Please join us in celebrating the 2026 MA graduates as they present their qualifying papers at this year’s symposium.
To see the program brochure, click here.
Schedule
12 pm Welcome
Susan Weber, Director and Founder
Freyja Hartzell, Associate Professor and Director of Masters Studies
12:15 pm: ANCIENT TO EARLY MODERN, moderated by Ittai Weinryb
Brenna O’Hara Gomez, Adorned in Death: An Examination of Drilled Holes for Metal Jewelry Attachments in Athenian Funerary Stelae
Meghan Watters, Plaque by Plaque: Assembling Russian Identity from the Bol’shaya Blitznitsa Headdress
Ryan Olson, ‘Ajab (Wonder) in the Unseen: The Astrological Materiality of Amulets
Samantha Fleischman, Adorning the Sacred: The Venetian Torah Finial as an Exploration of the Relationship Between Christian Silversmith and Jewish Community
Maeve Diepenbrock, A History of La Nourrice: The Making and Meaning of Ceramic Wet Nurse Figures from Fontainebleau to Chelsea
Q&A—Break
1:30 pm: APPROACHING THE INDIGENOUS, moderated by Aaron Glass
Gabriela Valencia, Remembering and Performing Mexico: A Transnational Exploration of Women’s Baile Folklórico Costumes for Chiapas, Jalisco, and Veracruz
Debaleena Bagchi, Between Local Art Traditions and Imperial Ambitions: Understanding the Multivalence of Two Eighteenth-Century Maps of Awadh
Ana María Orobio Pinzón, Francisca Caicedo y Florez, a Woman with a Taste for Chocolate
Sarah May Egan, Teaching Citizenship and Difference through “Cliff Dwellers” in American Progressive Schools, 1901–30
Q&A—Break
2:30 pm: HERITAGE & MEMORY, moderated by Drew Thompson
Du Zhou, Beyond Nostalgia: The 1914 Chinese Fête, Chinese Embroidered Robes, and the Chinese Tea House
Tenesha L. Carter Johnson, From Our Heritage to Our Horizon: The Afro-American Heritage Bicentennial Commemorative Quilt as Public History
Madeline Fuentes, Adorning the Log Cabin: Changing Narratives of Architecture and Appalachian Identity at Pine Mountain Settlement School
Asha C. Bell, A Seat of Memory: The Object Biography of an Heirloom Rocking Chair
Q&A—Break
3:30 pm: MODERNITY THROUGH DESIGN & ART, moderated by Freyja Hartzell
Sybilla Griffin, Loving Madly: Women and Erotic Pathology in Visual Culture, from Victorian Britain to Art Brut
Charlotte Kasper, Masking Men, Making Monsters: Prosthetics for Soldiers and Screen, 1914–43
Itamar Sitbon, Other Sachlichkeit: Situating Surrealist Play in Neue Sachlichkeit Paintings
Alexandra (Lexi) McKelvy, Crafting the Market: How Loewe and Louis Vuitton Use Craft in the Advertisement of Luxury Fashion Goods
Yaerim Hyun, Negotiating Boundaries: ShinJa Lee and the Making of Korean Fiber Art in the Late Twentieth Century
Q&A—Break
4:45 pm: THE POWER & POLITICS OF DISPLAY, moderated by Ivan Gaskell
Theodora Brown, Public Displays of Olfaction: Eugène Rimmel’s Perfumed Fountains, Almanacs, and Vaporizers
Abigail Kosnik, The Afterlives of the Three Kingdoms: Politics of Collection and Display in American Museums
Mérida Mehaffey, A Partnership Ethic: Indigenous Artist-Led Collaborations in Museums
Alex Calloway, Imperial Edicts: South Korean Gifts, Collections, and Tensions at the Smithsonian Institution
Q&A
5:30 pm Closing Remarks
