News
The History of Art Department is excited to announce the establishment of the inaugural History of Art Undergraduate Advisory Board, comprised of a selected group of students who will work with…
PhD Candidate Maggie Wilson traveled to the UK this spring to visit collections at the Bodleian Library and present her research at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds…
The History of Art Department is excited to welcome the newest class of PhD students with the beginning of the semester. Joining the department will be Erin Fletcher, A.J. Gianopoulos, Hannah…
The History of Art Department congratulates Schuyler Black-Seitz on successfully defending his dissertation, “Modernism in the Service of Capital: The Art of Charles Sheeler, 1915-1959.” Schuyler…
This summer, Ph. D Candidate Casey Carsel travelled to London, Manchester, Prague, and Warsaw, conducting initial exploratory dissertation research at various archives. Highlights included a visit…
In August 2026, Ph.D. candidate Christy Sher traveled to Cambridge, UK, to attend the Mitsubishi Corporation Summer School in Early Modern Japanese Palaeography at the University of Cambridge,…
In August of 2026, PhD candidate Peter Smyth traveled to London and Paris to conduct research for a dissertation chapter tracing the meaning of the term “cartoon.” In London, Smyth spent two days…
During a recent trip to Düsseldorf and Frankfurt Germany, History of Art PhD candidate Bowie Kim conducted research for her upcoming dissertation on AI-generated art and the visual effects of AI…
PhD Candidate Cole J. Graham recently spent several weeks in Europe, where he first visited the Université Paris-Nanterre to attend a symposium arranged by the Société d’Études Modernistes. There, he…
We are thrilled to announce that PhD Candidate Emilela Thomas-Adams was recently named the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Fellow (2026-2027) at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA…
In June 2026, PhD candidate Dareen Hussein presented new research from her dissertation at two conferences: the International Association of Middle Eastern Studies in Madrid, Spain, and the…
The History of Art Graduate Student Association (HAGS) is pleased to announce its leadership committee for the upcoming year:
President: Christy…
College of Arts and Sciences Dean David Horn has named Shannon Winnubst, Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, as the interim chair of the Department of History of Art for the 2026-2027…
Each year the History of Art Department publishes its annual newsletter, featuring a letter from our department chair, updates on research from our faculty, spotlights on graduate and…
In the second half of May 2025, Prof. Kris Paulsen and PhD Candidate Liz Heise-Glass traveled with 21 undergraduates to Italy for a study abroad course, HISTART 4789.4 Venice "Art, Architecture,…
The Office of Academic Affairs and the Board of Trustees have approved the promotion of Namiko Kunimoto from Associate Professor to Professor in the History of Art Department. Professor Kunimoto's…
From March through May, PhD candidate Peter Smyth served as the third Gallery and Exhibitions Visiting Fellow at Asia Society Hong Kong Center. While there, Peter helped open the exhibition
During the Spring 2026 semester, I recently completed the History of Art department’s new course offering on Art Conservation where students were able to gain in-depth exposure to the field of…
Professor Karl Whittington has been named a Camargo Foundation Fellow for Fall 2026. The Camargo Fellowship is a 10-week residency for artists and writers in Cassis, France. Prof. Whittington will…
Namiko Kunimoto presented her new book, Imperial Animations in Transpacific Contemporary Art, at the University of Chicago on May 13th, 2026. It was held at the Seminary Co-op Book Store…
In May 2026, PhD candidate Christy Sher traveled to McGill University in Canada to consult Japanese medical materials relevant to her dissertation research.
During her visit to the Osler…
On March 5, 2026, Prof. Kris Paulsen and Prof. Jennifer Rhee (VCU) led a seminar for Dartmouth College’s Leslie Center for the Humanities on "AI and Refusal.”
This Leslie Center Seminar on…
The Department would like to congratulate all of the 2025-26 History of Art graduates. The Department also recognizes two undergraduate 2025-26 graduates who have received departmental awards.
In April of 2026, PhD candidate Maggie Wilson traveled to Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany in order to visit collections and historical sites relevant to her dissertation, “Making and Breaking…
Students in Prof. Namiko Kunimoto's History of Art 5822 – Japanese Painting and Prints: Buddhist Art in the Modern World course enjoyed a tour of the exhibition East…
The History of Art Department congratulates Asia Adomanis on successfully defending her dissertation, “On the Borders of Abstraction: Chinese American Artists and the Politics of Hybridity in…
In April 2026, PhD candidate Tony Del Aversano attended the 25th Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies, in Rochester, New York. There, he presented his paper “Queering the Holy Court: Angel…
Emilela Thomas-Adams, a PhD candidate in the department, presented a paper entitled “’Er want mich in waz er gehaben moht’: Medieval Community and Therapeutic Reuse” at the 42nd Annual Mary L…
The Archives of American Art Journal Spring 2026 issue includes an article from PhD Candidate Asia Adomanis. The essay analyzes the reception of Chinese American painter and…
Asia Adomanis, a doctoral candidate in the department, presented a paper entitled “Monumental Immateriality: Abstractions and Borders in Tseng Yuho’s Western Frontier (1964)” as part of…
Prof. Karl Whittington spoke last week in the Department of Art at Oklahoma State University. He presented research from his recent book, Queer Making, as the keynote for the department’s…
