paganism to Christianity, 494-511, Faber, Sofia 2018

Western influences in Medieval Macedonian art, Museum and Educational context, Unknown or not popularized styles, 82-87, International Edmuse Conference Proceedings, Sapienza Università di Roma, 2017 

Images of cities in the Macedonian Collection of icon paintings, Patrimonium 15, 345-359, Skopje: Kalamus 2017

Examples of Icons with Western Influences in Iconography in the Art of Macedonia Case Study of the Icon Virgin with Child (inv. no. 81) from the Ohrid Gallery of Icons, ICON 9, Brill Rijeka, 2016, 187-196

Comparative methodology of the Heracles’ knot and its meaning in Macedonian art, Patrimonium 14, Скопје 2016, 107-116

The sacrifice of Abraham from Bargala’s wooden relief, Patrimonium 13, 2015, 107-121

Белешки за употребата на хералдиката во Византија и византиските инсигнии, Systasis 27, Skopje 2015

The early Christian fragmented wooden relief from the site Bargala, Ниш и Византија, 221-236, Ниш 2014

The influence of Eastern and Western Architectural models on the churches built in the province Macedonia in the 5th-6 th C., Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Volume 2, no. 3, November 2013, MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy 2013, 425-429

Early Christian reliquaries and encolpia and the problem of the so called crypt reliquaries in the Republic of Macedonia”, Rome, Constantinople and newly Converted Europe, Archaeological and Historical evidence, vol. II, Krakow, Leipzig-Rzeszow-Warszawa 2012, 113-130

Early Christian reliquaries in the Republic of Macedonia, Systasis 20 (2012)

Примери на рановизантиска палстика и капители од Македонија со аплицирани натписи и/или, Systasis 6-7, 2008 

Sculptures medievales des XI et XII siécles en ARYM”, Actes du colloque international La sculpture byzantine 7-12 siecles, BCH suppl. 49, 183-197

Рановизантијски капители креирани у престоници у Јустијаново доба: македонске и српске аналогије, Zbornik radova Niš i Vizantija IV, Niš 2006, 199-212

”Romanesque art in Macedonia”, “Issues and Resources for the Study of Medieval Europe,” Budapest, Krakow, Prague, 2001, 16-18; 

Books: 

Ранохристијанските културни центри и творечките процеси во уметноста на Македонија, Скопје 2020

Студии за Хералдиката во Македонија, Македоника Литера, 2015

Седум споменици на културата од Скопје и скопско, Македонида, Скопје 2009 (автор заедно со Димитрова Елизабета, коавтори Иљовска Венета, Велков Гордана) 

Рановизантиски капители во Република Македонија, Каламус, Скопје 2007

Македонска културна ризница, Kalamus, 2006, (електронска книга, коавтор, автор на текст за област Скулптура)

Архитектонска декоративна скулптура во Македонија во 5-6 и 11-12 век, Матица Македонска, Скопје Мелбурн 1997