Letter from the Department Head
Dear Friends, Warm greetings from Happy Valley! It has been another wonderful year at Penn State, and I’m delighted to share updates from our Art History community. This summer María Beatriz Haro Carrión joined our department as Assistant Professor of American Art. Previously at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, she brings a wealth of experience as both a teacher and curator. In July we bid a bittersweet farewell to Assistant Teaching Professor Anne Cross, who is now Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Last year, the department graduated sixty-one students across our Art History majors, minors, and Museum Studies certificate programs. Jade Ciampicini served as our class marshal and has chosen to remain at Penn State to pursue a master’s degree in Creative Writing. Another highlight: third-year student Shan Wu received a Reuben and Gladys Golumbic Scholarship, one of the highest honors for undergraduates in the College of Arts and Architecture. In May we celebrated four MA graduates, and in August, Laura Almeida earned her PhD. This fall, we welcomed a new class of undergraduate majors and a cohort of six new graduate students. As always, philanthropy played a pivotal role in supporting our students. Han Chen advanced her dissertation on Chinese Art markets with support from the Susan W. and Thomas A. Schwartz Dissertation Research Fellowship and also received a Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship at the National Museum of Asian Art. Funding from Jerilea Zempel enabled Arunima Addy to conduct research in Calcutta on twentieth-century architecture. Meanwhile, the Babcock Galleries and Francis E. Hyslop Memorial funds supported Clio Rom and Noah Dasinger’s respective summer research in Italy. The Drew Stewart Popjoy Fund for Travel and Experiential Learning continues to transform learning in the department. It supported Prof. Lindsay Cook’s seminar trip to Paris in January and Prof. Jamie Harper’s graduate student trip to the Netherlands in March. Funds from the Popjoy fund also supported class travel to the Cleveland Museum of Art and museums in Philadelphia.
The Center for Virtual/Material Studies remains a model of scholarly research in art history. In the spring, the Center hosted the second convening of the Colonial Transatlantic Pigment Group with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Thanks to generous funding from Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos, the Center installed new lighting in the Borland Building’s second-floor display cases. Graduate assistants at the Center advanced their research in innovative ways, and the center offered its usually expansive series of hands-on workshops for courses across the university.
Our department thrives because of its people. From the students, staff, and faculty on campus to our alumni and friends around the world, Penn State Art History is as vital as ever. I am so proud and grateful. Thank you all! With warm wishes for a joyful holiday season, Robin