Below is a list of submitted qualifying projects from the past four years. For a complete list of MA theses and qualifying projects, visit our library website.
Bagchi, Debaleena
Seat of Memory: The Object Biography of an Heirloom Rocking Chair
Bell, Asha Crowe
Public Displays of Olfaction: Eugène Rimmel’s Perfumed Fountains, Almanacs, and Vaporizers
Brown, Theodora
Imperial Edicts: South Korean Gifts, Collections, and Tensions at the Smithsonian Institution
Calloway, Samuel Alexander
From Our Heritage to Our Horizon: The Afro-American Heritage Bicentennial Commemorative Quilt as Public History
Carter Johnson, Tenesha Lynn
A History of La Nourrice: The Making and Meaning of Ceramic Wet Nurse Figures from Fontainebleau to Chelsea
Diepenbrock, Maeve
Teaching Citizenship and Difference through “Cliff Dwellers” in American Progressive Schools, 1901–1930
Egan, Sarah May
Adorning the Sacred: The Venetian Torah Finial as an Exploration of the Relationship Between Christian Silversmith and Jewish Community
Fleischman, Samantha Rose
Adorning the Log Cabin: Changing Narratives of Architecture and Appalachian Identity at Pine Mountain Settlement School
Fuentes, Madeline
Adorned in Death: An Examination of Drilled Holes for Metal Jewelry Attachments on Athenian Funerary Stelae
Gomez, Brenna O’Hara
Loving Madly: Women and Erotic Pathology in Visual Culture, from Victorian Britain to Art Brut
Griffin, Sybilla Loveday
Negotiating Boundaries: ShinJa Lee and the Making of Korean Fiber Art in the Late Twentieth Century
Hyun, Yaerim
Masking Men, Making Monsters: Prosthetics for Soldiers and Screen, 1914–1943
Kasper, Charlotte
The Afterlives of the Three Kingdoms: Politics of Collection and Display in American Museums
Kosnik, Abigail Ann
Crafting the Market: How Loewe and Louis Vuitton Use Craft in the Advertisement of Luxury Fashion Goods
McKelvy, Alexandra
A Partnership Ethic: Indigenous Artist-Led Collaborations in Museums
Mehaffey, Mérida Campos
‘Ajab (Wonder) in the Unseen: The Astrological Materiality of Amulets
Olson, Ryan
Francisca Caicedo y Florez, a Woman with a Taste for Chocolate
Orobio Pinzón, Ana María
Other Sachlichkeit: Situating Surrealist Play in Neue Sachlichkeit Paintings
Sitbon, Itamar
Remembering and Performing Mexico: A Transnational Exploration of Women’s Baile Folklórico Costumes for Chiapas, Jalisco, and Veracruz
Valencia, Gabriela Antonia
Plaque by Plaque: Assembling Russian Identity from the Bol’shaya Blitznitsa Headdress
Watters, Meghan
Beyond Nostalgia: The 1914 Chinese Fête, Chinese Embroidered Robes, and the Chinese Tea House
Zhou, Du
Ayers, Jane
A Sense of Enslavement: Constructed and Contested Sensory Experiences at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and Poplar Forest
Bailey, Mya
Knowing Nervenkunst: Exoticism, Eroticism & Einfahlung in Vienna 1900
Bolz, Lauryn
“An Experimental Lever for the Elevation of the Masses”:
The 1872 Exhibition of the Wallace Collection at Bethnal Green
Cattelain, Nicolas
Fluid Ontology: A Study of Drink-and-Wet Dolls
Chapman, Allegra
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Gift and Commodity Exchange in the Golden Age of Piracy
Christie, Ev
Books of Gold: Portable Prayer Books for Women During the English Protestant Reformation
Crowley, Anna
Talismans and Tails: Medieval Bronze Mirrors from China to Anatolia
Dani, Nishtha
A ‘Bright New World’ of Plastic: The Filament Wound House and the Cold War Politics of Housing and Development
Diaz Blancarte, Daniela
Seasonality and the Souvenir at Niagara Falls
Haskell, Lucy
As Above, So Below: Colonization as Ideology and Practice in Space Colonies and NASA’s Spinoff 1976
Henry, Beatrix
Women in the Qing Dynasty: Embroidery, Avenues of Femininity, and Confucianism
Hudson, Dorothy
Thinking in Blue and White: Sino-Portuguese Porcelain at the Intersection of Imperial Politics and Design, 1513-1620
Mack, Jacqueline
Royal Feathers and Problematic Gifts: A Divine Genealogy of Hawaiian Feather Cloaks
Manning, Eugene
Illuminating the “Gill way”: Concealment of Black Women’s Labor at Gill Glass Company
Maupin, R.J.