The Department of History of Art is excited to share that Ph.D. Candidate Christy Sher has been named as one of fourteen recipients of the 2026-27 Society of Fellows faculty and Graduate Team…
Christy Sher, PhD candidate, recently visited the Clendening History of Medicine Library and the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas to conduct object-based research in support of…
Christy Sher, Ph.D. candidate, presented a paper titled “Seduction, Science, and Statecraft: The Erotics of “Civic Obstetrics” in Utagawa Yoshitora’s Realize One’s Parental Love” at the…
On Friday, March 6, students in History of Art 4030: Art and Conservation travelled to Cleveland, Ohio to visit conservation labs in the area. The group first visited ICA - Art Conservation and…
PhD Student Michiko Kubota traveled to Chicago in mid-February to present at the College Art Association 2026 conference. Participating in the panel on “Gendered Mediations: Materials, Mediums,…
Our own Professor Namiko Kunimoto was recently featured on the UC Press Blog as part of a wider discussion on "How Transpacific Contemporary Art Reveals Imperialism's Role in the Global Rise of…
Professor Aaron Katzeman's essay, "California Is the Eastern Pacific: Toward a Collective Oceanic Realignment," was recently reprinted in Pacific Arts. The essay was originally published in…
The Center for the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and The Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee partnered to host History of Art’s Kris…
Five History of Art Faculty members presented their research at the College Art Association Annual Conference in Chicago on February 18-21, 2026. More information can be found on CAA's website. …
On Feb. 17 2026, the ICMA (International Center of Medieval Art) hosted an online book launch for Prof. Karl Whittington’s new book, Queer Making: On Artists and Desire in Medieval Europe…
Namiko Kunimoto had the pleasure of mentoring scholars from Mongolia, Malaysia, and Singapore while visiting Chicago as part of the College Art Association Conference. The mentorship program is…
Students from various courses braved the cold in early February to travel to the Cleveland Musuem of Art. Accompanied by Professor Kristen Adams and Lecturer Hannah Slater, the students explored…
PhD candidate Liz Rae Heise-Glass has written a piece for The Brooklyn Rail highlighting artists working at the intersections of performance art and music in 1980s New York. This article…
Four History of Art faculty members presented on their research in “Current Threads in and against Art History: Power, Colonialism, Genocide,” a department-sponsored event. Aaron Katzeman, Benjamin…
In January, PhD student Tony Del Aversano traveled to Florence, Italy to see the exhibition Fra Angelico, a retrospective on the renowned fifteenth-century Italian artist. There, he saw…
PhD student Michiko Kubota’s book review of Alicia Volk’s In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan has just been published by caa.reviews.
And of course, we highly…
Professor Sam Aranke participated in Getty Research Institute and Royal Academy of Arts two-day public forum Kerry James Marshall: Conversations examining the many influences behind…
At the start of January, PhD candidate Maggie Wilson traveled to the Netherlands and Belgium in order to visit collections related to her dissertation, “Making and Breaking Enclosure: the Movement…
Ujaan Ghosh has completed a decade-long project translating the seventeenth-century Odia Rāmāyaṇa, Baidehiśa Bilāsa. Co-authored with Amrita Chowdhury, this first English…
Namiko Kunimoto has published her second bok, Imperial Animations in Transpacific Contemporary Art. It was published by the University of California Press and received the FirstGen Scholar Award.…
Assistant Professor Aaron Katzeman's co-authored essay with Drew Kahu'āina Broderick, "'Ka Aina No Ka Poe o Hawaii': Kokua Hawaii's Huli Newspaper, 1971–73," was recently translated into Mandarin…
Two History of Art PhD Candidates, Cole Graham and Peter Smyth, have won the prestigious Presidential Fellowship from Ohio State, which provides a year of funding during the 2026-27 Academic Year…
Professor Carlos Rivas spoke to the Ohio State News and shared his thoughts on the controversy surrounding the recent theft of the French Crown Jewels amidst shifting conversations about museums…
Professor Karl Whittington’s new book, “Queer Making: On Artists and Desire in Medieval Europe,” has been published by ICMA Books and Penn State University Press as part of the “Viewpoints” series of…
Ph.D. candidate Christy Sher presented a paper titled “Procreative Passions: Visualizing Love, Desire, and Lineage in Edo-Period Japanese Erotica” at the 51st Annual Cleveland Symposium on
In September, PhD candidate Asia Adomanis attended a reception for the publication of the Art Student League’s recent anthology 150 Stories: Lives of the Artists at the League (
This semester, PhD candidate Asia Adomanis traveled to Washington, D.C., and New York to conduct dissertation research on the artist Tseng Yuho. Asia visited the Smithsonian Institute Archives in…
Over autumn break, students in the History of Art Senior Seminar—led by Professor Ujaan Ghosh—traveled to New York City to conduct in-person research on the objects that they are studying for…
Students taking History of Art 2003 (The Art and Visual Culture of East Asia) traveled to the Cleveland Museum of Art last weekend with Professor Slater to view the museum's East Asian art…
Dr. David Efurd (OSU PhD, 2008) has been awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for research in India for 2025-26. Dr. Efurd’s Fulbright-Nehru project examines…
Namiko Kunimoto will travel to Portland to give a talk on gender and postwar Japanese art at the Portland Art Museum. Her talk is part of a symposium on the artist Yoshida Chizuko.
