Graduate Students
Kristen Harkness
Modern/Contemporary
Kristen specializes in Russian modernism. Her dissertation is about the life and work of Elena Polenova (1850-1898) and Mariia Iakunchikova (1870-1902). These Russian artists were well known both at home and abroad during their lifetimes, but have gradually been erased from art's history. Kristen traces their negotiation of gender politics and their desire to create a modern Russian art from c. 1880-1900. Thus, in addition to art history, her work involves both gender studies and nationalism studies.
CV Highlights
Education
2003- present
University of Pittsburgh, graduate study toward PhD in History of Art and Architecture Working dissertation title: “Designing Russianness: Empire, Nation and Gender in Fin-de-Siècle Russian Art.” Dissertation committee: Dr. Barbara McCloskey (chair), Dr. Helena Goscilo, Dr. Kirk Savage, Dr. H. Anne Weis. Comprehensive examinations passed November 23, 2004. Prospectus defended April 4, 2005.
2005
University of Pittsburgh, PhD Certificate in Cultural Studies (August). PhD Certificate in Russian and East European Studies (April).
2001 - 2003
University of Pittsburgh, MA in History of Art and Architecture, April 2003. Thesis: “Mikhail Vrubel’s Fairy Tale Heroines and Identity in Fin-de-Siécle Russia.” Thesis advisor: Dr. Barbara McCloskey. Second Readers: Dr. Kirk Savage, Dr. Helena Goscilo.
1992 - 1994; 1995 - 1996
University of Pittsburgh, MA in Russian Literature, April 1996.
Publications
“Art, post-Soviet”; “Art, nonconformist”; “Abstract art (Abstraktnoe iskusstvo)”; “Bulgakova, Ol’ga”; “Chagall, Mark”; “Conceptualism”; “Folk art, Russian”; “Matveeva, Bella”; “Nakhova, Irina”; and “Romanova, Elena.” Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture. eds. Helena Goscilo, Karen Evans-Romaine and Tatiana Smorodinska. London: Routledge, 2006.
Translator: Irina Bakhanova et al. Gendernye aspekty v izobrazitel’nom iskusstve Severa i Tsentra Rossii/Gender Aspects of the Visual Arts of Northern and Central Russia. Moscow: Russian State University for the Humanities, 2006.
Awards and Honors
Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship, 2006-2007
J. William Fulbright U.S. Student Fellow, 2005-2006
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for Russian, 2004-2005.
Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office Teaching Assistant Mentor, 2003-2004.
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship to study German at the University of Pittsburgh, summer 2002.
Conference Activities and Lectures
"Putting Russian Folk Art on the World Stage: Policies, Politics, and the 1900 Exposition Universelle." American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) National Convention. New Orleans, LA. November 14-18, 2007.
“Between Tradition and Innovation: The Art of Elena Polenova.” University of Pittsburgh Summer Language Institute. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. June 26, 2007.
“Between Paris and Moscow: Mariia Iakunchikova, Elena Polenova and the Quest for Russian Art.” Slavic Forum. Chicago, IL. April 20-21, 2007.
“The Empire on Display: Mariia Iakunchikova and the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.” Midwest Slavic Conference. Columbus, Ohio. April 12-14, 2007.
“Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman: Mariia Iakunchikova, Russian Art, and Modern Times.” Midwest Art History Society Annual Conference. Indianapolis, IN. March 28-31, 2007.
“Redesigning Russianness: Art and Russian Identity 1863-1917.” University of Pittsburgh Summer Language Institute. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. June 28, 2005.
“Mikhail Vrubel's Domestic Goddess: Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel as Gesamtkunstwerk.” Southern Conference on Slavic Studies. Nashville, Tennessee. April 14-16, 2005
“The Cathedral of St. Vladimir, Viktor Vasnetsov, and Russian Imperial Identity.” Midwest Slavic Conference. Columbus, Ohio. March 3-5, 2005
“Larger Than Life: Lenin and Mao Portraits in Building Socialism.” Midwest Art History Society Annual Conference. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. April 10-12, 2003.
“Maria Yakunchikova and the Struggle to Forge Identity in a Foreign Context.” Fourth Annual Graduate Symposium on Women’s and Gender History. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. March 13-15, 2003.
Lecture. “The Blue Rider Group and the Aims of Artistic Expression.” University of Pittsburgh, Center for West European Studies. February 12, 2003.
Teaching Experience
TEACHING FELLOW. University of Pittsburgh. Instructor, Introduction to Art, Summer 2003. Recitation Instructor, Introduction to Art, Fall 2003. Instructor, Introduction to Modern Art Writing Practicum, Spring 2004. Instructor, Introduction to Modern Art, Summer 2004.
TEACHING ASSISTANT. University of Pittsburgh. Grader, European Visual Tradition, Fall 2001. Recitation Instructor, Introduction to Art, Spring 2002. Co-Instructor with Helena Goscilo, 20th Century Russian Art, Fall 2002. Recitation Instructor, Introduction to Modern Art, Spring 2003.