Featured Graduate Alumni

Graduates from our Ph.D. program have gone on to a wide variety of careers in academia, museums, and the cultural sector. Here we profile the positions held by some recent graduates from our program and provide links to find out more about their work. For more information on former graduate students by year, see the Graduate Research Listing.

Teaching

Dr. Cristina Albu
Associate Professor, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Graduated Ph.D. 2012
Dissertation: Mirror Affect: Interpersonal Spectatorship in Installation Art since the 1960s
For updates, visit Cristina’s profile at UMKC

 

 

 

 

Dr. Robert Bailey
Associate Professor, School of the Visual Arts, University of Oklahoma
Graduated Ph.D. 2012
Dissertation: Art & Language and the Politics of Art Worlds, 1969-1977
For updates, visit Robert’s profile at the University of Oklahoma

 

 

 

 

Dr. Saskia Beranek
Assistant Professor, College of Fine Arts, Illinois State University
Graduated Ph.D. 2013
Dissertation Title: Power of the Portrait: Production, Consumption and Display of Portraits of Amalia van Solms in the Dutch Republic
For career updates, visit Saskia’s profile at the Illinois State University

 

 

 

 

Dr. Brianne Cohen
Assistant Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
Graduated Ph.D. 2012
Dissertation Title: Contested Collectivities: Europe Reimagined by Contemporary Artists
For career updates, visit Brianne’s profile at the University of Colorado Boulder

 

 

 

 

Dr. Heidi Cook
Assistant Professor of Art History and Interdisciplinary Studies, Truman State University
Graduated Ph.D. 2016
Dissertation Title: Picturing Peasant: Maksimilijan Vanka’s Folkloric Paintings and the “Croatian Question” from Habsburg
For career updates, visit Heidi’s profile at the Truman State University

 

 

 

 

Dr. James R. Jewitt
Associate Professor, School of the Visual Arts, Virginia Tech
Graduated Ph.D. 2014
Dissertation Title: The Evolution of Landscape in Venetian Painting, 1475-1525
For career updates, visit James’s profile at Virginia Tech

 

 

 

 

Dr. Rachel Miller
Associate Professor, Department of Art, California State University, Sacramento
Graduated Ph.D. 2016
Dissertation Title: Patron Saint of a World in Crisis: Early Modern Representations of St. Francis Xavier in Europe and Asia
For career updates, visit Rachel’s profile on LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

Dr. Travis Nygard
Professor of Art, Ripon College
Graduated Ph.D. 2010
Dissertation Title: Seeds of Agribusiness: Grant Wood and the Visual Culture of Grain Farming, 1862-1957
For career updates, visit Travis’s profile at Ripon College

 

 

 

 

Dr. Ben Ogrodnik
Assistant Professor of Art History, Augusta University
Graduated Ph.D. 2019
Dissertation Title: Steel City Cinema: Independent and Experimental Filmmaking in the Rust Belt
For career updates, visit Ben’s profile on LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

Dr. Paulina Gaviria Pardo
Assistant Professor, School of Art, California State University, Long Beach
Graduated Ph.D. 2020
Dissertation Title: Letícia Parente: Embodying New Media Art Strategies in 1970s Brazil
For career updates, visit Paulina’s profile at CSULB

 

 

 

 

Dr. Nicole F. Scalissi
Assistant Professor, Art and Design, California State University, San Bernardino
Graduated Ph.D. 2019
Dissertation Title: Something to See Here: Staged Violence in Contemporary Art
For career updates, visit Nicole’s profile at CSUSB

 

 

 

 

 

Curatorial and Cultural Sector


Dr. Maria Castro
Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Graduated Ph.D. 2020
Dissertation Title: Between São Paulo and Paris: Tarsila do Amaral and the Intersecting Identities of Antropofagia
For career updates, visit Maria’s profile on LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

Dr. Clarisse Fava-Piz
Associate Curator of European and American Art Before 1900, Denver Art Museum
Graduated Ph.D. 2021
Dissertation Title: Sculpting Beyond Borders: Local Identity and Transnational Mobility in the Age of Rodin
For career updates, visit Clarisse’s profile on LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

Dr. Annika Johnson
Associate Curator of Native American Art, Joslyn Art Museum
Graduated Ph.D. 2019
Dissertation Title: Agency at the Confluence of Dakhóta and Euro-American Art, 1835-1912
For career updates, visit Annika’s profile on LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

Dr. Isaac King
Curator of American Art, Brigham Young University Art Museum
Graduated Ph.D. 2020
Dissertation Title: The One and the Many: Authenticity and Multiplicity in the Posthumous Lives of George Washington's Portraits
For career updates, visit Isaac's profile at the BYU Art Museum

 

 

 

 

Dr. Courtney Skipton Long
Director of Development, Yale University Art Gallery
Graduated Ph.D. 2016
Dissertation Title: Re-Categorizing Great Britain's Medieval Architecture: A Lesson in Nineteenth-Century Visual Taxonomy
For career updates, visit Courtney’s profile on LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

Dr. Allison McCann
Publications Manager, CMRS Center for Early Global Studies, UCLA
Graduated Ph.D. 2019
Dissertation Title: Women's Books? Gendered Piety and Patronage in Late Medieval Bohemian Illuminated Codices
For career updates, visit Allison’s profile at CMRS

 

 

 

 

Dr. Adriana Miramontes Olivas
Curator of Academic Programs and Latin American and Caribbean Art, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon
Graduated Ph.D. 2022
Dissertation Title: Los Neoliberarchivos: Contemporary Art at the Mexico - U.S. Border
For career updates, visit Adriana's profile on LinkedIn

 

 

 

 

Dr. Henry Skerritt
Assistant Professor in Contemporary and Indigenous Art, and Curator, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia
Graduated Ph.D. 2017
Dissertation Title: When Time’s Arrows Collide: Historical Critique in Indigenous Contemporary Art
For career updates, visit Henry’s profile at the University of Virginia

 

 

 

 

Dr. Marina Tyquiengco
Ellyn McColgan Associate Curator of Native American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Graduated Ph.D. 2021
Dissertation Title: What Native Looks Like Now: Embodiment in Contemporary Indigenous Art, 1992–Present
For career updates, visit Marina’s profile on LinkedIn