Assistant Professor Aaron Katzeman recently gave the 24th Janet E. Hutchison Lecture at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto in coordination with the exhibition Earthwork, curated by…
Ph.D. candidate Christy Sher presents a paper, “Visualizing the Maternal Body: Pregnancy, Pedagogy, and Civic Instruction in Utagawa Yoshitora’s Fubo no on o shiru zu (Realize One’s…
In June 2025, PhD candidate Dareen Hussein presented a paper entitled "Les deux écrans and the Shaping of Contemporary Arab Women's Film Criticism" at the 2025 European Network of Cinema and Media…
Ph.D. student Christy Sher attended the Kuzushiji workshop at the University of Chicago this past weekend (October 3-4), led by Professor Emeritus Takahashi Akinori of the Graduate School…
Nicole Cromartie, Director of Learning and Engagement at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, CO, visited Professor Aaron Katzeman's HISTART 4030: Museum Studies Seminar - Decolonizing Museums…
Students in Professor Kunimoto's HA 4001, Envisioning the Nation: Modern and Contemporary Art in Asia, enjoyed viewing items in Thompson Library Special Collections. Librarian Dr. Lisa Iacobellis…
Professor Kris Paulsen will be leading a study abroad program to visit Venice, Italy in May 2026. The course will provide class credit for History of Art 4789.4, as well as complete the entire GE…
Professor Namiko Kunimoto's History of Art 4001 Writing seminar learned about the process of making manga from two manga artists from Japan. This visit was sponsored by the Institute for Japanese…
Professor Namiko Kunimoto's History of Art 4001 Writing seminar visited the Columbus of Museum of Art today to practice their visual description skills.
Last Thursday, September 18th, PhD Candidate Cole J. Graham participated in a roundtable made up of comics scholars during Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) is an annual…
PhD student Bowie Bo Gyung Kim published an interview article with artist Muhammad Toukhy in the online art magazine Impulse. In their conversation, Bowie explored the possibilities of online…
History of Art PhD Candidate Mia Kivel traveled to Japan this August to conduct research for her upcoming colloquium and dissertation (tentatively titled Anti-Aphasic Art in Contemporary Ainu…
PhD Student Michiko Kubota traveled to Japan from July through August to conduct research on postwar calligraphy. Supported by the Murnane Travel Scholarship, Start-up Departmental Research Funds,…
PhD Student Christy Sher has been accepted as a Research Fellow for the 2025/26 academic year at the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. This prestigious and…
From June through July this summer, History of Art major Savannah Johnson-Grove completed an internship at Stone Quarry Art Park. Located in Cazenovia, New York, the park highlights a rotating…
Assistant Professor Aaron Katzeman recently published a review of Jeffrey Gibson's the space in which to place me in the online publication Momus. Premiering at the 60th Venice…
The Department of History of Art is delighted to welcome a new faculty member to campus this fall. Dr. Aaron Katzeman has joined the department as Assistant Professor of Global Indigenous Art. Dr…
Professor Ujaan Ghosh published his article, Struggling with Kṛṣṇa: Alternative Imaginations in an Odia Mahābhārata, on the multiplicity of the Mahābhārata tradition in early modern India…
History of Art major Delia Miklowski used her summer break to complete an internship as part of the Department’s course, HISTART 4191. This course, offered each semester, allows students to gain…
Professor Karl Whittington published a short essay, “Touching Saint Sebastian,” in the catalogue of the new show opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met Cloisters) in October 2025…
The Wexner Center for the Arts will celebrate the opening of its fall programming with an opening reception on Friday, August 22. The event will open three new exhibitions including …
As part of the department’s internship course, HA4191, undergraduate Chemistry and History of Art student Monica Harmat has finished a summer internship with ICA Art Conservation. Based in Cleveland,…
The History of Art Graduate Student Association (HAGS) is pleased to announce its leadership committee for the upcoming year:
President:
The department mourns the loss, several months ago, of retired faculty member Dr. Emmanuel Okechukwu “Chuks” Odita. Dr. Odita taught in Ohio State’s Department of History of Art from 1969 to 2012,…
Associate Professor Erica Levin recently published an article in Afterimage entitled, "To assemble is to think…
In June of 2025, PhD student Maika Kagawa Bahr was able to travel to Tokyo to conduct research for her dissertation. Supported by the Graduate Research Small Grants Program, Maika’s travelled to…
The History of Art Department congratulates Karin Flora on successfully defending her dissertation, "Fictive Materiality and the Grisaille Image: Encounters between Art and Matter." Karin was…
Prof. Kris Paulsen published an article on satellite and rover images of Mars and artistic reinterpretations of NASA’s data in the “Sense” issue of LA+ Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape…
History of Art alumna Mabi Ponce de León (PhD 2023) will be presenting artwork as part of the Zanesville Museum of Art's 79th Ohio Annual Exhibition. The exhibition, which celebrates the…
In May of 2025 PhD candidate Maggie Wilson traveled to the region around Lake Constance in Germany and Switzerland as well as Alsace, Germany and France to conduct research for her dissertation, …
PhD Candidate Asia Adomanis recently traveled to the University of Kansas to present at the Space Between Society 2025 Conference, “Peace and Conflict in the Space Between.” The presentation,…
PhD candidate Emilela Thomas-Adams has been awarded a prestigious 9-month fellowship at the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles. As a predoctoral fellow from September to June, Emilela will be…
The History of Art Department's annual newsletter is now available in an accessible format on the department's website. Released each fall, newsletters bring together stories about the people of…
In the second half of May 2025, Prof. Karl Whittington and PhD Candidate Emilela Thomas-Adams traveled with 19 undergraduates to Italy for a study abroad course, “HistArt 4798: Medieval Art in…
From February through April, PhD candidate April Riddle served as the second Gallery and Exhibitions Visiting Fellow at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center. While in Hong Kong, April helped with…
The department mourns the loss, several months ago, of Professor Emeritus Anne M. Morganstern. Anne was a beloved member of our department for many years, from the 1970s to the 2000s. Alongside…
In May 2025, PhD student Tony Del Aversano traveled to Europe to see exhibitions focusing on medieval Italian art. Supported by the Graduate Research Small Grants Program, and the Cathleen M…
Christy Sher, PhD candidate, recently visited the Wangensteen Historical Library at the University of Minnesota to conduct object-based research for her dissertation project examining the…
Graham conducted research for his forthcoming dissertation, tentatively titled Bodily Matters: Egon Schiele and the Erotics of Disability. While in…
In May 2025, graduate student Peter Smyth traveled to Paris to visit exhibitions of modern art, including the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée d’Art Moderne. Then, Peter continued on…
Prof. Kris Paulsen recently published an interview with artist and data scientist Angie Waller in the Walker Art Center’s Reader. In the conversation, “Is AI Sorry It Took Your Job,” they…
The department congratulates Allie Mickle on the successful defense of her dissertation, “Picturing the Factory of the World: Artists’ Cinema, China and Global Commodity Chains.” Allie was advised…
The Department would like to congratulate all of the 2024-25 History of Art graduates. The Department also recognizes two undergraduate 2024-25 graduates who have received departmental awards.
