Art History Web Site
Karen Lang (klang@usc.edu)
Megan O’Neil (moneil@usc.edu)
Basic information about department at very bottom of the page:
Mailing Address:
Department of Art History
Von KleinSmid Center—VKC 351
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0047
Telephone: (213) 740-4552
Fax: (213) 740-8971
Email: arthist@college.usc.edu
Office Hours
Monday-Friday 8:30 am- 5:00 pm
Blurb about the Department (to be placed at the lower left on the homepage)
The Ph.D. program in Art History at USC draws its strength from a dynamic and
productive faculty in the fields of American, European, Latin American, and
Asian art. Studying objects in their complex physical, cultural, and intellectual
contexts, our faculty is committed to a historically situated and theoretically
nuanced approach to art history and visual culture. Faculty research interests
include the institutional settings and politics of art; sexuality, gender, race,
ethnicity, and national identity; the force field of architecture, sculpture and
ritual; the viewer’s role in representation; art and language; and the
historiography of art history. As a faculty we are committed to a sustained
dialogue between art history and its traditions, novel areas of inquiry, and
innovative approaches. Our program features strong ties to the USC-Huntington
Early Modern Studies Institute, the USC-Getty Program in the History of
Collecting and Display, the interdisciplinary initiative in Visual, Literary, and
Material Culture at USC, and the USC Visual Studies Graduate Certificate.
Blurbs about Faculty (to be placed at the upper right on the homepage.) [We are submitting
new pictures for the following faculty: Bleichmar, Lang, Lee, O’Neil, Yasin. All other faculty
have book covers already on the website; please use these. For this section do not include
Crow, Holloway, and Reynolds.]
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Malcolm Baker
Professor and Chair of Art History
Eighteenth-Century Art and the History of Collecting
Director, USC-Getty Program in the History of Collecting and Display
Malcolm Baker has written widely on the history of sculpture - particularly in the
eighteenth century - and the history of collecting and display. His most recent
book is Figured in Marble: The Making and Viewing of Eighteenth-Century Sculpture,
published by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London. Like his other work, this book draws on his experience as both an
academic and a curator and reflects his interest in developing a methodology
that combines an engagement with the materiality of images and objects and a
more explicitly theoretical mode of interpretation.
Daniela Bleichmar
Assistant Professor, Early Modern Visual and Material Culture
Daniela Bleichmar is a cultural historian of early modern science, specializing in
the history of the natural sciences in Europe and the Spanish Americas in the
early modern period (ca. 1500–1800). She is currently working on a book
provisionally entitled Painting as Exploration. Visual Culture and Colonial Botany in
the Eighteenth-Century Spanish World, in which she discusses the status and uses
of images in eighteenth century natural history; the importance of
visual material in training the expert eyes and skilled hands of naturalists; the
role of print culture in establishing a common vocabulary of scientific
illustration; the interaction among visual evidence, textual evidence, and
material evidence; and the ways colonial naturalists and artists appropriated and
transformed European models, producing hybrid, local representations.
centuries.
Selma Holo
Professor of Art History and Director, USC Fisher Gallery
Selma Holo is the Director of USC Fisher Gallery and a Professor in the USC
College Department of Art History. Her books, Beyond the Prado: Museums and
Identity in Post-Franco Spain (1999), and Oaxaca at the Crossroads; Managing
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Memory, Negotiating Change (2004) study museums as institutions—and their
influence on the shaping of culture.
Eunice D. Howe
Professor, Early Modern: 15th and 16th Century Art and Architecture
A specialist in Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture, Eunice Howe’s research
interests include gender and the built environment, travel literature, urbanism in
Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Italy, and 15th century Roman painting.
Her current book project, The Art and Architecture of Healing; the Hospital in Early
Modern Italy, examines communal rituals and gender in the formation of hospital
design.
Karen Lang
Associate Professor, Modern European Art
Karen Lang’s research focus is modern German art and aesthetic theory. Her
book, Chaos and Cosmos: On the Image in Aesthetics and Art History (2006),
examines the conceptual foundations of the discipline of the history of art.
Where chaos is here understood as a jumble or aggregate of sensuous
impressions confronting the artist or observer, cosmos refers to the rendering of
perceptible and intellectual data into form and system. Addressing the interplay
of chaos and cosmos in terms of history, art history, philosophy, and
epistemology, her book traces shifts in point of view and the way these shifts
change aesthetic objects into historical objects, and even objects of knowledge.
Sonya Lee
Assistant Professor, Chinese Art and Archaeology
Sonya Lee specializes in religious art and architecture of pre-modern China. Her
research focuses on the material culture of medieval Chinese Buddhism from the
5th to 10th centuries, in particular cave temples along the ancient Silk Road.
Currently, she is completing a book on pictorial imageries of the Buddha
Sakyamuni entering nirvana, in which she reassesses iconography as an art
historical methodology, as well as explores issues of representation and social
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memory in the transformation of the Buddha’s absence into various material
regimes of presence and continuity.
Carolyn Malone
Associate Professor, Medieval Art and Archaeology
Carolyn Malone teaches Medieval art from 300 to 1300, but specializes in French
Romanesque and English Gothic architecture and sculpture. Her book, Facade as
Spectacle: Ritual and Ideology at Wells Cathedral (2004) interprets the Gothic façade
of Wells as part of political discourse and liturgical innovation in England
around 1220. Her current liturgical and historical research will appear in her
forthcoming book, Saint-Bénigne de Dijon en l’an mil, “totius Gallię basilicis
mirabiliorem”: Interprétation politique, liturgique et théologique.
Richard Meyer
Associate Professor, Modern and Contemporary Art
Professor Meyer specializes in twentieth-century American art, cultural studies,
and the history of photography. He is particularly interested in how discourses
of gender and sexuality have shaped modern art and criticism. His book, Outlaw
Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art
(2002) examines a series of historical episodes in which work by homosexual
artists was suppressed or censored outright. It demonstrates how artists from
Paul Cadmus in the 1930s to Holly Hughes in the 1990s responded to the threat
of censorship by producing their own images of social and sexual outlawry.
Megan O’Neil
Assistant Professor, Arts of the Ancient Americas
Professor O’Neil focuses on the ancient arts and archaeology of Mesoamerica,
particularly the Maya. Her forthcoming book studies the historical dimensions
of Maya sculptures from the 5th through the 8th centuries C.E. in Mexico and
Guatemala, exploring how the ancient Maya used monumental stone sculpture
to create, reframe, and reshape historical narratives over time. Examining
questions of audience, performance, and ritual, her book also focuses on the
reuse and burial of whole and fragmented Maya sculptures as part of a
discussion of ancient Maya interrelation with the material remains of their
ancestors.
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John Pollini
Professor, Classical Art and Archaeology Art
Trained in the methodologies of classical art and archaeology, ancient history,
classical philology, epigraphy, and numismatics, John Pollini is committed to
interdisciplinary teaching and research. His special scholarly interests include
ancient religion, mythology, narratology, rhetoric, and propaganda. His most
recent book, The de Nion Head: A Masterpiece of Archaic Greek Sculpture, appeared
in 2003.
Anne Porter
Assistant Professor of Art History and Near Eastern Archaeology
Anne Porter’s primary focus is the archaeology of third and second millennia
BCE Syria and for a decade she co-directed excavations in the Euphrates river
valley at a site called Tell Banat. Her fieldwork has been directed towards
understanding the nature of the first cities and states in this area. Her thematic
interests arise from this research and may be summed up as an exploration of the
different ways people build connections between themselves in order to create
community. In the ancient Near East, things as seemingly diverse as burials,
ritual, kinship tradition, story-telling and even city plans may be means of
negotiating some of the many things that have the potential to separate us. Porter
considers all these things in trying to reach an intimate understanding of ancient
life.
.
Nancy J. Troy
Professor, Modern Art
Nancy J. Troy has recently embarked on a new book project that explores the
circumstances in which Piet Mondrian's paintings and related works of the early
1940s were displayed, described, marketed, publicized, and otherwise circulated
in the months and years that followed the artist's death in New York in 1944. The
goal is to provide a comprehensive examination of the roles played by other
artists, dealers, collectors, conservators, museum curators, and academic art
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historians in making, and remaking, Mondrian's oeuvre. Professor Troy has
received a fellowship from the American Council of Learned
Societies and is on leave during Fall 2005 in order to work on this project.
Ann Marie Yasin
Assistant Professor, Roman and Late Roman Art and Architecture
A specialist in Roman and late antique art and architecture, Anne Marie Yasin’s
current book project, Martyrium Revisited: Churches, Saints and Communities in Late
Antiquity, examines how the increasing popularity of saint veneration affected
the architectural space and social function of early Christian churches across the
Mediterranean. It focuses on evidence from Italy, North Africa and the Greek
East from the fourth through sixth centuries CE to investigate the impact of
saints' cults on commemoration for the dead, expressions of social hierarchies,
and the organization of sacred space.
In bold are the tabs that we’d like at the left side or top of the homepage; the indented
headings are second and third tiers.