Collecting Dust: Artifacts and the Artist in the home of Ben-Zion
McCorry, Michael
From Textile to Text: Revisiting Alexander Shaw’s 1787 Barkcloth Catalogues
Murphy, Clara
Unraveling the Vishap: Sacred Landscapes and Magic in an Armenian Liturgical Staff
Myers, Abby
Ceramic Use-Wear: An Online Archaeological Resource
Neher, Elana
Admiration and Amnesia: Chinese Inspirations of Royal Worcester Porcelain’s “Japanese Style” in 1872-1873
Pizzala, Brielle
Common Ground: Re-Imagining Reciprocity on the Oregon Trail
Pogue, Keelin
“This is our world; we think this is beautiful”: Finding Brand Identity
through Surrealism in SIX Magazine by Comme des Garcons
Shah, Vega
Black Neoclassicism: Sculpting Power Figures
Williams, Janelle
Allenbrand, Karlyn
“Are You French, Greek, Ottoman, Hellene, Or Roman?”: “Amalia” Dress in the New Greek Nation, 1832–1865
Anagnostopoulos, Antonia
Recovering the Design of Noémi Pernessin Raymond
Berthezène, Irène
On Reflection: Mirrors at the Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron
Camarra, Elliot
How to Fix a Broken Pot: Conceptual Normativity in the Archaeology of Craft
Cohen, Katherin
“From out the filmy piña draperies around her white and shapely neck”: Philippine Piña Textiles and Discourses of Distinction
Crenshaw, Angela
“A bead, a thimble or some other pauble”: Thimbles and Self-Identity in Early New York
Donoghue, Allison
“A Winter Temperature in the Summer Time”: Preserving Nineteenth-Century Lagerkellers and German-American Heritage
Dunsmore, William
A Seat at the Table: The Dining Table in Black Art and Design, 1850–2022
Griffin, Mackensie
Drinks and Desire: Coffee Culture in Early Modern Europe
Hewis, Robert
Finding Flanders: (Sub)national Identities in the Work of Maarten van Severen
Machiels, Raphaël
The Business of Art: The Union Porcelain Works
Madsen, Patricia
“Coats Woven of Turkie-feathers”: Indigenous Featherwork Mantles in the Seventeenth-Century American Northeast
Maresca, Sydney
Gender, Technology, and Fashion: Knit Stockings in Seventeenth-Century England
Montague, Caroline
Ruff Work: Laundresses and their Labor in Early Modern England and the Netherlands
Salem-Wiseman, Rachel
Picture Perfect Hula Girls: A Story of Hula in New York City
Santana, Samantha
Nostalgic Bulldozers and Glass Boxes: Nineteenth-Century Spectacle at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1970s
Taylor, Mabel
Beyond the China Trade—A Biography of a Qing Dressing Case in Kingscote, Newport
Zou, Luli
Ballowe, Heath
Comprehensive Stewardship: Responsibly Reconciling the Past
Chamberlin, Daniel
Seeing Women: The Rise in Popularity of Women’s Vision Aids in Nineteenth-Century America
Harvey, Emily
Spiral Ornament in Shang Dynasty China
Law, Jeffrey
The Splendor of Silk in Clay: Mongol Luxury Textiles and Yuan Dynasty Blue-and-White Porcelain
Lui, Louise
“A Poppet-Queen, Drest up by me”: Dolls, Propriety, and Girlhood in Early Modern Europe
Margi, Isabella
“To choose and be surrounded with the finest creations”: Assembling Value in the Ben-Zion House
Massey, Joshua
Rooftop Fancy and Folly: Tudor Chimney Stack as Device and Discourse
Perry, Talia
The New Promethean: Modernism and the Occult in Claude Fayette Bragdon’s Projective Ornament
Porsella, Madeline
Crafting Stories of Value: Commodity Paths for Herati Glass
Riley, Anna
“Facing Determinedly Toward the Future”: Maxwell Shieff’s Involvement and Innovation within the Entertainment Industries of Canada and California, 1946–1959
Tangum, Maura
Imagining the French “Self” and Its “Others” Through the Display of Dress in Late Nineteenth-Century Paris
Volpa, Zoe
Class of 2026
Between Local Art Traditions and Imperial Ambitions: Understanding the Multivalence of Two Eighteenth-Century Maps of AwadhBagchi, Debaleena
Seat of Memory: The Object Biography of an Heirloom Rocking Chair
Bell, Asha Crowe
