Professor Maxwell Wins SAH Founders Award

Professor Robert Maxwell has won the prestigious Founders Award of the Society of Architectural Historians, which recognizes the best article published by an emerging
scholar in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians during the previous two years.

Professor Maxwell won the award for the article "Romanesque Construction and the Urban Context: Parthenay-le-Vieux in Aquitaine," which appeared in the March 2007 issue of the Journal.

The award jury wrote:

In making a case for why some less famous monuments can be worth fresh and serious consideration, Robert Maxwell analyzes the design, construction, and sculptural decoration of the Romanesque church of Parthenay-le-Vieux within a context illuminated by archival documentation. Meticulously detailed, solidly argued, and judiciously illustrated, his article displays a sound knowledge of both the church itself and earlier studies. Maxwell has produced a study that not only sheds light on a particular structure in its historical and geographical setting but also points the way to a new, more complete understanding of its period.