PEOPLE
Faculty
NOTE: EACH FACULTY MEMBER’S NAME SHOULD HAVE A LINK
TO THE COLLEGE-GENERATED INDIVIDUAL FACULTY WEB-PAGE.
Individual photographs are already on website except for the following new
ones: Nancy Troy and Sonya Lee]
Malcolm Baker, Ph.D.
Chair and Professor, 18th Century European Art and the History of Collecting
Email: mcbaker@usc.edu
Office: VKC 351A
Phone: (213) 821-5229
Daniela Bleichmar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Early Modern Visual and Material Culture, History of
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Collecting and Display, Spanish Empire/Colonial Latin American Art
Email: bleichma@college.usc.edu
Office: VKC 368
Phone: (213) 821-6384
Thomas Crow, Ph.D.
Professor, Modern European and American Art
Director, Getty Research Institute
Email: tcrow@getty.edu
Office: VKC 351
Phone: (213) 740-4552
Camara Holloway, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, American Art
Email: camaraho@usc.edu
Office: VKC 381A
Phone: (213) 821-0887
Selma Holo, Ph.D.
Professor, Museum Studies
Email: holo@usc.edu
Office: HAR 126
Phone: (213) 740-4565
Eunice D. Howe, Ph.D.
Professor, Early Modern: 15th and 16th Century Art and Architecture
Email: howe@usc.edu
Office: VKC 348
Phone: (213) 740-7353
Karen Lang, Ph.D.
[please note that I do not want my middle initial!]
Associate Professor, Modern European Art
Email: klang@usc.edu
Office: VKC 351A
Phone: (213) 821-1376
Sonya Lee, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Chinese Art and Architecture
Email: sonyasle@usc.edu
Office: VKC 373C
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Phone: (213) 821-2582
Carolyn M. Malone, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Medieval Art and Archaeology
Email: cmalone@usc.edu
Office: VKC 373D
Phone: (213) 740-4569
Richard Meyer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Modern and Contemporary Art
Email: rmeyer@usc.edu
Office: VKC 381B
Phone: (213) 740-9571
Megan O'Neil, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Arts of the Ancient Americas
Email: moneil@usc.edu
Office: VKC 342
Phone: (213) 821-4131
John Pollini, Ph.D.
Professor, Classical Art and Archaeology
Email: pollini@usc.edu
Office: VKC 368A
Phone: (213) 740-4554
Anne Porter, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Near Eastern Archaeology
Email: amporter@usc.edu
Jonathan M. Reynolds, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Japanese Art and Architecture
Email: jreynold@usc.edu
Office: VKC 351B
Phone: (213) 821-5228
Nancy J. Troy, Ph.D.
Professor, Modern Art
Email: ntroy@usc.edu
Office: VKC 349
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Phone: (213) 740-4556
Ann Marie Yasin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Roman and Late Roman Art and Architecture
Email: yasin@usc.edu
Office: THH 256J
Phone: (213) 740-3687
Associated Faculty
John E. Bowlt, Ph.D.
Professor, Slavic Studies
Email: bowlt@usc.edu
Leo Braudy, Ph.D.
Professor, English
Email: braudy@usc.edu
Bryan Burns, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Classics
Email: bburns@usc.edu
Diane Ghirardo, Ph.D.
Professor, Architecture
Email: trabalzi@usc.edu
Adjunct Faculty
Thomas Kren, Ph.D.
Curator of Manuscripts, The J. Paul Getty Museum
Email: tkren@getty.edu
Jerry Podany, M.F.A.
Conservator of Antiquities, The J. Paul Getty Museum
Email: jpodany@getty.edu
Part-Time Lecturers (Fall 2006)
Gregory Harwell, Ph.D.
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Email: gharwell@usc.edu
Office: VKC 381A
Website: http://www.gregoryharwell.com
Miya Lippit, Ph.D.
Email: mlippit@adelphia.net
Office: VKC 373A
Phone: (310) 440-7592
Michael Schreyach, Ph.D.
Email: schreyac@usc.edu
Office: VKC 381A
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Staff (names and contact info.)
Department Staff
Adrienne Capirchio, M.S. Ed.
Academic Advisor
Phone: (213) 740-4552
Email: azc@usc.edu
Imre S. Meszaros
Administrative Services Manager
Phone: (213) 740-9508
Email: meszaros@college.usc.edu
Laudrell N. Tilmon
Administrative Assistant
Phone: (213) 821-5230
Email: tilmon@college.usc.edu
Graduate Students (list of names and field of specialization at top of page; click on
name to go to biography and photograph at the bottom of page. All
photographs already on website except for the following new one: Hillary
Brown).
Current Graduate Students
If you would like to contact one of the graduate students in the Department,
please send an email to arthist@usc.edu and your message will be forwarded to
the appropriate individual. Students who have attained "All But Dissertation"
status are designated as ABD.
Kristin Arioli (ABD)
Renaissance and Early Modern Italian Art History
Priyanka Basu
Modernist Criticism and the Historiography of Art History
Cathrine Besancon
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Medieval Art, with a concentration on the sociopolitical aspects of Romanesque
art
Courtney Biggs
Eighteenth-century French Art
Hillary E. Brown
Eighteenth-century British and French Sculpture
Alexandra Castillo-Kesper
Colonial Spanish and Modern Latin American Art
Kathleen Chapman
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century German art, literature, and popular culture
Hyun-jung Cho
Postwar Japanese Visual Culture
Nick Cipolla
Classical Art, primarily of Rome
Jason Goldman
Twentieth-century Art and Visual Culture in the United States
Sarah Goodrum
Modern European Art
Kate Heckmann
Early Modern Italian Visual Culture
Karin Higa
Twentieth-Century American Art
Jason Hill
Contemporary Art
Sarah Hollenberg
Contemporary Art
Katya Kudriavtseva
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Early Twentieth-century European and Slavic Art
Anca Lasc
Nineteenth-century European Art
Aleca LeBlanc
Modern Art, with a focus on Latin America
Rachel Middleman
Modern and Contemporary Art and Film
Jennifer Miller
Modern American Art
Leta Ming
Modern and Contemporary Art and Cultural Theory
Virginia Moon
Korean Art History
Aram Moshayedi
Contemporary Art, Cinema, and Museums
Linda Nolan (ABD)
Early Modern Italian Sculpture and Classical Roman Sculpture
Younjung Oh
Contemporary art, specifically Art and Visual Culture of East Asia
Thomas O'Leary (ABD)
Contemporary Japanese Media Culture
Kelli Olgren-Leblond (ABD)
Nineteenth- and Twentieth Century German Art and Architecture
Arianna Opsvig
Italian Renaissance, with a focus on Italian collections of New World objects
Alejandra Riguero
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Nineteenth and early Twentieth-century British Art and Architecture
Suzy Royal (ABD)
Modern German Art
Stefanie Snider
Twentieth-century Art and Visual Culture
Virginia Solomon
Contemporary Art, particularly photography and video
Erin Sullivan
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century German Art
Kristine Tanton
Medieval Art and Architecture
Linda Theung
Contemporary Art
Roger Von Dippe (ABD)
Roman Art
Amy Von Lintel
Nineteenth-century Visual Culture
Maria Webster
Modern Art
Candace Weddle
Late Antique and Early Medieval Material Culture
Sandra Zalman
Modern Art
Arsineh Zargarian
British Art
[NOTE: PICTURES SHOULD BE BEFORE EACH OF THESE BIOS]
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Kristin Arioli (ABD)
Kristin is a final-year PhD student, specializing in Renaissance and Early Modern
Italian art history. Her dissertation, "Cardinal Raffaele Riario and the Politics of
Cultural Patronage in Renaissance Rome, 1477-1521," explores the dynamic
relationship between artistic production and politics during the Renaissance
through the consideration of the cardinal's sponsorship of cultural projects in
and around Rome. After completing her Qualifying Examinations in the summer
2002, she conducted two years of research in Rome with the assistance of a
Samuel H. Kress Foundation Travel Fellowship, two USC Department of Art
History Dissertation Research Fellowships, and a Getty Memorial Scholarship for
Summer Research Abroad. She has also worked as a research assistant for both
the Curatorial Department and the Scholars Program of the Getty Research
Institute.
Priyanka Basu
Priyanka is in her fifth year in the PhD program, where she is studying the
modern period, focusing on the history of art history. She previously received an
MA in art theory and criticism. Last year, she was a Research Assistant at the
Getty Research Institute Scholars Program and Project for the Study of Collecting
and Provenance. Priyanka presented a paper on Annette Michelson's film
criticism at the 2005 USC Graduate Student Symposium. In summer 2005, she
took an intensive German language course at the Humboldt Universitaet in
Berlin. She is currently preparing her dissertation proposal on art history's
demarcation of its boundaries and relationships to other disciplines in the late
nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries in Germany and getting ready
to take her candidacy exams.
Cathrine Besancon
Cathrine is a second-year PhD student who graduated summa cum laude and
Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA with a BA in Art History and a minor in Classics.
Her primary focus is medieval art, with a concentration on the sociopolitical
aspects of Romanesque art. To further her language skills, she attended the
Sorbonne Cours de Civilisation de Francais, a six week intensive French
language program. In 2004, she interned at the Hammer Museum in Los
Angeles. For her study at USC, she was awarded the Provost Fellowship.