Public Displays of Olfaction: Eugène Rimmel’s Perfumed Fountains, Almanacs, and Vaporizers
Brown, Theodora
Imperial Edicts: South Korean Gifts, Collections, and Tensions at the Smithsonian Institution
Calloway, Samuel Alexander
From Our Heritage to Our Horizon: The Afro-American Heritage Bicentennial Commemorative Quilt as Public History
Carter Johnson, Tenesha Lynn
A History of La Nourrice: The Making and Meaning of Ceramic Wet Nurse Figures from Fontainebleau to Chelsea
Diepenbrock, Maeve
Teaching Citizenship and Difference through “Cliff Dwellers” in American Progressive Schools, 1901–1930
Egan, Sarah May
Adorning the Sacred: The Venetian Torah Finial as an Exploration of the Relationship Between Christian Silversmith and Jewish Community
Fleischman, Samantha Rose
Adorning the Log Cabin: Changing Narratives of Architecture and Appalachian Identity at Pine Mountain Settlement School
Fuentes, Madeline
Adorned in Death: An Examination of Drilled Holes for Metal Jewelry Attachments on Athenian Funerary Stelae
Gomez, Brenna O’Hara
Loving Madly: Women and Erotic Pathology in Visual Culture, from Victorian Britain to Art Brut
Griffin, Sybilla Loveday
Negotiating Boundaries: ShinJa Lee and the Making of Korean Fiber Art in the Late Twentieth Century
Hyun, Yaerim
Masking Men, Making Monsters: Prosthetics for Soldiers and Screen, 1914–1943
Kasper, Charlotte
The Afterlives of the Three Kingdoms: Politics of Collection and Display in American Museums
Kosnik, Abigail Ann
Crafting the Market: How Loewe and Louis Vuitton Use Craft in the Advertisement of Luxury Fashion Goods
McKelvy, Alexandra
A Partnership Ethic: Indigenous Artist-Led Collaborations in Museums
Mehaffey, Mérida Campos
‘Ajab (Wonder) in the Unseen: The Astrological Materiality of Amulets
Olson, Ryan
Francisca Caicedo y Florez, a Woman with a Taste for Chocolate
Orobio Pinzón, Ana María
Other Sachlichkeit: Situating Surrealist Play in Neue Sachlichkeit Paintings
Sitbon, Itamar
Remembering and Performing Mexico: A Transnational Exploration of Women’s Baile Folklórico Costumes for Chiapas, Jalisco, and Veracruz
Valencia, Gabriela Antonia
Plaque by Plaque: Assembling Russian Identity from the Bol’shaya Blitznitsa Headdress
Watters, Meghan
Beyond Nostalgia: The 1914 Chinese Fête, Chinese Embroidered Robes, and the Chinese Tea House
Zhou, Du
Class of 2025
Romancing the Sleeve: A Case Study of an Early Nineteenth-Century Woman’s GarmentAyers, Jane
A Sense of Enslavement: Constructed and Contested Sensory Experiences at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and Poplar Forest
Bailey, Mya
Knowing Nervenkunst: Exoticism, Eroticism & Einfahlung in Vienna 1900
Bolz, Lauryn
“An Experimental Lever for the Elevation of the Masses”:
The 1872 Exhibition of the Wallace Collection at Bethnal Green
Cattelain, Nicolas
Fluid Ontology: A Study of Drink-and-Wet Dolls
Chapman, Allegra
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Gift and Commodity Exchange in the Golden Age of Piracy
Christie, Ev
Books of Gold: Portable Prayer Books for Women During the English Protestant Reformation
Crowley, Anna
Talismans and Tails: Medieval Bronze Mirrors from China to Anatolia
Dani, Nishtha
A ‘Bright New World’ of Plastic: The Filament Wound House and the Cold War Politics of Housing and Development
Diaz Blancarte, Daniela
Seasonality and the Souvenir at Niagara Falls
Haskell, Lucy
As Above, So Below: Colonization as Ideology and Practice in Space Colonies and NASA’s Spinoff 1976
Henry, Beatrix
Women in the Qing Dynasty: Embroidery, Avenues of Femininity, and Confucianism
Hudson, Dorothy
Thinking in Blue and White: Sino-Portuguese Porcelain at the Intersection of Imperial Politics and Design, 1513-1620
Mack, Jacqueline
Royal Feathers and Problematic Gifts: A Divine Genealogy of Hawaiian Feather Cloaks
Manning, Eugene
Illuminating the “Gill way”: Concealment of Black Women’s Labor at Gill Glass Company
Maupin, R.J.
