2024 Fellows Lectures

 

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Join the 2023–2024 SAAM Fellows as they present new scholarship on a range of topics and time periods, media and messages. This multi-afternoon program will highlight a new generation of scholars who are engaging the Smithsonian’s collections and archives in order to tell new stories about American art. The lectures will be held in person and online.
 

Register for Day One | Day Two | Day Three
 

Wednesday, May 8

Session I: 1–2:45 p.m. ET
Moderated by Eleanor Jones Harvey, senior curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum 

  • Cassandra Good, Smithsonian Institution Senior Fellow, Marymount University
    “Picturing Power: Representations of Women's Political Participation in Early American Art” 
      
  • Molly K. Eckel, Joe and Wanda Corn Predoctoral Fellow, Princeton University
    “The Prophecy of Divine Justice in Robert S. Duncanson’s Robbing the Eagle’s Nest (1856)” 
      
  • Ashley Williams, William H. Truettner Predoctoral Fellow, Columbia University
    “Marking Clay and Shaping Freedom: The Wilson Potters in Reconstruction Texas” 


Session II: 3:15–5 p.m. ET
Moderated by Robin Veder, executive editor of American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum

  • Phillippa Pitts, Wyeth Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, Boston University 
    “Pharmacoepic Visions: A Critical Disability Studies Perspective on Nineteenth-Century Art” 
      
  • Elizabeth Fair, Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley 
    “Frames of Memory: Chinese American Architecture in Post-Earthquake San Francisco” 
     
  • Natalie E. Wright, George Gurney Predoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin—Madison 
    “Disability and ‘Function’ in Postwar America” 
     

Thursday, May 9

Session III: 1–2:45 p.m. ET
Moderated by Melissa Ho, curator of twentieth-century art, Smithsonian American Art Museum   

  • Kelly-Christina Grant, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, Paris Nanterre University 
    “Sense of Location: The Travel Narratives in Loïs Mailou Jones’s Landscapes” 
      
  • Chaeeun Lee, SAAM Predoctoral Fellow in Asian American Art, City University of New York, The Graduate Center 
    “Bernice Bing's Ghosts: Abstraction and Psychic Reparation in Chinese America” 
      
  • Tyler Shine, Will Barnet Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania 
    "Infinite Radius: Alma Thomas's Earth and Space Paintings"   


Session IV: 3:15–5 p.m. ET
Moderated by Randall Griffey, head curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum 

  • Kéla B. Jackson, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, Harvard University 
    “‘All I Had to Do Was Fly’: Faith Ringgold’s Sutured Visions of Black Girlhood”
      
  • Sonja Gandert, Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, City University of New York, The Graduate Center 
    “Cowboys, Glitter, and Molotov Cocktails: Luis Jiménez's West as Protest" 
      
  • Li Machado, SAAM Predoctoral Fellow in Latinx Art, Temple University 
    “The Portrait as Archive and Activism in Queer Chicanx Los Angeles”   
     

​Friday, May 10

Session V: 1–2:45 p.m. ET
Moderated by Saisha Grayson, curator of time-based media, Smithsonian American Art Museum 

  • Sadé Ayorinde, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, Cornell University 
    “Many Men: Invisibility and Vulnerability in Glenn Ligon’s To Disembark 
      
  • Adela Kim, Douglass Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, Yale University 
    “In Appropriate Institutions: Andrea Fraser’s Tearing Critique, 1991–1993” 
      
  • Alex Dika Seggerman, Patricia and Phillip Frost Senior Fellow, Rutgers University-Newark 
    “Untangling Islam in American Art: Shirin Neshat, Ghada Amer, and Shahzia Sikander” 


Session VI: 3:15–4:30 p.m. ET
Moderated by Mary Savig, Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, Renwick Gallery 

  • Jenni Sorkin, SAAM Senior Fellow in American Craft, University of California, Santa Barbara 
    “The Metaphoric Textile: Regional Group Exhibitions of the 1990s" 
      
  • Namita Wiggers, Smithsonian Institution Senior Fellow, Critical Craft Forum 
    “Making Craft History: Exhibitions in U.S. Craft Museums, 2000–2020” 
     

Click here to view the 2022-2023 recordings

 

Image/Credit: SAAM 2023–2024 Fellows, courtesy of subjects