Courtney Biggs
Courtney is a third-year PhD student specializing in eighteenth-century French
art. Her most recent research has been on early modern travel guides, and
collecting culture surrounding the engraved gem in the eighteenth-century
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France and Italy. For the upcoming year, Courtney will be working as a research
assistant at the Getty Research Institute. She held the seat of Art History
Department Senator on the USC Graduate and Professional Student Senate
during the 2005-2006 academic year, as well as serving on the committee for the
Art History Graduate Student Symposium and the GPSS Graduate Programming
Committee. Since arriving at USC, Courtney has been a teaching assistant for the
classes Asian Art: From Antiquity to 1300, Foundations of Western Art, Art and
Society: Renaissance to Modern, and Modern Art III: 1940 to the Present. She
holds a BA from Vassar College in Art History and Economics, and has worked
at art museums such as Dia:Beacon, the Whitney Museum and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
Hillary E. Brown (ABD)
Now in her fourth year in the department, Hillary has recently begun working
on her dissertation on child bust portraiture in eighteenth-century England and
France. She is a recipient of the 2004/2005 Early Modern Studies Institute
Fellowship, and in the summer of 2005 she participated in the Mellon seminar
on "Sensibility/Senisibilte in Eighteenth-Century England and France." Before
coming to U.S.C., Hillary received her B.A. from Middlebury College and her
M.A. from Columbia University, and she worked as a collections cataloguer for
the Department of Special Collections at the Getty Research Institute. For the
2007-2008 academic year, she plans on conducting research on her dissertation
in France and England.
Alexandra Castillo-Kesper
Entering her first year of the PhD program at USC, Alex graduated magna cum
laude with a BA in Art History and a minor in Spanish from Middlebury College
in Vermont. Earning highest honors for her thesis, La Malinche: The
Iconography of the Mexican Eve, Alex is interested in Colonial Spanish and
Modern Latin American Art. For her academic semester abroad, Alex studied art
history in Madrid, where she received instruction in museums such as the Prado,
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisva and La Reina Sofia. She worked as a Museum
Assistant at the Middlebury College Art Museum and as an intern for Sotheby's
International auction house. In addition to her current interest in the role of
gender, ethnic and cultural identity, Alex plans to focus on social and political
movements regarding the creation and reception of art in Latin America.
Kathleen Chapman
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Kathleen is a third-year PhD student interested in late nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century German art, literature, and popular culture. She has served as
a curatorial intern at the Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies at the
L.A. County Museum of Art, worked as a research database editor for the
Bibliography for the History of Art, and catalogued for the Electronic Cataloging
Initiative at the Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. In Spring 2005,
she presented a paper at the conference "Collage as Cultural Practice" at
University of Iowa.
Hyun-jung Cho
Hyun-jung is beginning her fourth year in the PhD program, where she is
studying postwar Japanese visual culture. In 2000, Hyun-jung graduated with a
BA in archaeology and art history from Seoul National University, where she
also pursued graduate coursework. In Summer 2005, she presented a paper on
Dan Graham's photographic works at the Visualising the City conference in
Manchester, England. This summer, she was awarded a Nikado Fellowship from
EALC for her Japanese language study and she attended an intensive language
course in Tokyo. In Fall 2006, she presented a paper on Metabolism architecture
in Seoul, Korea, and this paper will be published in the Journal of Art History
and Visual Culture in the coming year. This year, Hyun-jung is preparing for her
dissertation proposal about the 1970 Osaka World's Fair.
Nick Cipolla
Nick is beginning his fifth year in the Ph.D. program. He entered the program
with a BA in Art History and Classical Civilization from Yale University and
received his MPhil in Classics at Cambridge, England. His current work is
focused in the realm of Classical Art, primarily the art of Rome. He has worked
extensively on the portraiture of Livia, Maenad imagery, and on the concept of
the child in Roman Art. Other interests include the use of technology in the study
of archaeology, and he has presented papers at the "2002 Acadia Architectural
Conference: Thresholds Between Physical and Virtual," the proceedings of which
were subsequently published; at the 105th Annual Archaeological Institute of
America Conference in January 2004 with a paper entitled "Problematics of
Making Ambiguity Explicit in Virtual econstructions: a case study of the
Mausoleum of Augustus"; at Stanford University's conference entitled, "SEEING
THE PAST: Building knowledge of the past and present through acts of seeing"
in February 2005; and at a conference at the University of London in Fall 2005
devoted to the use of Computers in the History of Art.
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Jason Goldman
Jason studies twentieth-century American art, the history of photography, and
matters of gender, race, and sexuality in visual culture. In summer 2006, Jason
was the recipient of a USC Center for Feminist Research Travel Grant, which
allowed him to visit the photography collection of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana
University. His article on the nineteenth-century photographer Wilhelm von
Gloeden appeared in the February 2006 issue of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay
Studies. Jason participated in two panels at the 2006 conference of the College Art
Association, giving papers on von Gloeden and the archive of American artist
Robert Smithson. He has also given papers at Cornell University and UCLA. In
2008 he will co-chair, with Erica Rand, the CAA panel Queer Love Boat? The
Politics of Inclusion in Visual Culture. Jason co-coordinated the 2005 Expanding the
Visual Field graduate student symposium and received his MA from USC in 2005.
Sarah Goodrum
This is Sarah's first year in the PhD program at USC. She graduated from Vassar
College with a BA in English in 1998, and went on to have a career in trade and
academic publishing before pursuing her MA in Art History at Vanderbilt
University. Her MA thesis, titled "Photograph, Painting, Persona: Dialectics of
Presence in the Work of Egon Schiele," treats the relationship between
photographic images of the artist and his own work. While at USC, she plans to
continue pursuing her interests in Modern European Art, in particular early
twentieth century German and Austrian aesthetics, photography, and the
afterlife of art objects.
Kate Heckmann
Kate is beginning her fourth year in the Ph.D program and is a recipient of the
USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute Fellowship for 2006-07. Her
primary field is early modern Italian visual culture. Last spring, she presented a
paper on Italian woodworking at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Medieval and Renaissance
graduate student symposium. Kate’s recent work has addressed printed
cookbooks and culinary treatises from Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries,
connections between art and science at the Medici court through the botanical
works of Giovanna Garzoni, and late Renaissance Venetian banquet scenes. This
year, she will prepare a dissertation proposal exploring the intersections between
art and culinary culture in Renaissance Italy, through high art, print material,
and material culture.
Karin Higa
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Karin Higa earned a BA from Columbia University and an MA from UCLA, both
in art history. As the senior curator of art at the Japanese American National
Museum in Los Angeles, she curated a number of exhibitions including, “George
Nakashima: Nature, Form & Spirit,” “Living in Color: The Art of Hideo Date,”
“Bruce and Norman Yonemoto: Memory, Matter and Modern Romance,” and
“The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps,
1942-1945.” She was a cocurator of “One Way or Another: Asian American Art
Now,” in collaboration with the Asia Society, New York, which travels to
Houston, Berkeley, and Los Angeles. She has taught at Mills College, UC Irvine,
and Otis College of Art and Design, and has lectured extensively on Asian
American and contemporary art. Publications include texts on artists Ruth
Asawa (De Young Museum, 2006), Sam Durant (Wrong Gallery, 2004) and
Lincoln Tobier (Les Labortoires d’Aubervilliers, 2003) and contributions to the
books Only Skin Deep (Abrams, 2003) and Parallels and Intersections: A Remarkable
History of Women Artists in California, 1950-2000 (University of California Press,
2002.) She is a USC College Doctoral Fellow.
Jason Hill
Jason Hill enters his third year with the program after completing his Master's in
art history at Tufts University. This past year Jason devoted his attention largely
to the work of Ad Reinhardt and Weegee as part of a larger project concerning
those artworks conceived with their own mass reproduction in mind.
Extracurricularly, Jason recently cochaired the department's annual graduate
student symposium and was awarded an Ailsa Mellon Bruce Predoctoral
Fellowship for Historians of American Art to Travel Abroad from the Center for
the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts for 2006-07. This year Jason will begin
preparation for his dissertation, which will explore the visual and cultural logic
of the 1940s New York newspaper, PM Daily.
Sarah Hollenberg
Sarah is in her second year of the PhD program at USC. She received her MA in
art history at York University in Toronto, where her research focused on the
relationship between regional popular culture and Conceptual art in Eastern
Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to entering graduate studies, Sarah worked
as an independent art critic and curator. She has published reviews and feature
articles in various periodicals, including C International Contemporary Art,
Sculpture, The Brooklyn Rail and Bordercrossings, and has contributed critical
essays to exhibition catalogues published by museums and public galleries in
Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. This summer Sarah
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was visiting lecturer in the Department of Historical and Critical Studies at
NSCAD University.
