Annika Johnson (PhD 2019)
In August 2019, Annika Johnson began her position as Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, NE. As the museum’s first full-time curator of Native American art, Annika’s job encompasses a broad range of projects. She is gathering data on the approximately 1,600 Native artworks in the collection that range from historic Lakota beaded regalia and Inuit carvings to contemporary pieces by Roxanne Swentzell and Arthur Amiotte. In partnership with Native community leaders, Annika will spend the next few years planning a permanent installation of the Native American art collection and related progrmaming. She is also developing rotating exhibitions with contemporary artists, and continues to pursue research completed for her PhD on Dakota art during the reservation era.
Henry Skerritt (PhD 2017)
In fall 2016, Henry Skerritt was appointed curator of the indigenous arts of Australia at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. During 2016, he curated two touring exhibitions: Yimardoowarra: Artist of the River, which opened at the Australian embassy in Washington, D.C., before traveling to the Kluge-Ruhe, and Marking the Infinie, which opened at the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University before traveling to fie museums in the United States and Canada. Skerritt edited the accompanying exhibition catalog for Marking the Infinie, published through Prestel Publishing, and also contrib-uted an essay to the catalog accompanying the exhibition Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia, which opened at the Harvard Art Museums in February.
Yuki Morishima (PhD 2013)
Dr. Yuki Morishima currently serves as Associate Curator of Japanese Art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Morishima received undergraduate degrees from the University of Washington and a M.S. from Boston University. She earned both her M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from the University of Pittsburgh where she specialized in portraits of Japanese emperors. Prior to joining the Asian Art Museum, Morishima taught as a visiting instructor and a teaching fellow at the University of Pittsburgh.
Since coming to the Asian Art Museum, Morishima has curated a number of exhibitions, including Japanese Lacquerware (2015-2016); Tradition on Fire: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics from the Paul and Kathy Bissinger Collection (2014); and Tetsuya Ishida: Saving the World with a Brushstroke (2014). Morishima also assisted with other exhibitions such as Looking East: How Japan Inspired Monet, Van Gogh, and Other Western Artists (2015), Seduction: Japan’s Floating World (2015), and The Printer’s Eye: Ukiyo-e from the Grabhorn Collection (2015). Her recently published writings include “Portrait of Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Recognition and Commemoration in a Japanese Portrait” in Orientations (in English and translated into Chinese, 2016) and “The Printer’s Eye: Ukiyo-e from the Grabhorn Collection” (2015) and “Tradition on Fire: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics from the Paul and Kathy Bissinger Collection” (2014) in The Asian Art Museum Magazine.
Morishima’s current projects include researching and writing for Selected Works: A Guide to the Asian Art Museum Collection, reinstalling the Japan galleries, and researching modern Japanese crafts for an upcoming exhibition in 2019.
Cristina Albu (PhD 2012)
Cristina Albu’s research focuses on interconnections between contemporary art, phenomenology, and cognitive sciences. She is currently working on a project concerning contemporary artists’ strategic use of biofeedback technology to cultivate awareness of the complex biological and social systems in which we are entangled. Cristina is the author of Mirror Affect: Seeing Self, Observing Others in Contemporary Art (University of Minnesota Press, 2016). She is also co-editor with Dawna Schuld (Texas A&M University) of a volume of essays titled Perception and Agency in Shared Spaces of Contemporary Art (forthcoming with Routledge in 2017).
Studying in the HAA department gave me the chance to be part of a lively academic community, highly supportive of daring ideas, interdisciplinary scholarship, and collaborative ventures. Above all, this experience inspired me to study and teach art history in a global context by taking into account cross-cultural exchanges of ideas, materials, and techniques. The collegial atmosphere in the department helped me pursue my research goals assiduously. It also helped me develop new professional skills necessary for editing journals and organizing conferences. I couldn’t have asked for better scholarly advice from a whole group of dedicated art historians who enabled me to acquire a good grasp of multiple methodologies and critical theories, which have come to inform my scholarship.
Robert Bailey (PhD 2012)
After receiving a B.A. (2005), M.A. (2007), and Ph.D. (2012) in the History of Art and Architecture from the University of Pittsburgh, where I also studied philosophy and studio art, I have taken a job as Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Oklahoma with affiliate faculty status in Film and Media Studies. During my twelve years as a student at Pitt, I benefitted enormously from studying closely with committed HA&A faculty who maintained the intellectually rigorous and sophisticated environment in which I acquired the knowledge and skills that I now put to regular use as a scholar and teacher.
Today, my research covers the history of modern and contemporary art as well as the historiography and methodology of art history. Broadly speaking, that work focuses on how artists and art historians configure relations of theory and practice amidst broader artistic, intellectual, and political developments. I have examined conceptual art and conceptualism, resulting in two books published with Duke University Press: a monograph titled Art & Language International: Conceptual Art between Art Worlds and a volume of Terry Smith’s writings that I edited and introduced, One and Five Ideas: On Conceptual Art and Conceptualism.
