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.
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
adeogun, mary
(Mis)fitting Taliesin: The Women of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship
Bartal, Bridget
Fashioning Equality, Independence & Freedom for Women in the Nineteenth Century: Madame Demorest’s Business Empire
Billingslea, Grace
Loud Jewelry, Loose Women: Sex, Power, and Adornment in Storyville, New Orleans, 1880-1920
Bishop, Ariana
“What a motley Creature I was become”: Hester Piozzi’s “Demi-Naturalization” Materialized
Carabatsos, Julia
Totem and Anti-Totem: Dual Signification and the Contentious History of Richmond’s Robert E. Lee Monument
Cox, Marion
Adorned in Gold: Religion, Personal Display, and Women’s Agency in Ancient Macedonia
Enderle, Ellen
Timeless Dispositions: Devotional Objects as Non-Mimetic Portraits
Lanza, Katherine
Challenging the Status Quo: Unsettling Dominant Narratives in MoMA’s Gallery 412
McCool, Kristin
The Foreign-born Mother and the Materiality of Americanization: Photography and the Creation and Documentation of Americanization by the Educational Committee for Non-English Speaking Women
Mogulescu, Laura
“May I be deaf at the Opera”: Dress and Voice of Macaroni and Castrati
Snodgrass, Samuel
“One Sheds One’s Sickness in Books”: Illness, Uncertainty, and the Book as Creative Intervention
Supavarasuwat, Pim
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
Class of 2022
a satin scarf, and its many usesadeogun, mary
(Mis)fitting Taliesin: The Women of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship
Bartal, Bridget
Fashioning Equality, Independence & Freedom for Women in the Nineteenth Century: Madame Demorest’s Business Empire
Billingslea, Grace
Loud Jewelry, Loose Women: Sex, Power, and Adornment in Storyville, New Orleans, 1880-1920
Bishop, Ariana
“What a motley Creature I was become”: Hester Piozzi’s “Demi-Naturalization” Materialized
Carabatsos, Julia
Totem and Anti-Totem: Dual Signification and the Contentious History of Richmond’s Robert E. Lee Monument
Cox, Marion
Adorned in Gold: Religion, Personal Display, and Women’s Agency in Ancient Macedonia
Enderle, Ellen
Timeless Dispositions: Devotional Objects as Non-Mimetic Portraits
Lanza, Katherine
Challenging the Status Quo: Unsettling Dominant Narratives in MoMA’s Gallery 412
McCool, Kristin
The Foreign-born Mother and the Materiality of Americanization: Photography and the Creation and Documentation of Americanization by the Educational Committee for Non-English Speaking Women
Mogulescu, Laura
“May I be deaf at the Opera”: Dress and Voice of Macaroni and Castrati
Snodgrass, Samuel
“One Sheds One’s Sickness in Books”: Illness, Uncertainty, and the Book as Creative Intervention
Supavarasuwat, Pim