Katya Kudriavtseva (ABD)
Katya studies early twentieth-century European and Slavic art and is now in her
fifth year in the PhD program. She holds an MA in art history from the
University of Oklahoma. With the help of a Borchard Fellowship, she spent the
2004-2005 academic year in Russia doing research for her dissertation, which will
focus on Malevich and Suprematism. This year, Katya received a College
Strategic Themes Research Assistantship and will be working with Professor
Troy, researching the historiography of the Russian avant-garde and marketing
strategies of galleries and dealers.
Anca Lasc
Anca is a third-year student in the Ph.D. program, where she entered with a B.A.
in History and Theory of Art and Literature from International University
Bremen, Germany. Before joining USC, Anca held several intern positions with
institutions such as Brukenthal Museum, Romania, Neues Museum Weserburg,
Germany, and Henry Moore Institute, UK. While at USC, Anca served as a
teaching assistant for both halves of the Western art survey. She interned at USC
Fisher Gallery in the past academic year and earned her M.A. degree in May
2006. Anca spent the summer of 2006 in Paris doing research with the support of
a Getty Memorial Scholarship for Summer Research Abroad. In the 2006-2007
academic year she is working as a Research Assistant in the Curatorial
Department at the Getty Research Institute. Anca’s work addresses techniques of
display and the viewing of art in public spaces throughout nineteenth-century
France.
Aleca LeBlanc
Aleca is entering her third year in the PhD program, where she is studying
modern art with a focus on Latin America. Her dissertation will explore the
emergence of a constructivist formal language in Brazil in the 1950s as part of a
highly productive visual culture. She spent the past two summers in Rio de
Janeiro studying Portuguese and conducting preliminary dissertation research
with the assistance of a Getty Memorial Scholarship and a Foreign Language
Area Studies fellowship. Prior to coming to USC, Aleca was a curatorial assistant
in the Modern and Contemporary Art Department at the LA County Museum of
Art, where she worked on the exhibition Beyond Geometry; Experiments in Form,
1940s-70s. She received her MA in art history from Columbia University and her
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BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She contributes ongoing art
criticism to Art Nexus.
Rachel Middleman
Rachel is a third-year student in the PhD program at USC, studying modern and
contemporary art and film. Her interview with contemporary American artist
Glenn Ligon, “History with a Small ‘H’: A Conversation with Glenn Ligon,” was
recently published in the journal GLQ by Duke University Press. Last year she
served as co-chair for the 2006 USC Graduate Student Symposium "Space
Exploration: Within and Beyond the Image." Before coming to USC, she received
her BA in Philosophy from the University of California Santa Cruz and her MA
in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism from The School of the Art Institute
of Chicago where she wrote her master's thesis on the work of Sophie Calle.
Jennifer Miller
Jennifer is entering her third year in the PhD program. She is the recipient of a
College Strategic Theme Research Assistantship at USC College of Letters, Arts,
and Sciences for both the 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years. She will continue
to serve as research assistant for the Literary, Visual, and Material Culture
Initiative under the advisement of Professor Richard Meyer. In the summer of
2005, she conducted preliminary dissertation research on the history of the
representation of burlesque theater in American art and visual culture with the
aid of a Luce Foundation Fellowship. Jennifer received her BA in Art History and
English from the College of William and Mary, and she completed her Master's
in Museum Studies at USC in 2003. In the spring of 2003, she co-curated "Fashion
and Transgression" for the USC Fisher Gallery and published an essay entitled
"Glamour: Fashion and Illusion" for the accompanying catalogue. Jennifer has
also written curriculum for the Ancient World Mobile, Maya Mobile, and the
Evenings for Educators Program at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Leta Ming
A third-year PhD student, Leta specializes in modern and contemporary art and
cultural theory. She received a BA in cultural anthropology from Yale University
and an MA in art history from Hunter College. Her Master's thesis focused on
site-specific interventionist public art of the early 1970s. Prior to entering the PhD
program, she was a Curatorial Fellow in the Whitney Museum of American Art
Independent Study Program in New York. In this capacity, she co-curated Social
Capital: Forms of Interaction, an exhibition of recent art that examined both
discordant and harmonious forms of social interaction. Her current research
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projects include the intersection of race and gender in the formation of subjects,
and an exploration of humor in Bay Area performance art of the 1970s.
Virginia Moon
Virginia earned a BA in art history from Yale University and an MA in East
Asian Studies at Harvard. Her focus is in Korean art history and her interests
include the National Treasure system of Korea and modern Korean art. She has
presented papers on these topics at the Royal Asiatic Society in Korea, the
Fulbright Commission in Korea, Harvard University, Berkeley, and USC. Funded
by Fulbright and Blakemore Foundation Fellowships, Virginia has studied
Korean art history at Seoul National University. At USC, she has been awarded
the College Dean's Award, FLAS (Foreign Languages and Area Studies)
Fellowships, and most recently, the Korea Foundation Fellowship.
Aram Moshayedi
Aram holds a BA in Art History/Theory/Criticism from the University of
California, San Diego where he was awarded Highest Honors Distinction for his
thesis centering on the photo-document in early works by the Viennese
Actionists and post-war medical culture. Now in his second year of graduate
study at USC, Aram has most recently examined the formation of UNESCO and
its mobilizations of the museum, the cinema, and the art-reproduction under the
auspices of world peace. In the coming year he hopes to further his converging
interests in institutional appropriations of art and culture and parallel histories of
the museum and the cinema.
Linda Nolan (ABD)
Linda Ann Nolan’s primary specialization is Early Modern Italian sculpture and
secondary specialization is Classical Roman sculpture. Her research interests
include art restoration, viewer reception, history of collections, and early modern
Italian prints and guidebooks. She has presented at a number of graduate
symposia and professional conferences, including those held at Bryn Mawr
College, Harvard University and by the Archaeological Institute of America.
Linda participated in the American Academy in Rome’s Summer Archaeology
program excavating in the Roman Forum, and prior to that excavated at Pompeii
with the University of Rome. Past internships include ones with art conservation
centers in Chicago and Lugano, Switzerland. Linda held positions for several
years in the Getty Research Institute’s Scholars Program and in the Museum
Education Department at the J. Paul Getty Museum. During the 2005-2006
academic year, Linda received the Borchard Foundation Dissertation Research
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fellowship. During the 2006-2008 academic years, Linda will be in residence at
the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome conducting research for her dissertation,
“Tactile Reception of Sculpture in Early Modern Rome,” with the assistance of a
Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellowship at Foreign Institutions. In January 2007,
Linda will present a paper, “Face the Truth: the Bocca della Verità,” at the
Archaeological Institute of America’s Annual Conference.
Younjung Oh
Younjung is in her third year of the PhD program. She received her BA in Art History
from Seoul National University and worked for an art magazine in Seoul. Her primary
area of interest is in modern and contemporary art and visual culture of East Asia. Her
dissertation project will examine urban visual culture in Japan during the early twentieth
century. The subject of department store as the important medium for visualization of
Japanese modernization will be her main topic. In 2005, Younjung has been awarded an
ACE Japanese studies fellowship from East Asian Studies Center at USC. She spent the
summer of 2006 in Tokyo, doing research with the assistance of an Inamoto Fellowship,
USC East Asian Language and Culture.
Thomas O'Leary (ABD)
Tom is in his fifth year at the department and focuses on contemporary Japanese
media culture. He is specifically interested in the ways photography, film, and,
more recently, "new media" has been used to explore and critique power
relationships. Tom has given papers on the nature of perfomativity and gender
identification at the annual USC Graduate Student Symposium, had a paper
accepted to the UCLA/USC Thinking Gender conference on the place of the
cyborg and feminist criticism in Japanese visual culture and has given lectures on
modernism, postmodernism and the problem of tradition in Japanese art at both
Cal State Fullerton and USC. He has also taught as the graduate student
instructor for the Asian Art survey course under Professor Insoo Cho. Currently,
he is laying the groundwork for his dissertation which will deal with defining a
Japanese visual identity through comparisons of several different groups of
photographers in the post-occupation period of Japan, considering these views
from the point of view of gender and the politicization of vision. He has
completed a year-long course at the Inter-University Center for Japanese
Language Studies and has been the recipient of the All-University Pre-Doctoral
Diversity Fellowship, The US Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship,
the Friends of Art History Fellowship, Getty Memorial Scholarship, and the
Borchard Dissertation Fellowship, and has spent the last year in Tokyo
conducting research for his dissertation. He passed his Qualifying Examinations
in August 2004.
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Kelli Olgren-Leblond (ABD)
Kelli entered the PhD program in 2000 with a focus on German art and
architecture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is currently writing
her dissertation, "Reading Expressionist Architecture: The German Avant-Garde
and 'Paper Architecture,' 1914-1924," and has been awarded a Final Year
Dissertation Fellowship from the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences for the
2005-2006 academic year. Over the course of her studies she has been a
University Merit Fellow in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and a
Borchard Foundation Dissertation Research Fellow, and has received travel
grants from both the Department of Art History and the U.S. National
Committee for the History of Art. In 2004 her dissertation project was awarded a
Citation of Special Recognition from the Graham Foundation for Advanced
Studies in the Fine Arts as part of their annual Carter Manny Award
competition. From 2001-2002 Kelli also worked as a research assistant in the
Collection Development department of the Getty Research Institute. She intends
to defend her dissertation in Spring 2006.