More HAA Alumni
NAME | ADVISOR | DISSERTATION TITLE | DATE OF PHD | CAREER OUTCOMES |
---|---|---|---|---|
Kylie Seltzer | Armstrong | Housing Identities: Displaying Race and Environment in Paris, 1870-1892 | 4/2020 | Nonprofit and Educational Consultant |
Carolyn Wargula | Gerhart | Embodying the Buddha: The Presence of Women in Japanese Buddhist Hair Embroideries, 1200-1700 | 4/2020 | Visiting Assistant Professor, Williams College |
Maria Castro | Josten | Between São Paulo and Paris: Tarsila do Amaral and the Intersecting Identities of Antropofagia | 4/2020 | Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |
Allison McCann | Fozi | Women's Books? Gendered Piety and Patronage in Late Medieval Bohemian Illuminated Codices | 12/2019 | Publications Manager, UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies |
Ben Ogrodnik | Smith | Steel City Cinema: Independent and Experimental Filmmaking in the Rust Belt | 12/2019 | Lecturer, Cinema Department, Birnghmaton University (2020-22) |
Annika Johnson | Savage | Agency at the Confluence of Dakhóta and Euro-American Art, 1835-1912 | 4/2019 | Associate Curator of Native American Art, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE |
Nicole Scalissi | Smith | 4/2019 | Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, University of North Carolina, Greensboro | |
Jennifer Donnelly | Armstrong | 8/2018 | Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh (2018-19) | |
Colleen O'Reilly | Ellenbogen | 8/2018 | Instructor, Department of Art & Art History, Bloomsburg University | |
Madeline Eschenburg | Gao | Migrating Subjects: The Problem of the "Peasant" in Contemporary Chinese Art | 4/2018 | Lecturer in Art History, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas (2018-) |
Jung Hui Kim | Gerhart | Religion, Politics, and Gender: Childbirth Images in Edo Japan | 4/2018 | Lecturer, Seoul National University (2019-) |
Elizabeth Morrissey | Gerhart | Memorializing Imperial Power through Ritual in the Illustrated Legends of Ishiyama-dera Handscroll | 4/2018 | Independent Scholar |
Lihui Dong | Gao | The Way to be Modern: Empress Dowager Cixi’s portraits of the Late Qing Dynasty | 8/2017 | Assistant Professor, School of Arts, Peking University |
Jungeun Lee | Gerhart | Displaying Authority: Ashikaga Formal Display in the Muromachi Period | 4/2017 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture (2017-18) |
Elizabeth Self | Gerhart | Art, Architecture, and the Asai Sisters | 4/2017 | Visiting Assistant Professor, HAA (2017-18) |
Henry Skerritt | Smith | When Time’s Arrows Collide: Historical Critique in Indigenous Contemporary Art | 8/2017 | Curator, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia (2017-) |
Heidi Cook | McCloskey | Picturing Peasant: Maksimilijan Vanka’s Folkloric Paintings and the “Croatian Question” from Habsburg | 12/2016 | Visiting Assistant Professor and Gallery Director at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri (2017-) |
Amy Cymbala | Harris and Armstrong | ‘Dearest Wife, Most Famous Woman:’ Gender, Commemoration, and Women’s Funerary Monuments in Rome, 1550-1750 | 8/2016 | Adjunct lecturer, Department of Art, Carlow College |
Jessica Gogan | Smith | Curating Publics in Brazil: Experiment, Construct, Care | 4/2016 | Director of Instituto MESA, non profit arts research/project institute; Co-editor of Revista MESA; Curatorial fellow, School of the Art Institute Chicago |
Courtney Long | Armstrong | Re-Categorizing Great Britain's Medieval Architecture: A Lesson in Nineteenth-Century Visual Taxonomy | 4/2016 | Zvi Grunberg Resident Postdoctoral Fellow at The Bruce Museum (2016-17) Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Yale Center for British Art (2017-) |
Rachel Miller | Harris and Savage | Patron Saint of a World in Crisis: Early Modern Representations of St. Francis Xavier in Europe and Asia | 4/2016 | Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, University of California, Sacramento (2016-) |
Sara Sumpter | Gerhart | The Socio-Political Functions of Japanese ‘Vengeful Spirit’ Handscrolls, 1150-1230 | 4/2016 | Freelance Editor |
Nadav Hochman | Smith | The Social Media Image: Modes of Visual Ordering on Social Media | 8/2015 | Co-founder, Titld: Data Driven Insights for Creative Industries |
Alexandra Oliver † | Ellenbogen | Critical Realism in Contemporary Photography | 4/2014 | Development and Communications Expert, The Forbes Funds (deceased 2017) |
James Jewitt | Harris | The Evolution of Landscape in Venetian Painting, 1475-1525 | 4/2014 | Collegiate Associate Professor, School of Visual Arts, Virginia Tech (2020-) |
Yuki Morishima | Gerhart | Political and Ritual Usages of Portraits of Japanese Emperors in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries | 12/2013 | Associate Curator of Japanese Art, San Francisco Asian Art Museum |
