Xiao Wang, Ph.D candidate in Physics, has been chosen as one of the two winners of the 2015 Student Poster Prize by the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. Xiao’s project was titled: “Magnetic exchange interaction between Fe³+ and Ho³+ ions in hexagonal HoFeO3 thin films.”
The Graduate Group in Archaeology, Classics and History of Art concluded the Spring 2015 with a suite of research presentations from students and a reception in honor of its anticipated degree recipients and outside-award winners.
The event began with presentations from current Ph.D candidates from each of the departments, who discussed their individual dissertation projects and upcoming research plans to a packed room, inviting the indisciplinary intellectual exchange that is one of the hallmarks of graduate study at Bryn Mawr. Jamie Richardson (History of Art) spoke about her dissertation project and plans for her upcoming year abroad in Antwerp (funded by a Rubenianum Fellowship), “Following Francken: Uncovering the Curiosity Culture of Seventeenth-Century Antwerp.” Rachel Starry (Classical & Near Eastern Archaeology) previewed her dissertation research plans with a talk, “Exploring Urban Development in Roman Lycia.” Abbe Walker (Greek, Latin & Classical Studies) provided a vivid overview of her in-progress dissertation and hinted at next steps, “From Bride of Hades to Bride of Christ: Virginity, Death, and Marriage in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome.” Finally, Amy Wojciechowski (History of Art) spoke of her upcoming year in Poland–complete with preview of her Polish language skills!–to study the work of early twentieth-century modern artists there, “Investigating the Archiwa: Mloda Polska in Krakow.”
For a complete list of degree recipients and award winners from the Graduate Group, click here.
Shannon Steiner received a two-year Samuel H. Kress Foundation Institutional Fellowship at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (Central Institute for Art History) in Munich, Germany, which will support her dissertation research on the subject of Byzantine cloisonné enamel.
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation is a premier source of grant and fellowship support for the study, preservation, and conservation of European art before the 19th century. The Kress Foundation partners with six European research centers for art history and offers one pre-doctoral fellowship per year for each.
The ZIKG in Munich is an internationally recognized research center for art history founded in 1946. It houses one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive art history libraries. The ZIKG especially supports object-based research with a focus on materials and techniques, art history as a specialized science, and art history in a global context.
The Institut is also home to the Forschungsstelle Realienkunde (Material Culture Research Center), which promotes research on the intersection of materials, technology, and representation. Shannon was particularly drawn to the triangulated research approach at the ZIKG because her dissertation frames Byzantine enamel as the visual manifestation of complex materials/chemical sciences and explores how the medium could embody and communicate ideas about the Byzantine Empire’s power over the natural world.
At the ZIKG, Shannon’s research will focus first on studying surviving Byzantine texts ranging from alchemical treatises to poetry to manuals on courtly protocol for mention of enamel, in order to glean information about its cultural significance and use. She will then undertake significant object-based study, including macrophotography of surviving Byzantine enameled objects in Germany, Italy, France, the UK, and The Republic of Georgia in order to document unique characteristics of their design, material composition and fabrication. Her ultimate goal is to bring these objects’ material characteristics into dialogue with textual evidence concerning enamel’s meaning in Byzantine society and diplomacy.
Classics Professor Annette M. Baertschi has been invited as a Visiting Scholar to the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin Studies in Innsbruck this summer. The LBI was founded in 2011 and is sponsored by the following partner institutions: University of Innsbruck (A), University of Freiburg (D), the Austrian National Library (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) in Vienna, and the Pontificio Comitato di Scienze Storiche in Rome.
Graduate students from both the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research convened for the 9th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium on April 9th 2015.
The event, organized by the Graduate Student Association, kicked off the festivities of Graduate Student Appreciation Week, a nation-wide event founded in 1993 by the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students.
Held in Thomas Great Hall, the Symposium brought together students and faculty from both schools to pour over the exciting research of several students, who presented their work in poster format.
Students from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences also took the opportunity to announce this year’s recipient of the Graduate Faculty Mentorship Award, Professor Emerita Christiane Hertel, History of Art. Two of Professor Hertel’s doctoral advisees, Jamie Richardson and Anna Moblard-Meier, presented the award and shared examples of their advisor’s exemplary mentoring and guidance.
