Five UA art history graduate students presented their current research at the 27th Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History, Friday, March 4, 2022, in the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts in Birmingham, Alabama. Submissions were invited from MA students from around the country in all fields of art history. A total of eleven students from UA, UAB, University of Texas, and Texas Christian University were accepted to present at the annual conference.
UPDATE! Big congratulations to Riley Balzer, who won first place, and Julie Weber, who won third place, in the Best Paper Awards at the symposium!
Riley Balzer, a UA graduate teaching assistant in art history, presented “Connoisseurs vs. Forgers: A Conversation on the Intersections of Art Forgery, Patronage, and Methodology.” Balzer received the BA in art history with a minor in French and Francophone studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. As a senior, she presented her research at the Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History in the undergraduate poster session.
Ashleigh Junkin, a UA graduate teaching assistant in art history, presented “Medical Visual Culture of Colonial Africa: Racial Types in the Medical Imagery of Dr. Hugh Stannus.” Junkin received the BA from UA in 2021 where she majored in art history and minored in the Blount Scholars Program. She also presented a paper at the 2021 SECAC conference.
Rebecca Lowery, a UA graduate student in the Accelerated Master’s Program, presented “Female Patronage at the Stuart Court: Henrietta Maria and Orazio Gentileschi.” In May 2021, Lowery received her BA in art history from UA, with minors in Italian and anthropology.
Olivia Sims, a UA graduate student and a Graduate Council Fellow, presented “Bound to Bodichon: Prominent Female Networks Found in Effects of Tight Lacing.” Sims is in Track 2 of the MA program and is working toward the certificate in museum studies. She received a BA in studio art and a minor in art history, summa cum laude, from Jacksonville State University.
Julie Weber, a UA graduate teaching assistant in art history, presented “The Life and Art of Archibald Motley, Jr.: Before and After Paris.” Weber is in Track 2 of the MA program and is working toward the certificate in museum studies. She received the BFA in photography from UA, graduating magna cum laude.
Dr. Nada Shabout, who is a professor of art history and coordinator of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative at the University of North Texas, will be the keynote speaker for the event. Dr. Shabout presented the lecture, “Identities Disavowed: What and Where is Iraqi Art” at 5:15 p.m.
This year’s conference, organized by the departments of art and art history of The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is hosted by UAB.
The annual symposium, since 1995, part of UA’s and UAB’s Joint Program for the MA in art history, provides MA students an opportunity to present research, critically engage with one another, and hear and be heard by eminent scholars working in the field of art history. For more information, go to this page.
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, visit our Degree Programs page.