Reparative Histories of Art and Architecture - Update from the Grant Team - HAA Colloquium
The grant team leading the work for the Reparative Histories of Art and Architecture grant from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation will lead a discussion about the current state of the work being done. They will give a brief introduction to the theme and aims of the grant, introduce the grant team, and describe the events the unfold across the next academic year.
Read more about the grant in the press release.
Copeland Invited to Getty Research Institute as Guest Scholar (January-June 2026)
Andrew W Mellon Professor Huey Copeland has been invited to the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles as a Guest Scholar for the spring and summer 2026 terms. While in residence he will continue work on his monograph, "Thinking the Unthought: From Continental Philosophy to Black Radical Study," in the context of the Institute's year-long thematic engagement with notions of "Repair," which productively resonates not only with his scholarship, but also the department's Mellon-funded exploration of reparative art histories.
Rajagopalan receives New Foundation for Art History’s Inaugural Publication Subvention Grants
Mina Rajagopalan has received one of the New Foundation for Art History’s inaugural publication subvention grants. The grant will go towards Open Access fees for her book 'Marks She Made: The Art and Architecture of Begum Samru' which is under contract with Manchester University Press as part of the Rethinking Art's Histories series.
Lauren Taylor Joins Fulbright Hays Group Project Abroad in Senegal
During summer 2025, Lauren Taylor will be one of twelve Pitt faculty, academic administrators, and doctoral students to participate in a one-month Fulbright-Hays group project in Senegal. This initiative works to build trans-disciplinary, trans-national partnerships facilitating research between US and Senegalese scholars.
Adriana Miramontes Olivas Publishes Article on Voluspa Jarpa's Judd Shaft
In an atricle for Pēripherica: Journal of Social, Cultural and Literary History, Miramontes Olivas examines Voluspa Jarpa’s installation Judd Shaft (2016–present), which exposes declassified documents from the CIA to create what Miramontes Olivas terms “necroarchivos.” Defined as contemporary artworks that highlight information p
Confucius in the Cathedral
Cecilia Rike (Chinese and Political Science BA, 2025), curates a digital interactive wall exhibit on Pitt’s Chinese Nationality Room as part of her Archival Scholars Research Award.
Roberts Presents at Society of Cinema and Media Studies
Graduate student Emma Roberts presented her paper, "Smoothing Off the Rough Corners: In the Company of Men (1969) and the Interracial Encounter” at the Society for Cinema & Media Studies Annual Conference.
Laube Writes First American Review of Juergen Teller’s "Auschwitz Birkenau"
Georgina Laube (HAA 2020) writes the first American review of Jürgen Teller’s "Auschwitz Birkenau," published by Steidl in collaboration with the International Auschwitz Committee, for Andrea Blanch's Musée Magazine. The review dives into the significance of the recently released book and examines Teller’s unflinching i
Gao Joins the Mongol Connections Traveling Seminar Project
Graduate student Naren Gao has been accepted to join the Mongol Connections traveling seminar project funded by Getty through its Connecting Art Histories initiative and hosted at the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Nygren Co-Authors Reflection on Art History and AI
Writing for the Spring 2025 issue of ICMA News, the newsletter of the International Center of Medieval Art, Christopher Nygren and collaborator Sonja Drimmer reflect on the use of AI in the classroom:
Paula Kupfer Participates in Photography History Workshop at Hertziana Library in Rome
Paula Kupfer recently participated in the workshop "Centers and Peripheries: Photography's Geography Lesson," at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome, delivering a presentation titled "The Afterlives of an Imperial Archive: Race and Repair in Contemporary Art from Brazil." The convening was led b
Ptaschinski Presents at Renaissance Society of America
Claire Ptaschinski shared her research at the Renaissance Society of America's 2025 Annual Conference in Boston. Her paper, "The Madonna dei Miracoli: Street Art, Flooding, and the Transformation of Rome's Urban Ecosystems," was presented as a part of a series of two panels on "Street Art in Early Modern Italy." This research emerged from the third chapter of Ptaschinski's dissertation and addressed the impact of 16th- and 17th-century floods on the image and shrine of the Madonna dei Miracoli near Rome's Tiber River.
Nakhaei presents at the 55th Middle Atlantic Symposium in Washington, DC
Graduate student Hossein Nakhaei presents his paper, "A Composite of Fragments: Removal, Displacement, and Illusion in Museum Displays of Persian Luster Tiles," at the 55th annual session of the Middle Atlantic Symposium, hosted by the National Gallery’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASV
Smith in Carnegie Magazine
Since 2023, Teaching Assistant Professor Deirdre Madeleine Smith has been researching Carnegie Museum of Natural History's collection of nearly 2,000 works of naturalist and scientific illustration, often in collaboration with Museum Studies students and interns.