Arianna Opsvig
Arianna is a second year PhD student at USC and specializes in the Italian
Renaissance with a focus on Italian collections of New World objects. Her most
recent research has focused on the European reaction to, and assimilation of,
indigenous featherwork in the sixteenth century. This year she is cochair of the
Graduate Student Symposium: "A Useful Thing? Shifting Values, Uses &
Interpretations of Art". She received her BA from Wellesley College with a
double major in art history and economics, and worked in the field of economics
before coming to USC.
Alejandra Riguero
Alex Riguero is a second year student focusing on nineteenth and early twentieth
century British art and architecture. Her work focuses on the intellectual history
of British artistic production and the influence of antiquity and empire on the
discourses of art. Alex received her BA from Yale University in 2005.
Suzy Royal (ABD)
Suzy holds a Masters degree from the Courtauld Institute in London, where she
focused on the graphic art of the early German Expressionists. In 2004-2005 she
received a DAAD fellowship from the German government to conduct research
for her dissertation in Berlin. The past year (2005-2006) she has been writing her
dissertation with a USC Borchard Fellowship. She will complete and defend her
dissertation at the end of the fall semester 2006. Her dissertation is titled
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“Graphic Art in Weimar Berlin: The Case of Jeanne Mammen" and looks at the
construction and myth of the New Woman through the fashion illustrations and
watercolors of Neue Sachlichkeit artist, Jeanne Mammen.
Stefanie Snider
Stefanie is very happily in her fourth year of the PhD program at USC. She
received her MA in art history from Tufts University in 2003. Her interests are in
twentieth-century art and visual culture with a focus on feminist, gender, and
queer issues, which she will develop into a dissertation proposal this year. She
recently was named a 2005-2006 Ailsa Mellon Bruce Predoctoral Travel Fellow
for Travel Abroad for Historians of American Art by the Center for Advanced
Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. She
used her fellowship award to travel through Europe in the summer of 2005.
Virginia Solomon
Virginia Solomon is a second year PhD student, planning to major in
contemporary American art. Her interests include photography, media and
popular culture, queer theory, feminism, gender, and identity. Her current
research interests involve the use of mass media forms in art to navigate/mediate
subcultural identity, with a focus on queer subcultures. Past research topics
include Mapplethorpe, Sofonisba Anguissola, the subject positioning of punk in
the V&A Vivienne Westwood show, and General Idea. Virginia graduated from
Stanford University in the winter of 2004, and after graduation worked as a
gallery assistant and studio manager in San Francisco.
Erin Sullivan
Erin is entering her first year in the PhD program at USC. She received her M.A.
in art history from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the spring of
2006. There she focused on 19th and 20th century European art and architecture
and was introduced to the print and print culture. At USC, she will cultivate her
interests in the art of Germany in the late 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in
printmaking, print publishing, and print culture in the Weimar period. She has
worked at museums including the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, the
Department of Prints Drawings and Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston, the Cunningham Center for Prints, Drawings and Photographs at the
Smith College Art Museum and at the Missoula Art Museum. This past summer,
she was able to attend an intensive language course at the Freie Universitaet in
Berlin with a DAAD scholarship. She received her B.A. in history with a minor
in art history from the University of Montana in 2002.
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Kristine Tanton
Kristine is entering her second year in the PhD program at USC. Her area of
focus is medieval art and architecture. Kristine presented a paper on the
pavement labyrinth of Amiens Cathedral at the 2006 USC Graduate Student
Symposium. She spent the summer of 2006 at the Centre for Medieval Studies at
the University of Toronto, studying Medieval Latin. Kristine received her BFA
from Parsons School of Design and worked as an art director in publishing and
multimedia before deciding to pursue a PhD in art history.
Linda Theung
Linda is a first-year PhD student in the program. She holds a BA in Art History
and a minor in Computer Science from the University of California at Riverside.
As an undergraduate, Linda's studies focused on contemporary art, identity
politics, and feminism. These interests extended to her museum experience as a
Research Assistant for WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, an international
survey of feminist art from 1965 through 1980 that opens in March 2007 at the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. At USC, Linda hopes to map out
the relationship between science, technology, and marginal practices in modern
and contemporary art by looking at the historiography of new media.
Roger Von Dippe (ABD)
Roger studies Roman art and is entering his sixth year in the PhD program. He is
particularly interested in representations of narrative in Roman painting, the
sublime, and art as incorporated into the domestic space of Roman villas. He
took his Qualifying Examinations in Fall 2003.
Amy Von Lintel
Amy is beginning her third year of the PhD program. She intends to focus her
dissertation research on the visual culture of the nineteenth century, and
specifically the issues of illustration and visual pedagogy as they play out in
early illustrated art history survey texts. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with her
BA in art history and French from the University of Kansas in 2001 and her MA
from Southern Methodist University in 2003. For the 2005-2006 academic year,
she received a College Strategic Themes Research Assistantship, through which
she worked with Professor Malcolm Baker at the Getty Research Institute on the
theme of "Literary, Visual, and Material Culture" in illustrated books. She also
served as the Graduate Student Representative for the Art History Department,
and sat on the Dean’s Council for the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Maria Webster (ABD)
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This fall Maria will be entering her fifth year in the PhD program. She holds a BA
in Art History from Smith College and an MA in Art History from USC. Maria
has recently completed her coursework for the PhD and preparations for her
thesis, "Critical Fictions. Writing a Feminist Art History: The Case of Madame
Yevonde." Maria's interests center on portrait photography in the modern period,
historiography, and their intersection with feminist and gender studies.
Candace Weddle
Candace Weddle is in her fourth year of the PhD program. She entered with a
BA in Classics from Baylor University and an MA in Art History from Tulane
University. Her dissertation research will be focused on Late Antique and Early
Medieval material culture, specifically on the interplay between textual and
archaeological evidence for Early Christian attitudes concerning imagery. In 2005
she participated in the American Academy in Rome Summer Archaeology
Program, excavating at the Late Roman/Byzantine site of Classe Harbor near
Ravenna. In 2006 she was part of a team excavating a Neolithic habitation site of
the Petresti culture in the Transylvanian region of Romania. Her publications
include “Damnatio, Indignatio, and the Deaths of the Persecuting Emperors:
Influences on Early Christian Writers,” which appeared in the proceedings of the
2006 WAPACC Constructions of Death, Mourning, and Memory Conference and
an upcoming article, “Significant Structures: Reading Bruegel’s Architecture,”
which will be published online by the University of Iowa Graduate Art History
Society in the spring of 2007. She also presented research on Hildegard of Bingen
and Herrad of Hohenbourg at the 2006 Princeton Art and Archaeology Graduate
Student Conference. Candace was named 2006 USC Outstanding Teaching
Assistant, and currently serves on the Provost’s Graduate Student Advisory
Committee.
Sandra Zalman (ABD)
Sandra earned a BA from UC Berkeley and an MA from USC. Her dissertation
explores Surrealism's fluctuating position within avant-garde modern art and
how its status as both high and low intersects with decisive disciplinary debates,
mediated by extra-artistic factors including the public and the market. Last
semester, she traveled to New York, Washington D.C. and Florida to conduct her
research for her dissertation. This summer, she will go to Spain with the help of
a Del Amo research grant. She has presented papers at UC Berkeley, UCLA, Yale
University, Florida State University, and USC.
Arsineh Zargarian
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Arsineh is entering her first year in the PhD program at USC after having
received an MA in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University. In
her master’s thesis, Country Views: Enclosure in the Landscapes of Thomas
Gainsborough, she argued that features of enclosure sustain both tropes of the
bucolic as well as themes of agricultural capitalism in the artist’s landscapes. She
is a Borchard Foundation Fellow in the History of Collecting and Display at USC
and will continue to focus her research on British art. In June 2004, she
graduated from the University of California, Irvine with the Humanities
Scholastic Merit Award. She received her BA in English with minors in Art
History and Russian Studies. Last May, she returned to UCI to give a
presentation at a conference hosted by the Critical Theory Emphasis.
Alumni (page with text and names of alumni in bold)
Alumni
Recent PhDs
Gamble Madsen completed and defended her dissertation, "Psalm 109 and the
Medieval Mind: Visions of the Godhead with Special Emphasis on the
Commentary of Peter Lombard," in 2004. She has since taught courses at
Occidental College and Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California.
With a dissertation titled "Defending Russia: Russian History and Pictorial
Narratives of the 'Patriotic War,' 1812-1912," Andrew Nedd received the PhD in
2005. His dissertation addresses the intersection of national identity and culture
in Russian artistic representations of the "Patriotic War" of 1812. Andrew shows
that the visual narrative of the events of 1812 was inextricably linked to Russia's
search for national identity and helped to form competing definitions of
"Russianess."
Stacey Loughrey Sloboda completed her PhD in 2004 with a dissertation titled
"Making China: Design, Empire, and Aesthetics in Britain, 1745-1851."
Supervised by Karen Lang, the dissertation explores the aesthetic and social roles
of chinoiserie design in relation to cultures of imperialism in Britain.