Saskia Beranek | Armstrong and Harris | Power of the Portrait: Production, Consumption and Display of Portraits of Amalia van Solms in the Dutch Republic | 4/2013 | Visiting Assistant Professor, Colby College, Maine (2017-18) Assistant Professor, Art History, Illinois State University (2018-) |
Izabel Galliera | Smith | Reclaiming Public Life, Building Public Spheres: Contemporary Art, Exhibitions and Institutions in post-1989 Europe | 4/2013 | Assistant Professor, tenure track, McDaniel College, Art and Art History Department |
Jiayao Han | Linduff | Creating Visual Emblems for Eastern Zhou Militarized Frontier Societies (771-221 BCE) | 4/2013 | CEO, BitIntuitive |
Donald Simpson | Armstrong and Savage | Civic Center and Cultural Center: The Grouping of Public Buildings in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Detroit and the Emergence of the City Monumental in the Modern Metropolis | 4/2013 | Author and Cartoonist |
Sarah Bromberg | Stones | The Context and Reception History of the Illuminations in Nicholas of Lyra's Postilla litteralis super totam bibliam: Fifteenth-Century Case Studies | 12/2012 | Assistant Professor of Art History and Studio Art, tenure track, Fitchburg State University (2019-) |
Cristina Albu | Smith | Mirror Affect: Interpersonal Spectatorship in Installation Art since the 1960s | 4/2012 | Associate Professor with tenure of Contemporary Art History and Critical Theory, Department of Art and Art History, University of Missouri-Kansas City |
Robert Bailey | Smith | Art & Language and the Politics of Art Worlds, 1969-1977 | 4/2012 | Assistant Professor, tenure track, University of Oklahoma, School of Art and Art History |
Brianne Cohen | Smith | Contested Collectivities: Europe Reimagined by Contemporary Artists | 4/2012 | Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History, University of Colorado, Boulder (2017-) |
Julia Finch | Stones | Bibles en images: Visual Narrative and Translation in New York Public Library Spencer Collection ms. 22 and Related Manuscripts | 12/2011 | Assistant Professor of Art History, Morehead State University, Department of Art and Design; Program Coordinator, Department of Art and Desgn |
Rebekah Perry | Stones | Sacred Image, Civic Spectacle, and Ritual Space: Tivoli's Inchinata Procession and Icons in Urban Liturgical Theater in Late Medieval Italy | 12/2011 | Instructor, Department of Art, Oregon State University |
Maria D'Anniballe Williams | McCloskey and Savage | Urban Space in Fascist Verona: Contested Grounds for Mass Spectacle, Tourism, and the Architectural Past | 12/2010 | Lecturer, University of Pittsburgh, HAA Department (2015-) |
Shalmit Bejarano | Gerhart | Picturing Rice Agriculture and Silk Production: Appropiation and Ideology in Early Modern Japanese Painting | 8/2010 | Teaching Fellow in Asian Studies at both Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University in Israel |
Kathy Johnston-Keane | Harris | Caravaggio’s Drama: Art, Theater, and Literature during Italy’s ‘Spanish Age’ | 4/2010 | Owner, KJ Keane Fine Art, Greater Pittsburgh Area |
Annie Krieg | McCloskey | The Walls of the Confessions: Neo-Romanesque Architecture, Nationalism, and Religious Identity in the Kaiserreich | 4/2010 | Adjunct Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Colorado State University |
Leslie Wallace | Linduff | Chasing the Beyond: Depictions of Hunting in Eastern Han Dynasty Tomb Reliefs (25-220 CE) from Shaanxi and Shanxi | 4/2010 | Assistant Professor, Visual Arts Department, Coastal Carolina University |
Karen Webb | Stones | Medieval Manuscripts, Architectural Structures, and their Relationships | 4/2010 | Independant scholar |
Jui-Man Wu | Linduff | Mortuary Art in the Northern Zhou China (557-581 CE): Visualization of Class, Role, and Cultural Identity | 4/2010 | Assistant Professor, Art and Art History Department, Hanover College |
Travis Nygard | Savage | Seeds of Agribusiness: Grant Wood and the Visual Culture of Grain Farming 1862-1957 | 12/2009 | Associate Professor of Art, Director of the Caestecker Gallery, Ripon College |
Sheri Lullo | Linduff | Toiletry Case Sets Across Life and Death in Early China (5th c. BCE-3rd c. CE) | 12/2009 | Assistant Professor of Visual Arts, Asian Studies, Union College |
Miguel Rojas-Sotelo | Smith | Cultural Maps, Networks, and Flows: The History and Impact of the Havana Bienniale 1984 to the Present | 4/2009 | Film Festival Director, Adjunt Professor, Curator, Special Events Coordinator at Duke University |
Cornelie Piok Zanon | Weis | The Sanctuary of Demeter at Pergamon: Architecture and Dynasty in the Early Attalid Capital | 4/2009 | Independent scholar, Pleasanton, CA |
Kristen Harkness | McCloskey | "The Phantom of Inspiration: Elena Polenova, Mariia Iakunchikova and the Emergence of Modern Art in Russia" | 4/2009 | Adjunct Instructor at University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University |