Hosseini Publishes on Platform
Infrastructure is usually invisible, until it is gone or stops working. Writing in Platform, Assistant Professor Sahar Hosseini takes the 2026 US-Israeli war on Iran as the occasion to ask what infrastructure actually is, and to whom it belongs. It argues that the language of war performs a deliberate act of stripping infrastructure of its human dimensions and obscuring devastations imposed on ordinary people.
Eppihimer Interviews UK Poet Laureate About Translating Gilgamesh
Before Simon Armitage's visit to the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh, Melissa Eppihimer interviewed him for the Pittsburgh Review of Books. The topic of conversation was Armitage's new translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world's oldest poem. Armitage, poet laureate of the United Kingdom, teaches poetry at the University of Leeds and is an experienced translator of historical poetry. Their discussion examined the pleasures and challenges of translating the epic, the text's connections to the modern world, and Armitage's own relationship with it.
Beranek Publishes First Monograph on Amalia von Solms and Early Modern Dutch Potraiture
Saskia Beranek (PhD, 2013) has published her first monograph, The Cultural Work of the Early Modern Dutch Portrait: Amalia van Solms and the Shape of the Self in European Art (Routledge). In it, Beranek examines how portraits served as powerful tools beyond mere facial records, actively negotiating relationships, building bridges, engendering communities, soothing egos, evoking memories, and constructing fame. Equally as important, however, is that this is the first sustained English-language study of Amalia van Solms.
Smith publishes in Art Journal
Teaching Assistant Professor Deirdre Smith's article exploring the concept of "zoomorphic feminism" in contemporary art was published in April in Art Journal. Through analysis of works by artists Wangechi Mutu, Julie Buffalohead, Marianna Simnett, Agnes Questionmark, and Juliana Huxtable, Smith takes note of a recent phenomenon where artists create and perform hybrid imagery combining feminine human bodies with nonhuman animal bodies as a means to a discourse of gender and identity.
Tao and Colleagues Publish on a Yuan Dynasty Manichaean Cliff Inscription in Fujian, China
Graduate student Yuqing Tao surveyed this stone inscription site, which primarily bears the Manichaean verse:"Purity, Light, Power, Wisdom (清浄光明大力智慧)," along with the year of its completion (1335) and the patron's name. After presenting the survey results, Tao argues that this site extends the known northwestern boundary of Manichaean sites in the southeast coast region of China and provides a rare, reliable, and early spatiotemporal reference for studying the spread of Manichaeism in Fujian during the Yuan Dynasty.
Kumbhardare Speaks at SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium
Undergraduate student Anuja Kumbhardare is set to speak at the SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium on Friday, April 10th. Kumbhardare is currently a senior obtaining a BA in Museum Studies and Classics, along with a BS/BA in Human Resource Management.
Smith Publishes in Curator
In March, Deirdre Smith's article, "A Wider View: Amie Siegel's Panorama and the Role of Contemporary Art in Natural History Museum Critique and Practice" was published in the journal Curator. The article is a "Reflective Analysis" inspired by Amie Siegel's 2023 artist's film and Forum Gallery installation at Carnegie Museum of Art, which drew on archival footage shot by Carnegie Museum of Natural History employees during expeditions and diorama construction projects in the 1930s-1970s.
Serrato Doyen Awarded 2026 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art
Graduate student Kale Serrato Doyen has been awarded a 2026 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art. The program is made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation and administered by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).
Smith Featured in Annual Report on Research at Pitt
Teaching Assistant Professor Deirdre Smith was profiled in the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research's Annual Report
Bertagnolli Guest Lectures at Schweikher House
Isaiah Bertagnolli (Ph.D. 2025) to give a guest lecture entitled "Synapse: Martyl's Intersection of Art and Science" on February 20, 2026 on artist Martyl Langsdorf, designer of the Doomsday Clock, at her historical home and museum, the Schweikher House. Beginning in the mid-1960s, Martyl--whose husband was a Manhattan Project physicist--began exploring the overlaps between computer circuitry and the human nervous system through her artwork.
Tao and Colleagues Publish on a 400-year-old Chinese Chicken Coop
Tao and his colleagues published an article on a very rare 17th-century late Ming Dynasty chicken coop discovered during an archaeological excavation in Zhengzhou, China. Its structure is consistent with historical records, providing empirical evidence for the study of chicken raising techniques and urban life.
Nygren publishes co-authored piece on AI in Higher Ed
AI has upended Higher Ed in the last two years. Often lost in the hype around AI are the fundamental questions: what does learning look like and how does it happen. Christopher Nygren and Sonja Drimmer offer a response:
Roberts and Trakumas Win Inaugural Terry Smith Prize
The Department of History of Art & Architecture is pleased to announce graduate student Emma Roberts and undergraduate student Tadas Trakumas as the inaugural winners of the Terry Smith Prize for Research on Modern and/or Contemporary Art, Architecture, and Visual Culture. Endowed by Professor Emeritus Terry Smith upon his retirement in 2022, the Terry Smith Prize recognizes outstanding student scholarship completed as part of coursework.
Dong receives tenure at Peking University
Lihui Dong (PhD 2017), Associate Professor and Researcher at the School of Arts Peking University, has received tenure in the Department of Art Theory. Dong completed her dissertation, "The way to be modern: Empress Dowager Cixi's portraits of the late Qing Dynasty", under Professor Emeritus Minglu Gao.
Read Lihui Dong's faculty profile at the School of Arts Peking University: https://www.art.pku.edu.cn//szdw/qzjs/ysllx/dlh/index.htm
Nakhaei Joins Shangri La Museum as Fall 2025 Scholar-in-Residence
Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design, a center of the Doris Duke Foundation, welcomes architectural historian and PhD candidate Hossein Nakhaei as its Fall 2025 Scholar-in-Residence. During the residency, Nakhaei advances his research on 13th-14th-century Persian luster tiles at the Shangri La’s collection, including the luster mihrab from the Emamzadeh Yahya in Varamin, Iran. He explores how architectural elemenets of sacred spaces were fragmented and reassembled in museum contexts.