Prof. Kris Paulsen will serve as the 2025-2026 Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme (GAHDT) Faculty Leadership Fellow. The year’s theme, Automation, Intelligence, Creativity connects to…
Associate Professor Jody Patterson was recently awarded a 2025 Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Award. The Ratner Awards are presented annually for outstanding teaching by tenure…
Julie Defossez (PhD 2024) will begin a new role as the Assistant Curator for Public Programming at the Columbus Museum of Art. She is excited to work alongside my new colleagues to enhance and…
In March, Prof. Christina Wei-Szu Burke Mathison and students from her The Art of Modern and Contemporary China course taught in Autumn ’24 gave a tour of the exhibition Mobility,…
Prof. Karl Whittington and PhD student Tony del Aversano presented research at a symposium at the Clark Art Institute on Friday April 11, 2025. The symposium, “Queer Palimpsests: Rewriting…
In April 2025, PhD student Tony Del Aversano attended the 24th Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies, in Durham, North Carolina and co-hosted by Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill. There, he…
Margaret Wilson, PhD candidate, recently visited Nuremberg, Germany, in order to conduct object research to further her dissertation project “Making and Breaking Enclosure: The Movement of Art…
Over the spring break, 2025, PhD candidate Liz Rae Heise-Glass took a fruitful research trip to southern California. Liz’s visit took her from the high desert where she conducted a studio visit…
The department congratulates Keyu Yan on the successful defense of his dissertation, “On Post-Mao Time and Space: Chinese Installation Art, 1980s-1990s.” Keyu was advised by Professor Emeritus…
On March 29, Professor Namiko Kunimoto presented a talk titled Tanaami Keiichi: Commerical War (and Chickens) at the The Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami. Below is a summary of the talk,…
Tony Del Aversano, a PhD student in History of Art, recently published a book review in Sixteenth Century Journal. The review discusses the book Simone Martini in Orvieto, edited…
PhD candidate April Riddle was recently awarded the 2025 Summer Graduate Research Fellowship by the Umwelt Center for Germanic Studies and Environmental Humanities. This $7000 fellowship will allow…
This spring, PhD Candidate Asia Adomanis visited the de Young Museum in San Francisco to view Tseng Yuho’s Western Frontier (1964). The multi-panel mural is the focus of Asia’s…
In February 2025, PhD Candidate Schuyler Black-Seitz attended the College Art Association’s 113th annual conference in New York City. At the conference, Schuyler participated on a panel titled
Senior History of Art major Alexa Isaac presented her research at the Spring 2025 Denman Undergraduate Research Forum. Her poster, “Medieval Devotional Icons as an Assertion of Political and…
On February 13, PhD candidate Keyu Yan presented a paper titled “Beijing to Hangzhou: Maryn Varbanov and the Significance of Mixed Media in Post-Mao China” at the College Art Association Annual…
Students in Prof. Karl Whittington’s Spring 2025 class, “HistArt 5422: Medieval Manuscript Illumination,” were assigned to make their own medieval-style manuscripts. These manuscripts are…
Dr. Lauren M. Caskey '24 has accepted a curatorial fellowship at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Over the next couple of years, Dr. Caskey will be researching and cataloging the museum's European art…
PhD Student Sterling Nix attended the exhibition, A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington D.C 1900-2000, at the Anacostia Community Museum in…
PhD candidate Keyu Yan has been awarded a grant from the Association for Chinese Art History (ACAH) and the Bei Shan Tang Foundation to support his upcoming trip to the 2025 College Art…
In November 2024, PhD candidate April Riddle traveled to Los Angeles to conduct dissertation research. At the Getty Research Institute, April spent time in the archives studying documents from the…
Associate Professor Sam Aranke has won a major award from the MLA (Modern Language Association) for her book, Death’s Futurity: The Visual Life of Black Power, published last year. The…
On November 27, Distinguished University Professor Emerita Julia Andrews delivered a lecture at the Foundation Giacometti in Paris. Her talk, titled: “The Lure of the West: Chinese Modernists and…
Dareen Hussein, a PhD student in History of Art, was recently awarded the Presidential Fellowship from the Graduate School at Ohio State. This is the most prestigious award given by the graduate…
To highlight the department’s engagement with contemporary curatorial practice, we host and co-host events throughout the year that feature well-known curators and practitioners in the field…
To highlight the department’s engagement with contemporary curatorial practice, we host and co-host events throughout the year that feature well-known curators and practitioners in the field…
In November 2024, graduate student Peter Smyth traveled to Paris to visit the exhibition “Comics, 1964-2024” at the Centre Pompidou. The exhibition featured original comics pages and comics…
Asia Adomanis recently presented at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum’s inaugural symposium, Land, Place, Identity: Inaugural Symposium on American Art. The presentation, titled …
Congratulations to Hannah Slater on completing her Ph.D! Her dissertation is called "Reframing 311: visual ecologies of reconstruction in Japan." With thanks to her committee, Dr. Erica Levin,…
Julie Defossez successfully defended her dissertation, “Take Care: Gender, Labor, and Capitalism in the Maintenance Art of Mierle Laderman Ukeles.” Her dissertation committee consisted of Kris…
The department congratulates Clayton Kindred on the successful defense of his dissertation, "An Archaeology of Castration: The Image of the Eunuch in Nineteenth Century French Art." His…
Over autumn break this October, a group of undergraduate students in the History of Art Department’s Senior Research Seminar traveled with Professor Jody Patterson to New York City.