Reinterpreting a style that has been conventionally and negatively read as
feminine, exotic, and marginal, Stacey's research demonstrates how each of these
values was a central part of British aesthetic philosophy and artistic practice.
Stacey served as Visiting Lecturer in the Department during the 2004-05
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academic year. In fall 2005, Stacey joined the faculty of Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale as Assistant Professor of Art History.
Stacey Uradomo received the PhD in 2005 with a dissertation titled "Legacies:
Family Memories, History, and Identity in Japanese American Art." The
dissertation examines the work of three sanei (third generation) Japanese
American artists: Roger Shimomura, Tomie Arai, and Lynne Yamamoto. Stacey
argues that these artists draw upon family memories in the form of diaries,
photographs, and oral histories, respectively, in order to interrogate the complex
relationship between memory, history, and Japanese American identity.
Sarah Warren received her Ph.D. in 2002 with a dissertation titled “Performing
the Primitive: Mikhail Larinov and the Paradoxes of Russian Futurism.” She is
an assistant professor of art history at the State University of New York,
Purchase College. The recipient of numerous research grants, her scholarship
concentrates on late imperial Russian avant-garde painting, performance, and
curatorial practice. Sarah was a fellow at the Clark Art Institute in the summer of
2006.
Alumni Updates
Starleen K. Meyer (PhD, Art History, 1998) collaborates in didactic and outreach
activities at the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan, Italy
(www.museobagattivalsecchi.org), one of Europe's most important historic
house museums, as well as caring for its web site. She gave a talk at the
conference, “Musifications," to be held at the Whitworth Art Gallery in
Manchester, UK, 22-23 April 2005. With Italy as its setting, the conference aims to
explore the relationship between collections in domestic residences and
collections absorbed into art galleries and museums. Her talk, "The Bagatti
Valsecchi Museum in Milan: a Historical Historic House Museum," examines the
museological choices that determined the formation of the museum. Further
information about the conference may be had from the conference web site
(www.art.man.ac.uk/ARTHIST/forum/musification.html) or from the organizer,
Dr. Suzy Butters, Mftssbb@fs1.go.man.ac.uk. For further information about the
museum, or to arrange for a personalized tour of the museum, Dr. Meyer would
be happy to hear from you by email: promo@museobagattivalsecchi.org.
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Agnes Bertiz (PhD, Art History, 2003) is currently teaching at Art Center College
of Design in Pasadena and University of La Verne. Agnes became a CSMP
(Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence at Liberal Arts Colleges) PostDoctoral Fellow in Spring 2006, and Visiting Assistant Professor in the
Department of Art History at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. At
Hamilton College Agnes is teaching a course on Women in Renaissance and
Baroque Art and an introductory survey of Asian arts and cultures.
If you are an Art History alum and have news of a new appointment, publication, award or
something else of significance that you would like to announce to your fellow USC art
historians, please let us know at arthist@usc.edu. We will review your update and add it to our
web page.
PROGRAMS OF STUDY
Graduate Studies
Graduate Admissions
Graduate admissions standards are competitive and based on evidence of an outstanding
record in art history. All applicants are urged to schedule a personal or telephone
interview with a member of the faculty in their area of interest; please see our
faculty web page for information on the faculty. USC requires that Ph.D.
students be admitted to both the Graduate School and the Department of Art
History. The Graduate School's general admission requirements include official
transcripts of all previous college and university work and official results of the
Graduate Record Examination (GRE). For more specific information about Art
History graduate admissions, contact Adrienne Capirchio, Academic Advisor
[azc@usc.edu].
To request an Information Packet and Application, please send your name and street address to arthist@usc.edu.
The deadline for Fall 2007 graduate applications is December 1, 2006.
All applicants for graduate study must submit the following to the Department of Art History:
1. Department of Art History Supplemental_Application for Fall 2007
2. Official Transcripts
3. Official GRE Scores
4. Letters of Recommendation (3)
5. Statement of Purpose
6. Research Paper
All applicants for graduate study must submit the following to the USC Office of Graduate Admission:
1. USC Application for Graduate Admission (apply online)
2. Official Transcripts
3. Official GRE Scores
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Additional information about University Admissions Requirements is available from the University's Graduate Admission web page.
Financial Aid information can be found on USC's Financial Information web page
Certificates in Areas of Concentration
Certificate in the History of Collecting and Display
The Certificate in the History of Collecting and Display is open to doctoral students in Art
History as well as qualified graduate students in other departments at USC. The
program provides a means of advancing knowledge about the presentation, circulation,
and consumption of works of art, as distinct from the more traditional art historical
emphasis on their production. Graduate students from outside of Art History must
receive written permission from their home department and Art History before pursuing
the Certificate.
Visual Studies Graduate Certificate
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/visualstudies/
The Visual Studies Graduate Certificate provides Ph.D. students with the tools
and knowledge necessary to think critically about visual objects and experiences
and to bring that thinking to bear on their ongoing scholarly work and doctoral
research. Students will combine the sustained analysis of specific representations
with attention to broader philosophical frameworks and historical conditions.
This certificate is designed for students enrolled in a Ph.D. program at USC
whose scholarly work includes a significant focus on visual culture. Rather than
attending to visual forms (e.g. art, film, photography, advertising, digital media,
illustrated books) in isolation from one another, the certificate considers the
overlaps between images, texts and material objects was well as the alternative
modes of interpretation such overlaps demand.
Graduate Student Symposium
Symposium Series: "Expanding the Visual Field"
Begun in 1997, the "Expanding the Visual Field" symposia are organized once a
year by the graduate students in the Department of Art History at USC. Held
during the spring semester, each symposium addresses a central theme that has
been devised by a student committee. The event draws graduate student
participants from throughout the country and concludes with a keynote address
by a distinguished scholar.
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Previous symposium themes include:
Space: Exploration within and Beyond the Image (2006)
Dating Ourselves: Innovation and Fatigue in the Visual Field (2005)
Configurations of Power (2004)
Staging the Body Politic (2003)
Manifestations of Cultural (Ex)Change (2002)
Different Histories, Histories of Difference (2001)
Visual Culture In (and Out) of History (2000)
The Coercive Image (1999)
Current call for Papers:
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Undergraduate Studies
34
Bachelor of Arts in Art History
Art History combines the study of art with the study of culture. The
undergraduate major provides general knowledge of the history of art and,
through upper-division courses, specialized knowledge in a variety of areas.
Majors are exposed to a diversity of theoretical approaches and encouraged to
sharpen their critical and conceptual thinking. This foundation has enabled many
art history graduates to pursue advances degrees in nationally recognized
programs, to enter diverse fields, and to pursue careers in the arts.
Minor in Art History
The art history minor offers a concentrated course of study that includes a
variety of objects from different historical periods and cultures in relation to their
makers, patrons, viewers and critics. Students in the minor are trained to analyze
visual images and information through a process of intensive looking, reading,
research and writing.
Minor in Visual Culture
A critical approach to art history is the departure point for the minor in visual
culture, which is dedicated to the analysis of the visual arts, broadly defined to
include fine art, film and television, photography and video, illustrated books,
advertising, architecture, and design. Students in the visual culture minor elect
from one of three concentrations: Photography, Film, and the Reproduction of
Images; Popular Culture; or Gender and Sexuality.
Courses and Requirements
Major in Art History
Faculty Advisor
Professor Carolyn Malone
Email: cmalone@usc.edu
Office: VKC 373D
Phone: (213) 740-4569
Art History courses at USC consider a variety of objects from different historical periods, places and cultures in relation to their makers,
patrons, viewers and critics. Majors are exposed to a diversity of theoretical approaches and encouraged to sharpen their critical and
conceptual thinking. Many art history majors decide to pursue a graduate degree in art history, either in museum studies or in a particular
historical field within the discipline. The Department of Art History faculty at USC maintains strong ties with local and national institutions,
thereby enhancing its ability to place departmental majors wishing to pursue a career in a museum, auction house, art gallery, or other arts
organization. Art history graduates are well prepared for jobs in public relations, entertainment, education, journalism, publishing, business,
and law.
Note that a grade of C or higher is required in AHIS courses counted toward major requirements for all undergraduate art history majors.