Collecting Dust: Artifacts and the Artist in the home of Ben-Zion
McCorry, Michael
From Textile to Text: Revisiting Alexander Shaw’s 1787 Barkcloth Catalogues
Murphy, Clara
Unraveling the Vishap: Sacred Landscapes and Magic in an Armenian Liturgical Staff
Myers, Abby
Ceramic Use-Wear: An Online Archaeological Resource
Neher, Elana
Admiration and Amnesia: Chinese Inspirations of Royal Worcester Porcelain’s “Japanese Style” in 1872-1873
Pizzala, Brielle
Common Ground: Re-Imagining Reciprocity on the Oregon Trail
Pogue, Keelin
“This is our world; we think this is beautiful”: Finding Brand Identity
through Surrealism in SIX Magazine by Comme des Garcons
Shah, Vega
Black Neoclassicism: Sculpting Power Figures
Williams, Janelle
Class of 2024
“Powered by the Sun”: The Commodification of Solar Energy during the Cold War, 1954–1960Allenbrand, Karlyn
“Are You French, Greek, Ottoman, Hellene, Or Roman?”: “Amalia” Dress in the New Greek Nation, 1832–1865
Anagnostopoulos, Antonia
Recovering the Design of Noémi Pernessin Raymond
Berthezène, Irène
On Reflection: Mirrors at the Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron
Camarra, Elliot
How to Fix a Broken Pot: Conceptual Normativity in the Archaeology of Craft
Cohen, Katherin
“From out the filmy piña draperies around her white and shapely neck”: Philippine Piña Textiles and Discourses of Distinction
Crenshaw, Angela
“A bead, a thimble or some other pauble”: Thimbles and Self-Identity in Early New York
Donoghue, Allison
“A Winter Temperature in the Summer Time”: Preserving Nineteenth-Century Lagerkellers and German-American Heritage
Dunsmore, William
A Seat at the Table: The Dining Table in Black Art and Design, 1850–2022
Griffin, Mackensie
Drinks and Desire: Coffee Culture in Early Modern Europe
Hewis, Robert
Finding Flanders: (Sub)national Identities in the Work of Maarten van Severen
Machiels, Raphaël
The Business of Art: The Union Porcelain Works
Madsen, Patricia
“Coats Woven of Turkie-feathers”: Indigenous Featherwork Mantles in the Seventeenth-Century American Northeast
Maresca, Sydney
Gender, Technology, and Fashion: Knit Stockings in Seventeenth-Century England
Montague, Caroline
Ruff Work: Laundresses and their Labor in Early Modern England and the Netherlands
Salem-Wiseman, Rachel
Picture Perfect Hula Girls: A Story of Hula in New York City
Santana, Samantha
Nostalgic Bulldozers and Glass Boxes: Nineteenth-Century Spectacle at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1970s
Taylor, Mabel
Beyond the China Trade—A Biography of a Qing Dressing Case in Kingscote, Newport
Zou, Luli
Class of 2023
They Sound Different When They Break: The Scientific Struggle to Produce English Porcelain, 1672–1821Ballowe, Heath
Comprehensive Stewardship: Responsibly Reconciling the Past
Chamberlin, Daniel
Seeing Women: The Rise in Popularity of Women’s Vision Aids in Nineteenth-Century America
Harvey, Emily
Spiral Ornament in Shang Dynasty China
Law, Jeffrey
The Splendor of Silk in Clay: Mongol Luxury Textiles and Yuan Dynasty Blue-and-White Porcelain
Lui, Louise
“A Poppet-Queen, Drest up by me”: Dolls, Propriety, and Girlhood in Early Modern Europe
Margi, Isabella
“To choose and be surrounded with the finest creations”: Assembling Value in the Ben-Zion House
Massey, Joshua
Rooftop Fancy and Folly: Tudor Chimney Stack as Device and Discourse
Perry, Talia
The New Promethean: Modernism and the Occult in Claude Fayette Bragdon’s Projective Ornament
Porsella, Madeline
Crafting Stories of Value: Commodity Paths for Herati Glass
Riley, Anna
“Facing Determinedly Toward the Future”: Maxwell Shieff’s Involvement and Innovation within the Entertainment Industries of Canada and California, 1946–1959
Tangum, Maura
Imagining the French “Self” and Its “Others” Through the Display of Dress in Late Nineteenth-Century Paris
Volpa, Zoe