Only…
In September 2024, graduate student Asia Adomanis traveled to New York to attend the opening reception of the Legacies: Asian American Art Movements in New York City (1969-2001)
Graduate students enrolled in the seminar “Early Modern Art History and Cultural Encounter” traveled to Los Angeles over Fall Break to conduct research and visit several major museums. Led by Prof…
History of Art PhD Student Peter Smyth presented at this year’s Comics Crossroads Columbus. The event at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Research Library, held at the city’s premier comics festival,…
Dr. Mina Kim (OSU PhD 2016), a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Alabama, will publish her book, Contemporary Korean Art: New Directions since the 1960s, in November…
History of Art senior Iris Dow has been chosen to serve as undergraduate representative on the Campus Art and Memorials Committee for the 2024-2025 academic year. The committee advises the Office…
Dani Kissinger, who graduated with a BA in History of Art in May 2024, has started a new job at the Wexner Center or the Arts. After several years working as an intern in the Advancement…
Recent History of Art Graduate Bre Eickholt has accepted a new job at Downtown Columbus, Inc. The organization is a private nonprofit that strives to improve the connectivity, livability, and…
A new essay on Artificial Intelligence by Prof. Kris Paulsen appears in the new issue of October. Edited by Pamela M. Lee and Michelle Kuo, the issue features short essays on Art and Machine…
The Department of History of Art has launched a new Graduate Certificate in Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice. The certificate is open to graduate students in any discipline or department,…
Professor Namiko Kunimoto received a FirstGen Scholar Grant for her book, Imperial Animations in Transpacific Art, forthcoming from the University of California Press.
Professors Aranke and Jones, co-conveners of the Samella Lewis Initiative, are featured contributors to the exhibition “Dewey Crumpler: Life Studies” now on view at the David C. Driskell Center…
Recent History of Art Graduate Qaman Omar has accepted a position as Visitor Engagement Coordinator in the Department of Engagement and Interpretation at the Columbus Museum of Art. He is…
PhD Student Mia Kivel has won the 2024 Chino Kaori Memorial Essay Prize. The Japan Art History Forum’s Chino Kaori Memorial Essay Prize recognizes outstanding graduate student scholarship in…
PhD student Christy Sher immersed herself in a six-week Classical Japanese studies program in Kyoto, Japan in June and July 2024, preparing for her dissertation research. During her stay, Christy…
In August 2024, PhD candidate Schuyler Black-Seitz traveled to Washington, D.C. and Bard College in New York to conduct dissertation research. In D.C., Schuyler visited the Archives of American…
Professor Namiko Kunimoto was featured on the news in Japan for giving a virtual talk on Shiraga Kazuo on the 100th memorial of his birth at the Amagasaki Cultural Center.
Read the news…
Professor Kris Paulsen contributed an essay, “Simulating Citizenship,” to a new book on Debi Cornwall, Model Citizens. Cornwall’s new body of work takes “the United States as a…
Professor Kris Paulsen was invited to speak at the Nam June Paik Art Center as part of the Trans-Spatial Symposium celebrating Nam June Paik’s birthday and the 40-year anniversary of his satellite…
PhD student Tony Del Aversano received funding from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. to attend their weeklong skills course, “An Orientation to Research Methods and Agendas,” in…
Before completing his PhD degree, Yifan Li (PhD 2024) traveled to China in July 2024 for research in Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. During this trip, he visited museums, gathered…
The History of Art Graduate Student Association (HAGS) is pleased to announce its leadership committee for the upcoming year:
President:
Professor Karl Whittington has published a chapter in a new edited volume on water in the Middle Ages. The book is part of an intended four-volume series on “The Elements in the Medieval World:…
In July 2024, PhD candidate Keyu Yan traveled to China to conduct dissertation research in Kunming, where he visited museums and collected materials. This trip was made possible by OSU’s…
PhD candidate Dareen Hussein spent time in France this summer conducting research for her dissertation. Dareen conducted archival research and interviews across Paris, Marseille, and Damgan. In…
Namiko Kunimoto will speak (online) at a symposium in Ashiya, Japan, celebrating 100 years since Shiraga Kazuo was born.