35
Units Required: 48
Lower Division Curriculum (12 units):
*AHIS 120g Foundations of Western Art
*AHIS 121g Art and Society: Renaissance to Modern
*AHIS 125g Arts of Asia: Antiquity to 1300 OR
AHIS 126g Introduction to Asian Art: 1300 to Present
Distribution Requirement (16 units):
Four courses to include one in each of four out of the following five areas of study, only one of which may be at the 200-level (400-level
courses do not satisfy the distribution requirement):
Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology
AHIS 201g Digging into the Past
AHIS 321 Greek Art and Archaeology
AHIS 322 Roman Art and Archaeology
Medieval Art
AHIS 220g Medieval Visual Culture
AHIS 330 Medieval Art
Renaissance & Baroque Art
AHIS 230 Art and Culture in Early Modern Europe
AHIS 304m Italian Renaissance Art: Old Masters and Old Mistresses
AHIS 343 Renaissance Art
AHIS 344 Baroque Art
Modern & Contemporary Art
AHIS 250m Modernity and Difference: Critical Approaches to Modern Art
AHIS 255g Culture Wars: Art and Social Conflict in the USA, 1900-present
AHIS 270 LA Now: Contemporary Art in Los Angeles
AHIS 361 British Art, 1730-1890
AHIS 363m Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Art
AHIS 364m Myths, Arts, and Realities: Visual Culture in CA, 1849 to the Present
AHIS 365m African American Art
AHIS 368 Modern Art I: 1700-1850
AHIS 369 Modern Art II: 1851-1940
AHIS 370 Modern Art III: 1940 to the Present
AHIS 373 History of Photography-Pictorialism to Postmodernism
Non-European Traditions
AHIS 282 Korean Art
AHIS 318 Arts of the Ancient Andes
AHIS 319 Mesoamerican Art and Culture
AHIS 376 Introduction to African Art
AHIS 377 Spanish Colonial Art and Architecture
AHIS 384 Early Chinese Art
AHIS 385 Later Chinese Art
AHIS 386 Early Japanese Art
AHIS 387 Later Japanese Art
AHIS 388 Early Art of India and Southeast Asia
AHIS 389 Later Indian Art: Indo-Islamic Architecture and Painting
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Upper Division Curriculum (20 units):
Five courses (300-499), three of which must be at the 400-level, including AHIS 494
NO BREAKS IN LINES HERE. I AM
HAVING FORMATTING PROBLEM. BREAKS GO ONLY BETWEEN
SETS OF NUMBERS, I.E. ALL 100-LEVEL CLASSES, ALL 200LEVEL CLASSES, ETC]
AHIS 411 Studies in the Arts of the Ancient Americas [
AHIS 420 Studies in Ancient Art
AHIS 425 Interdisciplinary Studies in Classical Art and Archaeology
AHIS 430 Studies in Renaissance Art
AHIS 433 Studies in Medieval Art
AHIS 449 History of Prints and Drawings
AHIS 453 Studies in Baroque Art
AHIS 460 Studies in 18th and 19th Century Art
AHIS 465 Studies in American Art
AHIS 466 Studies in the Decorative Arts and Design
AHIS 467 19th Century French Art
AHIS 468 Studies in Modern Art
AHIS 469 Critical Approaches to Photography
AHIS 470 Studies in Contemporary Art
AHIS 475 Blackness in American Visual Culture
AHIS 477 Studies in Visual and Material Culture
AHIS 481 Studies in Japanese Art
AHIS 484 Studies in Chinese Art
AHIS 490x Directed Research
AHIS 494 Undergraduate Proseminar in Art History (Required)
AHIS 495ab Undergraduate Honors Thesis (By invitation)
AHIS 496 Paintings in the Prado Museum
AHIS 499 Special Topics
Minor in Art History
Faculty Advisor
Professor Carolyn Malone
Email: cmalone@usc.edu
Office: VKC 373D
Phone: (213) 740-4569
Art History combines the study of art with the study of culture broadly conceived. The Art History Minor offers a concentrated course of
study that includes a variety of objects from different historical periods and cultures in relation to their makers, patrons, viewers and critics.
Students in the Minor are trained to analyze visual images and information through a process of intensive looking, reading, research and
writing.
Units Required: 24
Lower Division Curriculum (8 units):
Choose two of the following courses. Only one may be at the 200 level:
AHIS 120g Foundations of Western Art
AHIS 121g Art and Society: Renaissance to Modern
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AHIS 123 Introduction to Art History: Form, Culture, and Communication
AHIS 125g Arts of Asia: Antiquity to 1300
AHIS 126g Introduction to Asian Art: 1300 to Present
AHIS 201g Digging into the Past: Material Culture and the Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean
AHIS 220g Medieval Visual Culture
AHIS 230 Art and Culture in Early Modern Europe
AHIS 250m Modernity and Difference: Critical Approaches to Modern Art
AHIS 255g Culture Wars: Art and Social conflict in the USA, 1900-present
AHIS 270 LA Now: Contemporary Art in Los Angeles
Upper Division Curriculum (16 units):
Choose four of the following 300- and 400-level courses. At least one course must be at the 400-level.
AHIS 304m Italian Renaissance Art: Old Masters and Old Mistresses
AHIS 318 Arts of the Ancient Andes
AHIS 319 Mesoamerican Art and Culture
AHIS 321 Greek Art and Archaeology
AHIS 322 Roman Art and Archaeology
AHIS 323 Aegean Archaeology
AHIS 330 Medieval Art
AHIS 343 Renaissance Art
AHIS 344 Baroque Art
AHIS 357 History of French Art 1860-1920
AHIS 361 British Art, 1730-1890
AHIS 363m Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Art
AHIS 364m Myths, Arts, Realities: Visual Culture in California, 1849 to the Present
AHIS 365m African American Art
AHIS 368 Modern Art I: 1700-1850
AHIS 369 Modern Art II: 1851-1940
AHIS 370 Modern Art III: 1940 to the Present
AHIS 373 History of Photography-Pictorialism to Postmodernism
AHIS 376 Introduction to African Art
AHIS 377 Spanish Colonial Art and Architecture
AHIS 378 Modern Russian Art
AHIS 384 Early Chinese Art
AHIS 385 Later Chinese Art
AHIS 386 Early Japanese Art
AHIS 387 Later Japanese Art
AHIS 388 Early Art of India and Southeast Asia
AHIS 389 Later Indian Art: Indo-Islamic Architecture and Painting
NO BREAKS IN LINES HERE. I AM
HAVING FORMATTING PROBLEM. BREAKS GO ONLY BETWEEN
SETS OF NUMBERS, I.E. ALL 100-LEVEL CLASSES, ALL 200LEVEL CLASSES, ETC]
AHIS 411 Studies in the Arts of the Ancient Americas [
AHIS 420 Studies in Ancient Art
AHIS 425 Interdisciplinary Studies in Classical Art and Archaeology
AHIS 430 Studies in Renaissance Art
AHIS 433 Studies in Medieval Art
AHIS 449 History of Prints and Drawings
AHIS 453 Studies in Baroque Art
AHIS 460 Studies in 18th and 19th Century Art
AHIS 465 Studies in American Art
AHIS 466 Studies in the Decorative Arts and Design
AHIS 467 19th Century French Art
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AHIS 468 Studies in Modern Art
AHIS 469 Critical Approaches to Photography
AHIS 470 Studies in Contemporary Art
AHIS 475 Blackness in American Visual Culture
AHIS 477 Studies in Visual and Material Culture
AHIS 481 Studies in Japanese Art
AHIS 484 Studies in Chinese Art
AHIS 490x Directed Research
AHIS 494 Undergraduate Proseminar in Art History
AHIS 495ab Undergraduate Honors Thesis (By invitation)
AHIS 496 Paintings in the Prado Museum
AHIS 499 Special Topics
Minor in Visual Culture
Faculty Advisors
Professor Carolyn Malone
Email: cmalone@usc.edu
Office: VKC 373D
Phone: (213) 740-4563
Professor Richard Meyer
Email: rmeyer@usc.edu
Office: VKC 381B
Phone: (213) 740-9571
(Art History and other participating units: Architecture, Cinema-Television, Communications, English, Comparative Literature, Fine Arts,
Philosophy)
More than ever, students of today need the critical skills and intellectual breadth required to describe, analyze, and evaluate visual culture.
Visual Culture encompasses fine art, film and television, photography and video illustrated books, advertising, architecture and design. A
critical approach to art history provides both the foundation and departing point for this interdisciplinary minor. Students are required to
take two introductory courses in the history and theory of art which will prepare them for a focused study in one of three concentrations: (1)
Photography, Film and the Reproduction of Images; (2) Popular Culture; or (3) Gender and Sexuality.
The minor is open to all undergraduate majors and is especially relevant for those whose fields employ visual images to convey ideas as
well as information. The minor will complement pre-professional majors (such as those in film) as well as in the humanities and social
sciences.
