Allison Springer is following a path she set for herself when she received degrees in apparel and textile design and marketing at UA ten years ago. After Springer received the MS in marketing in 2006, she moved to New York City to work in fashion. For the next five years, Springer worked in the creative departments at Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy's. Then she left New York to travel in Europe and develop her interests in art and history. She returned to her alma mater in 2015 to pursue a master's in art history, with the goal of seeking a Ph.D. in art history in order to teach and research. This spring, Springer successfully defended her master's thesis in art history, titled "Mixed-Race Fantasies: Abolitionist Propaganda as Spectacles of Race in the Nineteenth Century." Springer was accepted to PhD programs at Rice University in Houston, Tex., and the University of Kansas in Lawrence. She reports that she plans to attend Rice in the fall. Right: Allison Springer presents her thesis research in a paper at the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History in 2017. For more information about the programs of the UA Department of Art and Art History, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/about/prospective/. The University of Alabama, the state’s oldest and largest public institution of higher education, is a student-centered research university that draws the best and brightest to an academic community committed to providing a premier undergraduate and graduate education. UA is dedicated to achieving excellence in scholarship, collaboration and intellectual engagement; providing public outreach and service to the state of Alabama and the nation; and nurturing a campus environment that fosters collegiality, respect and inclusivity.
Micah-Shea McKibben Defends MA Thesis on Botticelli
Micah-Shea McKibben successfully defended her MA thesis in art history, titled "Moving Beyond Beauty: Uncovering Sandro Botticelli's Isis," and graduated from The University of Alabama in December 2016. McKibben graduated cum laude from the University of South Alabama's Honors Program in 2012 with a B.A. in art history and a minor in history. Her undergraduate honors thesis was titled, "Knowing the Code, Analysis of Three Female German Expressionists." As a graduate student, she specialized in 15th-century Renaissance Italy and early 20th-century art. In March 2016, she presented her research on Botticelli's "Isis" at the South Central Renaissance Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, a regional conference of graduate students and professionals in Renaissance Studies. For more information about the programs of the UA Department of Art and Art History, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/about/prospective/. The University of Alabama, the state’s oldest and largest public institution of higher education, is a student-centered research university that draws the best and brightest to an academic community committed to providing a premier undergraduate and graduate education. UA is dedicated to achieving excellence in scholarship, collaboration and intellectual engagement; providing public outreach and service to the state of Alabama and the nation; and nurturing a campus environment that fosters collegiality, respect and inclusivity.
22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History
About the 2017 Symposium Photos: Flickr.com | Facebook.com 2017 Graduate Student Presentations and Keynote Speaker Ariana Panbechi, George Washington University, “Projections of Prestige: Aristocratic Portraiture of Qajar Iran” Isabel Lee-Rosson, University of North Texas, “American Diplomacy and Lebanese Art, ca. 1970: Contextualizing Paul Guiragossian’s Exhibitions in the United States” Mariana Gómez, University of South Florida, “Safe Conduct Pass (Paiza): Apotropaia and Human Representation in Islamic Art” Erin Hein, Case Western Reserve University, “Uncovering Roman Activity at the Aquae Apollinares through The Vicarello Goblet” Margaret Hankel, University of Georgia, “The Photographer as Author: Albert Renger-Patzsch and Die Welt ist schön” Rebecca Teague, The University of Alabama, “Nanni di Banco’s St Luke as a Statement Against Albizzi Control” Kelby M. Cox, The University of Alabama, “Stitching Agency: Enslaved African American Quiltmaking and the Prejudicial South” Carmen Gonzalez Fraile, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “Photographs of the Children’s March and Their Afterlives” Allison Springer, The University of Alabama, “Commemorating Freedom with Spectacles of Race: Abolitionist Propaganda during the American Civil War” Keynote Lecture: Dr. Kristin Schwain, University of Missouri, “Establishing an African American Eden: Samuel Albert Countee’s World War II Mural for Fort Leonard Wood’s Black Officers’ Club” Undergraduate Poster Sessions Alea Bondarenko, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “The Queen’s Stepwell at Patan, Gujarat” Nadia DelMedico, The University of Alabama, “Too Close to Home: The History of Slavery on The University of Alabama’s Campus” Sarah Faulkner, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “The Crux of Cultural Crossroads: Indigenous Elements in the Mahabat Maqbara” Sommer Hallquist, The University of Alabama, “Images of Antichrist within Bible moralisée Codex Vindobonensis 2554, Vienna, Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek” Riley E. B. Kliethermes, University of Tennessee, “Artemisia Gentileschi: Criticisms of the Feminist Perspective” Victoria Klouda, University of Tennessee, “The Luttrell Psalter: Medieval Marginalia and Viewer Visual Literacy” Reed O’Mara, The University of Alabama, “Getting Ahead: The Roles of Headless Saints in the Contest for Coronation Site” Rachel Polaniec, Case Western Reserve University, “To Engage, Educate, and Entertain: Living History Museums and the Visitor Experience” Chandler Roberts, Marian University, “The Uncreated Image: The Omission of Authentic Birth in Art” Jessica Shieh, The University of Alabama, “The Lasting Significance of Springtime: Julian Onderdonk’s Dynamic Legacy as an American Impressionist” More about the Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History Program for the 2017 symposium: PDF | Issuu.com Past Symposia
Online Catalog Features UA Art Resources
Image Resource Center student assistant Delilah Marshall recently catalogued her 915th item in The University of Alabama Department of Art and Art History's online catalog at LibraryThing.com, a crowd-sourced organizational tool. Marshall has spent the last two years building an online catalog to make departmental educational resources more accessible to art and art history faculty and students. Along with research and image search services, the Image Resource Center offers DVDs and videos, as well as books and journals to faculty, instructors and grad students in the Department of Art and Art History for check out. Undergrads must have a faculty or instructor sponsor in order to check out IRC materials. For old-school users, our Excel database of DVD and videos is attached here. To access DVDs, videos, books and journals of the IRC, go to LibraryThing.com, create an account (free) and search through more than 700 titles at our online catalog: https://www.librarything.com/catalog/UA-ImageResources. If you have questions or need help, contact Visual Resources Curator Rachel Dobson, 348-1893 or rachel.dobson@ua.edu.
Visiting an 11th-century church inspires student’s research.
Even though Lauren Eich just graduated from UA with a BA in art history, she is still hard at work researching the medieval architecture she loves. Last fall Lauren Eich (BA ARH 2014) took Dr. Tanja Jones’ Late Medieval Art History course and took on the research topic of the Abbey Church of St. Etienne in Caen, France. Eich had a difficult time finding English language studies of the church and good photos of its interior. She ended up translating French studies of St. Etienne and other Caen churches into English. This summer on a trip to France, she visited Caen and St. Etienne. She took photographs of the ambulatory, the chapels, and the details of the choir -- photos that also will help if she continues research on St. Etienne in graduate school. Eich writes, “It’s such a beautiful church and it has so much history that I have been really surprised about the lack of literature on it. It was built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century. The church survived the Normandy bombings in World War II, because the people of Caen painted a red cross on a white sheet and hung it on the roof to mark it as a hospital. When I visited it was incredible to see the photographs from WWII of people living in the church to avoid the bombs.” Eich will receive her second BA in studio art in January and plans to apply to graduate school in art history.[F14]