PhD Candidate Karin Flora travelled to Lyon, France to present at the 36th Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art World Congress with the theme of “Matter, Materiality” which convened from June…
PhD candidate April Riddle received a travel fellowship from the National Committee for the History of Art to attend the 36th Comité International d'Histoire de l'Art World Congress in Lyon, France…
In July of 2024, PhD student Maika Kagawa Bahr was able to travel to Tokyo to conduct research for her dissertation. Supported by the Graduate Research Small Grants Program, Maika was able to…
This summer, PhD Candidate Emilela Thomas-Adams traveled to Switzerland and Germany to conduct research on several of her dissertation case study objects. While in Bern, Emilela met with curators…
The department congratulates Yifan Li on the successful defense of his dissertation, "Transforming Landscape: Picturing the New Look of Mountains and Streams in Mao's China." His dissertation was…
PhD Candidate Maggie Wilson has won the three year Paul Mellon Fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. This…
The department is delighted to share the fantastic news that the university has approved the hire of Dr. Kristen Adams as Assistant Teaching Professor in History of Art, beginning in August 2024…
Professor and Department Chair Karl Whittington conducted research for two weeks in France, as part of his book in progress, Queer Making: Artists and Desire in Medieval Europe. He…
PhD Candidate Allie Mickle spent three months in Hong Kong as the Gallery and Exhibitions Visiting Fellow at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center from March through May 2024. While there, she…
In June of 2024, PhD student Tony Del Aversano traveled to Italy to conduct research for his upcoming dissertation focusing on gender and sexuality in Italian medieval art. Supported by the…
Ph.D student Cole J. Graham recently spent a week at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. Cole attended the society's annual CHAViC (Center for Historic American Visual…
PhD Candidate Maggie Wilson will be a guest speaker at the Columbus Museum of Art, where she will discuss the subject of the ongoing Sapphic Paris exhibition, painter Marie Laurencin. Her…
In May of 2024 PhD Candidate Maggie Wilson visited several of her dissertation case study objects in Belgium and Germany thanks to the support of the ICMA Student Travel Grant. She had an enriching…
Distinguished University Professor Emerita Julia Andrews recently published a co-edited volume of essays (with Shuyu Kong and Shengtian Zheng) for Routledge. Entitled "Art and Modernism in Socialist…
PhD Candidate Emilela Thomas-Adams has been awarded a prestigious travel grant from the International Center of Medieval Art. The “Student Travel Grant” of 3500 dollars will support research…
Namiko Kunimoto gave the keynote address at the UCLA Action and Perception conference on May 13, 2024. She spoke on work related to her current book project Imperial Animations in Transpacific…
The Office of Academic Affairs and the Board of Trustees have approved the promotion of History of Art Department Chair Karl Whittington from Associate Professor to Professor. Professor…
PhD student Michiko Kubota traveled to Chicago, IL in May to conduct research for her MA. She attended the Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan symposium and visited its corresponding…
Alanna Radlo-Dzur, who received her PhD in History of Art from Ohio State in 2023, has been teaching this year at Princeton University as a postdoctoral fellow in Indigenous Studies. Her research…
In March 2024, PhD Candidate Liz Rae Heise-Glass attended the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) annual conference in Boston. At the conference, Liz was featured on a panel on the…
PhD Candidate Margaret Wilson presented a paper at the 2024 International Medieval Congress at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, the largest annual conference of medieval studies in the…
Associate Professor Namiko Kunimoto has been selected as a member of the Global Arts + Humanities Society of Fellows for the 2024-2025 academic year. Her project situates Japanese Empire as a…
In May 2024, PhD candidate April Riddle traveled to New York City to conduct dissertation research. April visited the Museum of Modern Art to see the current installation of Michael Smith’s
The Department would like to congratulate all of the 2024 History of Art graduates. The Department also recognizes two undergraduate 2023-24 graduates who have received departmental awards.
Megan Barborak, who graduated with a BA in History of Art from OSU in 2023, published an article in Nineteenth Century: The Magazine of the Victorian Society of America (Vol. 44, no. 1,…
In April 2024, PhD candidate Hannah Slater traveled to Chicago to attend the 50th Annual Midwest Art History Society conference. Hannah presented research from her dissertation on the artist…
In April, Keyu Yan traveled to Houston to conduct dissertation research. He visited the exhibition titled “Xu Bing: Word Alchemy” at the Asia Society Texas Center. Xu Bing is one of the key…
PhD Student Dareen Hussein was featured in a video that was created as part of a Lantern article on the closing of the Wexner Center for the Art’s spring show, Sarah Maldoror: Tricontinental…
Maddy Thompson, who graduated in 2023 from Ohio State with a degree in History of Art, has been accepted with full funding to the PhD program in History of Art at Bryn Mawr. Bryn Mawr has an…
John Huntington Memorial by Cathleen Cummings (given on April 6, 2024 at the Conference of the American Council for Southern Asian…
The department congratulates Lauren Caskey on the successful defense of her dissertation, “Communities of Color: The Life and Painting of Alma W. Thomas (1891-1978).” Her doctoral work was advised…
Abby O’Donnell, who graduated in 2023 from Ohio State with a degree in History of Art, has been accepted with full funding to the PhD program in History of Art at the University of California,…
PhD Student Cole J. Graham has published a peer-reviewed article in react/review: a responsive journal for art & architecture, a journal out of UC Santa Barbara whose fourth volume is…
Associate Professor Jody Patterson has been awarded the 2024 Graduate Faculty Mentorship Award. This is an award that is given annually by the Graduate School at OhioState to three faculty members…
Associate Professor Erica Levin has received a “Large Grant” from Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences. She will use the funds to conduct research in London and New York for her current book…
Distinguished University Professor Emeritus Susan Huntington presented a paper at the Biennial Symposium of the American Council for Southern Asian Art at the University of Michigan from April 4-7…
PhD Candidate Keyu Yan has published a peer-reviewed article in World Art. Entitled “Contested Traditions: Contemporary Chinese Fiber Art and Gu Wenda’s Wisdom Comes from Tranquility…
On Saturday, April 6th, the History of Art Graduate Student Association held its biennial symposium, which was organized around the theme: Beyond Habitability: Homes as Built and Imagined…
In February 2024, PhD candidate Karin Flora was able to travel to Italy to do research for her dissertation, “The Grisaille Image: Encounters Between Art and Matter.” In her time in Italy, she was…
Prof. Kris Paulsen has been named a 2024-2025 Faculty Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Culture and Technology. The Center, founded in 1963 to support the work of media scholar…
In March 2024, PhD candidate Dareen Hussein traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend the 2024 Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference. She presented her paper “Resurrecting the ‘Songs…
To highlight the department’s engagement with contemporary curatorial practice, we host and co-host events throughout the year that feature well-known curators and practitioners in the field…
Over the course of an entire Sunday morning and afternoon, Professors Andrew Shelton and Carlos Rivas took students from their Spring 2024 classes on a field trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art,…
Over spring break, PhD student Peter Smyth traveled to NYC to see an important exhibition at the Met, “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism.” While there, they also visited the…
Professor Bert Winther-Tamaki (University of California, Irvine) and Professor Thomas LaMarre (University of Chicago) traveled to Ohio State to participate in a workshop for Namiko Kunimoto's book…
PhD Candidate Lauren Caskey recounts her recent trip to Chicago to conduct dissertation research:
"As I entered the Contemporary Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, I saw Alma Thomas’s …
Professor Namiko Kunimoto has a new publication: "Olympic Labor and Displacement: Babel and Its Towers." in the Review of Japanese Culture and Society.