Units Required: 24
Required Courses (8 units):
AHIS 100 Introduction to Visual Culture
and one of the following:
COMM 306 The Communication Revolution and the Arts
AHIS 250m Modernity and Difference: Critical Approaches to Modern Art
Additional Requirements (16 units):
Four courses to be selected from one of the following three tracks:
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1) Photography, Film and the Reproduction of Images
2) Popular Culture
3) Gender and Sexuality
Track 1: Photography, Film and the Reproduction of Images
AHIS 373 History of Photography
AHIS 469 Critical Approaches to Photography
CTCS 392 History of the American Film, 1925-1950
CTCS 393 History of the American Film, 1946-1975
CTCS 394 History of the American Film, 1976-Present
COLT 480 Dada and Surrealism
ENGL 471 Literary Genres and the Film
ENGL 481 Narrative Forms in the Literature and Film
FA 309 Advanced Photography
FA 310 Introduction to Computer Imaging in the Arts
FA 311 Printmaking
FREN 320 French Cinema and French Society: 1900 to the present
PHIL 446 Aesthetics and the Film
Track 2: Popular Culture
AHIS 364m Myths, Arts, Realities: Visual Culture in California 1849-Present
AHIS 369 Modern Art II: 1851-1940
AHIS 370 Modern Art III: 1940 to the Present
CTCS 392 History of the American Film, 1925-1950
CTCS 393 History of the American Film, 1946-1975
CTCS 394 History of the American Film, 1976-Present
COLT 365 Literature and Popular Culture
COMM 384 Interpreting Popular Culture
ENGL 392 Visual and Popular Culture
ENGL 471 Literary Genres and the Film
ENGL 481 Narrative Forms in the Literature and Film
PAS 400 Contemporary Public Art
PHIL 446 Aesthetics and the Film
Track 3: Gender and Sexuality
AHIS 255g Culture Wars
AHIS 304m Italian Renaissance Art: Old Masters and Old Mistresses
AHIS 363m Race, Gender and Sexuality Contemporary Art,
ARCH 442 Women's Space in History
COLT 376 Women in Contemporary Literature and the Arts
COLT 480 Dada and Surrealism
COMM 395m Gender, Media and Communication
ENGL 476m Images of Women in Contemporary Culture
ENGL 478m Sexual/Textual Diversity
Undergraduate Apprenticeship
A special feature of the undergraduate program is the apprenticeship, which
affords upper-division students the opportunity to work in the professional art
world in return for academic credit. Students gain valuable job skills in local
museums, galleries, auction houses, and art foundations.
Apprenticeships usually last one semester and carry two academic units.
Semester-long apprenticeships require a minimum of 10 hours of supervised
work in an art-related institution each week for the 15 weeks of the semester. In
40
addition, the student must attend class meetings to discuss apprenticeship and
career issues. Apprenticeship placement for the summer is also available at
institutions throughout the United States. Local participating institutions range
from large museums, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the
Museum of Contemporary Art, to small independent galleries in and around the
city.
For further information, including application instructions, please contact
Adrienne Capirchio, Academic Affairs Advisor, at azc@usc.edu.
Art History Student Association
The Art History Undergraduate Student Association is the official organization
of Art History majors and minors at USC, but it is open to any student with an
interest in the arts. AHSA meets every two weeks in VKC 379 and organizes
visits to local museums and galleries, academic events, and informal luncheons
with members of the Art History faculty. Their group e-mail address is
ahsa@usc.edu
For more information about AHSA, please contact Noelle Johnson: nmjohnso@usc.edu
Undergraduate Admissions
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/admission/index.html
Senior Honor’s Theses
Sonja Moro
Representations of the Body by Four Contemporary British Artists
Year of Completion: 2007
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Thomas Crow
Lily Puleo
"Affirmations and Contradictions: French Female Artists”
Interpretation of The New Woman During the Interwar Years" (Working
Title!)
Year of Completion: 2007
Faculty Advisor: Professor Nancy Troy
Marcelo Sousa
Imagining the Revolution: Visual Culture and the Politics of Homoerotic Representation in the 1960s.
Year of Completion: Fall 2006
Faculty Advisor: Richard Meyer
Anne Aubert-Santelli
Morisot's On the Balcony (1881-1882): A Study between Feminism and the Social History of Art
41
Year: Spring/Summer 2007
Faculty Advisor: Professor Karen Lang
Rebecca Wardell
Significance and Consequence: Exploring the (re)Gendering of Maya Art in Response to the Feminist
Movement
Year: (Spring) 2007
Faculty Advisor: Professor Megan O'Neil
Previous Years
Marcus Mitchell
“James Turrell: Into the Light”
Year of Completion: 2003
Faculty Advisor: Karen Lang
Awarded the USC undergraduate Art History prize (2003) and Phi Kappa Phi honors from USC
College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences (2004)
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute
The USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute is an interdisciplinary, collaborative program housed at the Huntington Library and Museum in San
Marino. The Institute is designed to support advanced research and scholarship on human societies between 1450 and 1850. In addition to its
affiliation with the Department of Art History, the Institute receives cross-curricular support from several departments within the USC College of Letters,
Arts and Sciences.
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/emsi/
USC-Getty Program in the History of Collecting and Display
Collecting has played a central role in the shaping of art history as a discipline. While academic art historians have frequently distanced themselves
from the activities of the art market, the collecting of works of art has a long and complex relationship with the writing of art history. Yet despite the
centrality of collecting and collections, and the publication of much new work in this area over the past twenty years, the subject has nonetheless
remained rather on the margins of the academic curriculum. The USC-Getty Program in the History of Collecting and Display has been established to
provide a focus for this work, both as part of the graduate program in Art History at USC and as a center for collaborative research activity in this area.
RESOURCES
College Art Association
http://www.collegeart.org/index.html
Nearby Museums and Galleries [note: these names should link to each institution’s
website, as is already done on our website]
Hancock Memorial Museum
California African American Museum
The Getty Center
Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Norton Simon Museum
Japanese American National Museum
Special Collections at Doheny Memorial Library
Museum of Contemporary Art
USC Fisher Gallery
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UCLA Hammer Museum
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History
Pacific Asia Museum
Skirball Cultural Center
The Gamble House
Add: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County [www.nhm.org]
Libraries
USC Libraries
http://www.usc.edu/libraries/
Getty Research Institute
http://www.getty.edu/
Huntington Library
http://www.huntington.org/
On-line Directory of Libraries in Southern California
http://www.at-la.com/@la-lib.htm
NEWS AND EVENTS
What’s New
Events
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, October 25, 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
Sheer Paint, Sheer Poetry
A Poetry Reading by USC Undergraduate Student Writers
Admission is free. RSVP to (213) 740-5537 or merighi@usc.edu. For more information, visit our website at www.usc.edu/fishergallery.
Fisher Gallery is located at 823 Exposition Blvd.
Parking: Enter campus at Exposition Blvd. and Watt Way. Inquire with attendant; show invitation for $4.00 parking.
Catalog available for sale at the gallery or through our website. www.usc.edu/fishergallery
----------------------------------------------------------------------
May 11 & 12, 2007
"Collecting across Cultures in the Early Modern World"
Huntington Library, San Marino, California
Conference hosted by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute
CALL FOR PAPERS
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Deadline: November 1, 2006
The conference organizers invite proposals for papers examining aspects of collecting as a global and transcultural phenomenon in the
period ca. 1450 to ca. 1850, including but not limited to the following topics:
- The formation and organization of collections: trajectories, networks, circulation, exchange
- The motivations and uses of collections: science, art, religion, curiosity, commerce, empire
- The interpretation, contextualization, and reinvention of early modern collections
- The transference of techniques, artistic styles, ideas, and beliefs through the circulation of objects
- The role of geography in the production, circulation, and interpretation of collections
- The usefulness of theories of center and periphery, diffussionism, transculturation, metissage, etc. in the understanding of collections
- Relationships between objects, texts, and images
The conference organizers encourage the submission of proposals which examine not only how non-European material was collected by
Europeans but also how collectors outside Europe collected from other cultures.
The conference welcomes applications from scholars working across disciplinary and institutional settings. To be considered, please
submit an abstract (not to exceed one page) and a c.v. (not to exceed two pages) to bleichma@usc.edu, or mail a copy of these materials
to Collecting Conference Organizing Committee, USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, SOS 153, University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, California, 90089-0034. Proposals are due no later than November 1, 2006.
The conference will provide transportation and local costs for those accepted on the program. The papers will be pre-circulated among
participants and must be available by March 30, 2006.
Questions may be addressed to the conference organizers, Daniela Bleichmar (bleichma@usc.edu) and Malcolm Baker
(mcbaker@usc.edu). Information about the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute can be found at www.usc.edu/emsi.
Employment Opportunities
Positions Available
Non-Tenure Track Lecturer Positions
The USC College Department of Art History seeks to establish a pool of qualified
individuals for non-tenure track lecturer positions as needed for the fall 2006 and
spring and summer 2007 semesters.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Must have completed the Ph.D. in a relevant field and have previous teaching
experience in the subject area.
APPLICATION MATERIALS:
Curriculum Vitae
Copies of teaching evaluations
Course syllabi for courses taught
Three academic letters of recommendation
Please submit all applications materials to:
Imre S. Meszaros
Administrative Services Manager
44
University of Southern California
Department of Art History
VKC 351 MC0047
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0047
USC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
Last update 09/01/2006
CONTACT US
Mailing Address:
Department of Art History
Von KleinSmid Center—VKC 351
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0047
Telephone: (213) 740-4552
Fax: (213) 740-8971
Email: arthist@college.usc.edu
Office Hours
Monday-Friday 8:30 am- 5:00 pm
Campus Location
The Art History office is located on the University Park Campus on the third
floor of the Von KleinSmid Center in Suite 351.
Department Staff
Adrienne Capirchio, M.S. Ed.
Academic Advisor
Phone: (213) 740-4552
Email: azc@usc.edu
Imre S. Meszaros
Administrative Services Manager
Phone: (213) 740-9508
45
Email: meszaros@college.usc.edu
Laudrell N. Tilmon
Administrative Assistant
Phone: (213) 821-5230
Email: tilmon@college.usc.edu
SEARCH USC
Link to USC website