Graduate Studies
The 2024–25 academic year in graduate studies started off auspiciously as we welcomed (or welcomed back) to campus Ph.D. students Annalise Palmer (M.A. ’24) and Clio Rom as well as M.A. students Laura Coelho and Nathan Manna.
At our 31st Annual Art History Graduate Symposium in October we heard from three very fine papers: Clio Rom, “Re-creating and Recreating the ‘Oz Landscape’: The Recent Reshaping of the Ozarks Through Word and Image” (advisor: Dr. James Harper); Han Chen, “Networking the Global Market of Chinese Art: Transnational Dealership and China’s First Art Exhibition” (advisor: Dr. Chang Tan); and Laura Coelho, “Frans Post’s Imaginary Architectural Visions of Dutch Brazil” (advisor: Dr. James Harper). After the symposium, the faculty selected Han Chen to present at the Barnes Foundation Graduate Symposium on the History of Art, February 26–27, 2026.
Graduate student conference presentations got underway early with Arunima Addy crossing the Atlantic to give the paper “Art Deco Residences in 20th-Century Calcutta: An Alternate Modernity,” at the British Association for South Asian Studies, King’s College London, September 9–12, 2024. Kyle Marini presented “Experiential Art History: Recreating the Period Viewership of an Inca Rope Monument” at the Sixteenth-Century Society Conference on November 2, 2024. In spring 2025, Kyle also presented at a seminar in Seville, Spain, organized by the Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos and the Public Conference for the Museo de América in Madrid.
At the Association for Asian Studies conference in Columbus, Ohio, Han Chen presented “Forging an aesthetic past: Abel William Bahr’s Song Ceramic Collection,” March 13–16, 2025. Later that month, Emily Hagen gave the paper “Carpenter Bees: Barberini Patronage Underground at Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome,” at Renaissance Society of America in Boston; the conference ran from March 20–22, 2025.
It was another banner year for fellowship support, both internal and external, for graduate students. Arunima Addy, Kyle Marini, Amy Orner, and Holli Turner each received a Department of Art History Dissertation Fellowship. Annalise Palmer received a University Graduate Fellowship. M.A. student Kate McCowan received the College of Arts and Architecture Edward and Betty Mattil Scholarship, November 2024.
In other fellowship news, Han Chen received a Smithsonian Institution Fellowship that supported her dissertation work in residence in Washington, D.C., in fall 2025. Noah Dasinger received a Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellowship to study Latin at the Latin/Greek Institute at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York, and Kyle Marini was selected as a 2025 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow. Amy Orner received a CEMMS Graduate Travel Award and an AAUW Carlisle Branch Higher Education Scholarship. She also received the Schwartz Endowed Fellowship, all of which supported her dissertation research in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, Holli Turner received an O’Connor Fellowship to support the writing of her dissertation on Titian’s "Poesie".
In and around Penn State, graduate students were also active contributing research and expertise to public programs. Kyle Marini wrote wall label text for "Re/Collecting the Andes: Andean Art, Science, and the Sacred at Penn State," an exhibition at the Palmer Museum of Art. Ph.D. student Keri Mongelluzzo, educator for academic engagement and access at the Palmer, curated "The Global Majority," an exhibition of photographs and works on paper that represented a collaboration with Penn State’s School of Visual Arts Black Indigenous and People of Color; M.A. graduate assistants Adrienne Krueger and Sofia Rodriguez contributed texts and educational materials. In addition, Kenta Tokushige was one of the organizers of the Global Asias 7 conference, March 21–22, and an editorial assistant to "Verge: Studies in Global Asias".
The 2024–25 year finished with memorable events that were the culmination of years of work. On April 25, 2025, Laura Freitas Almeida defended her dissertation, “Resisting Memory: Tactics of Forgetting in Contemporary Latin American Art.” Her advisor was Dr. Sarah Rich. Congratulations to Laura!
As we embarked on finals week, the graduating M.A. students gave presentations on their M.A. papers: Adrienne Krueger, “Fictions of the Past: Settler Nativism and William Henry Jackson’s Mesa Verde Photography of 1874;” Kate McCowan, “Collaborative Inquiry at ACTING OUT: A Symposium of Indigenous Performance Art;” Morning Glory Ritchie, “‘For the Love of Herring!’ The Interplay of Local Identity and Imperialistic Control in the Dutch Still Life;” and Sofia Rodriguez, “Taking Flight: Reproducibility in La Danza de los Voladores in Early Modern Central Mexico.” Congratulations to all!