The department congratulates graduate student Maika Kagawa Bahr for receiving the Graduate Associate Teaching Award (GATA). This award is Ohio State’s highest recognition of the exceptional…
Seven PhD students and one undergraduate student from the History of Art department collaborated with the eight artists exhibiting their work at OSU’s Urban Arts Space as part of the MFA Thesis…
On February 22, PhD Candidate Keyu Yan presented a paper entitled “Remaking Spaces: Agency and Queerness in the Art of Tseng Kwong Chi (1950-1990)” for the panel “Spaces” at this year's Global…
PhD Candidate Allie Mickle presented her paper, "Aesthetic Kitsch as Global Commodity in Mika Rottenberg's Cosmic Generator" at this year's College Art Association conference in Chicago,…
A group of OSU professors and students (past and present) attended Professor Namiko Kunimoto’s panel “Re-Animating History in Contemporary East Asian Art” at the College Art Association conference…
Each year the History of Art Department publishes its annual newsletter, featuring a letter from our department chair, updates on research from our faculty, spotlights on graduate and…
Call for Papers - The Ohio State University 2024 Graduate Symposium
Hosted by the OSU History of Art Graduate Student Association
Beyond Habitability: Homes as Built and…
Izzy Desantis graduated from OSU’s History of Art department with her BA in 2020. Read below for an update on what she’s been up to since graduation:
Since graduating from Ohio State in…
In December 2023, PhD candidate Dareen Hussein traveled to France to conduct archival research for her dissertation. In Paris, she compiled research on the Mouvement des travailleurs arabes (Arab…
This winter, PhD student Asia Adomanis travelled to Hong Kong and Taipei to conduct dissertation research. Asia spent time studying library and archival materials related to the artists Tseng Yuho…
Jack Degenhart, who graduated in 2022 with a major in History of Art, moved to New York City after graduation to seek a job in the art world. He sends the below report on his career journey since…
PhD Candidate Yifan Li recently published two book reviews. Published on caa.reviews, the first examines Amanda Wangwright’s The Golden Key: Modern Women Artists and Gender…
PhD Candidate Yifan Li was awarded a graduate research grant from The Ohio State University’s Mershon Center to facilitate his dissertation research. The Mershon Center, established in 1967,…
The History of Art Department has issued a new mission statement. Building on a conversation about our mission at a faculty retreat this fall, we are excited to move forward with the…
In November, PhD Candidate Schuyler Black-Seitz traveled to Houston, Texas to present at the fifth annual conference of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism. His presentation, …
In November 2023, several of our History of Art graduate students and alumni reunited with Julia Andrews, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, at the “Jiangnan—Objects in Focus” symposium…
Megan Barborak, who received her BA with a major in History of Art in Spring 2023, has been accepted to a graduate program at Rutgers University. She will be pursuing a Master of Information,…
PhD Candidate Keyu Yan publishes a book review of Experimental Beijing: Gender and Globalization in Chinese Contemporary Art in ASAP/J. Written by anthropologist Sasha Su-Ling…
Sarah Rosalena: In All Directions, a GAHDT-funded exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art organized by Prof. Kris Paulsen and the students in her AU 2022 Curatorial Practice Seminar, was…
PhD Candidate Asia Adomanis recently traveled to Manchester, England to present at the University of Manchester’s Understanding Displacement in Visual Art and Cultural History: 1945 to Now…
Professor Christina Burke Mathison took students from her History of Art 2003 East Asian Art and Visual Culture class and History of Art 5002 Art of Colonial Taiwan class to view the China’s…
This October, PhD. Student Sterling Nix traveled to London to attend the 1-54ArtFair for Contemporary African Art. He focused on how artists incorporate issues of identity and migration into their…
PhD Student Cole J. Graham traveled to Lawrence, Kansas last weekend for Distance and the In-Between, the 2023 graduate symposium held by the Kress Foundation Department…
Aida Cannarsa Snow Scholarships of $2,000 are awarded annually to undergraduate students working towards a degree in History of Art (majors or double-majors). Applicants are chosen on the basis of…
The Department of History of Art Congratulates two students within the Graduate Program, Yifan Li and Dareen Hussein, who have been announced as recipients of awards from the 2023-2024 Alumni…
For the second consecutive year, students enrolled in our senior research seminar traveled to New York City over Fall Break in order to conduct research and visit exhibitions. Led this year by…
PhD Student Cole J. Graham traveled to Chicago this past week, October 6th-8th, where he attended the Midwest Popular Culture Association's annual conference. While there, he presented a section…
In August, Ph.D. candidate Emilela Thomas-Adams traveled to Europe to conduct research for her dissertation in which she explores medieval practices of reuse and recycling in religious contexts…
This October, PhD Candidate Lauren M. Caskey traveled to Washington D.C. to see Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Thomas is the…
