Kayla Johnson holds a BA in Art History from the University of Nevada, Reno and is a current Masters student in Global Cultures at the University of Bologna, Italy. She is most interested in the biographies of objects and the ways they reveal the intersection between historical context, economics, politics, and culture.
Areas of Expertise
The Spice Islands and Their Surprising Connection to New York
The economic importance of the Spice Islands explains why an Indonesian island was bartered for New York in the 17th century.
How Typhoons Stopped Kublai Khan’s Invasion of Japan
The Mongols were one of the most powerful empires in world history. Why did they fail to defeat the Japanese in the 13th century?
How Religiously Tolerant Were the Mongols?
Mongolian tolerance was not based on the idea of religious freedom, but could have been a political maneuver that reflected their own spiritual beliefs.
How the Small Christian Kingdom of Portugal Shaped Global Trade
How did Portugal, a small Christian kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, help reshape global trade?
How the Indian Ocean Became the Cradle of Global Trade
The Indian Ocean trade was the catalyst for Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage to find an alternate route to India, the center of this vast trade network.
The Art of Classical Marble Sculpting From Greece and Rome to Michelangelo
Classical marble sculpture has stood the test of time as one of the most influential forms of art in the history of Western Europe.
How Underwater Shells Became the First Global Money
How did underwater shells from the Maldives become an instrumental form of currency in the Transatlantic Slave Trade?
The Innovative Methods That Allowed the Mongols to Create a Vast Empire
The Mongols are known for their brutality when it came to warfare. But just how brutal were they?
The Most Important Emperors of the Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire, from 1526-1857, was a wealthy, tolerant Muslim empire in India. Emperors like Bābur, Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan left a legacy of power, art, and cultural contributions.
How the Renaissance Sparked a Religious Revolution in Europe
The Renaissance brought a Western European intellectual shift, emphasizing humanist values like education, individualism, and objectivity, profoundly impacting politics, art, and religion.
Classical Sculpture Techniques and Their Surprising Influence on Modernism
The Classical world left a legacy of techniques, forms, and materials that were recycled and reused as inspiration centuries later by artists of the Modern period.
Understanding the Lost Wax Process: Step-by-Step
The prevalence of this technology across time and cultures speaks to a larger question about the relationship of people to the environments that surround them, as well as the urge to mold and bend this nature to create objects of significance.