Dorothy F. Glass, a leading American scholar in the field of medieval Italian sculpture, offers a talk at Bates College at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, in Room 104 of Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

Titled “Borgo San Donnino: The Pilgrim’s Church,” Glass’s talk is open to the public at no cost.

A reception follows. The Department of Art and Visual Culture at Bates is presenting the event, sponsored by the Peter Jay Sharp and Peck Family Fund. For more information, please call 207-786-6135.

Described as “a terrific speaker” by Rebecca Corrie, Phillips Professor of Art and Visual Culture at Bates, Glass is professor emerita at the University at Buffalo, where she taught for 20 years. At Bates, she’ll discuss the cathedral in the Italian town of Fidenza, located near Parma and formerly known as Borgo San Donnino. Its 12th-century cathedral is one of the best-preserved churches of its era in northern Italy and is especially noted for its sculptures.Currently living in New York City, Glass was the Richard Krautheimer Gastprofessor (guest professor) at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome in 2004 and 2005. Her other prizes and honors include a Jane and Morgan Whitney Senior Research Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters in New York, and a Rome Prize for the American Academy in Rome in 1985 and 1986. She has published widely and is past president of the International Center of Medieval Art.