This August, PhD student Sterling Nix traveled to Accra, Ghana to conduct research for his upcoming MA Thesis. Sterling’s primary focus was to attend the Chale Wote Street Arts Festival in its…
Associate Professor of History of Art Sampada Aranke is published in the current issue of Artforum, the premier journal in the United States for Contemporary Art. The article, “Let’s Ride…
Students interested in study abroad for summer 2024 should check out this opportunity:
ART 5797: Film and Art in Berlin: Past and Present
Instructors: Erica Levin and…
A new article by Paige McBane in the OSU newspaper, The Lantern, discusses “In All Directions,” a show featuring the work of artist Sarah Rosalena that recently opened at the Columbus Museum of…
The Columbus Museum of Art has published the exhibition catalogue Sarah Rosalena: In All Directions, edited by Prof. Kris Paulsen and containing writing by the graduate students…
Graduate Student Keyu Yan's peer-reviewed article, “Modernizing Sculpture: Print Culture and the New Discourse on Sculpture in China, circa 1880–1929,” is recently published in East Asian…
History of Art Major Qaman Omar recently published an article in the magazine Oxford American. His piece, “Imagining through Fabric: The textiles and memories of Cameroon’s Muna Moto,” is…
The History of Art Graduate Student Association (HAGS) is pleased to announce its leadership committee for the upcoming year:
President: Cole Graham
Vice…
Professor Namiko Kunimoto took her History of Art 3605 Photography East West undergraduate class to view solo exhibitions by Gina Osterloh and Wendy Red Star at the Columbus Museum of Art.
In July 2023, PhD student Schuyler Black-Seitz traveled to Europe to conduct dissertation research. Schuyler’s primary focus in Paris, Rome, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin was an exploration of…
Namiko Kunimoto traveled in August 2023 to Ghent, Belgium to present her recent work on Militarism and Contemporary Art in Japan at the European Association of Japanese Studies. While there, she…
PhD student April Riddle traveled to Europe this summer to conduct dissertation research. April’s primary focus on this trip was visiting two exhibitions that examine the concept of worldbuilding:…
The Department of History of Art is delighted to welcome four new faculty members to our community this fall. This exceptional group of scholars will broaden and enrich our course offerings,…
In June and July 2023, PhD candidate Yifan Li traveled to China to conduct dissertation research in Hong Kong, Nanjing, and Beijing, where he visited museums, explored sites, collected materials,…
The History of Art department would like to congratulate Associate Professor Namiko Kunimoto being awarded three grants to aid in her upcoming book project. She is the recipient of the Office of…
In June 2023, PhD Candidate Dareen Hussein traveled to France to conduct research for her dissertation, in which she explores connections between the history of militant cinema and the…
Associate Professor and Department Chair Karl Whittington has published a new book with Brepols Press called Trecento Pictoriality: Diagrammatic Painting in Late Medieval Italy.…
Alanna S. Radlo-Dzur has accepted a position as Postdoctoral Research Associate in Indigenous and Native North American Studies in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University…
Keyu Yan, a PhD candidate in History of Art, recently published a book review in InVisible Culture. This review discusses the anthology, The Cute, edited by literary…
Breanne Eickholt, a senior art history major at Ohio State, currently holds an internship at Urban Arts Space (UAS) gallery, which will continue through Spring 2024. Her internship work spans…
With the support of the Murnane Travel Grant and the Arts and Sciences Graduate Research Small Grant, PhD candidate Maggie Wilson traveled to Europe this summer to conduct research on several of…
In May 2023, Hannah Slater traveled to Japan to conduct research for her forthcoming dissertation that examines how contemporary artists in Japan have responded to the 2011 Great East Japan…
In May 2023, PhD Candidate Allie Mickle traveled to Hong Kong to conduct research in support of her dissertation project at the Asia Art Archive (AAA), a library and collection of modern and…
In May 2023, Ph. D. Student Mia Kivel traveled to Japan to conduct research in support of her upcoming MA Thesis and eventual dissertation. Mia's research focuses on the modern and contemporary…
In May 2023, PhD candidate Liz Heise-Glass traveled to the east coast to attend performance events and conduct archival research in support of her upcoming dissertation. Invested in the crossovers…
Dr. Sarah Magnatta and Dr. Kimberly Masteller tour the Denver Art Museum on May 21, 2023.
Sarah, an Assistant Professor at the University of Denver, is currently working on a book about the…
Prof. Karl Whittington and PhD Students Emilela Thomas-Adams and Margaret Wilson attended the International Medieval Congress at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, the largest annual…
A recent article highlights an ongoing collaboration between professors in the History of Art Department and the Fine Arts Library. In the essay, Professor Judy Andrews and Associate Professor…
Ph.D. student Christy Sher is awarded the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for both the Summer of 2023 and the Academic Year 2023-2024, with funding from the U.S. Department of…