2021 Fellows Lectures

Join the 2020–2021 class of Smithsonian American Art Museum research fellows as they present new scholarship on a range of topics and time periods, media, and messages. This series of lectures presented entirely online highlights a new generation of scholars who are pushing boundaries and helping us understand the importance of examining and re-examining American art through new perspectives. 

Wednesday, May 12, 2:30–5 p.m. ET 
Moderated by Crawford Alexander Mann III, curator of prints and drawings, Smithsonian American Art Museum

• Sirpa Salenius, Terra Foundation for American Art Senior Fellow, University of Eastern Finland
  “Otium et Negotium: Edmonia Lewis, Sallie Mercer, and Sarah Parker Remond in Italy”
   
• Serena Qiu, predoctoral fellow, Smithsonian Institution, University of Pennsylvania
  “An Audience with the Empress Dowager: The Placement of Cixi’s Portrait in the 1904 St. Louis Exposition”
   
• Allison Robinson predoctoral fellow, Smithsonian Institution, University of Chicago
  “‘Certain fields must be excluded in this first project’: Defining the American Craftsman in the Index of American Design”

Watch Session 1

Thursday, May 13, 2:30–5 p.m. ET
Moderated by Saisha Grayson, curator of time-based media, Smithsonian American Art Museum

• Pierre-Jacques Pernuit, Terra Foundation for American Art Predoctoral Fellow, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
  “Phantasmagoric Abstract Painting: Thomas Wilfred’s Mobile Color Theatre 1918–1925”
   
• Ana Gabriela Rodriguez, predoctoral fellow in Latinx art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Courtauld Institute of Art
  "Alternative Perspectives: Puerto Rico's Generación del 50 between the Graphic, Photographic, and Cinematographic”
   
• Lauren van Haaften-Schick, predoctoral fellow, Smithsonian Institution, Cornell University
  "‘Use the system as a pipeline’: Artists' Resale Royalties to the Redistribution of Wealth"

Watch Session 2

Friday, May 14, 2:30–5 p.m. ET
Moderated by Mary Savig, the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, Smithsonian American Art Museum

•  Janine DeFeo, predoctoral fellow, Smithsonian Institution, City University of New York, The Graduate Center
  “‘All the things that happen’: Alison Knowles’s Proposition #2 as Total Social Phenomenon”
   
• Theo Gordon, predoctoral fellow, Smithsonian Institution, The Courtauld Institute of Art
  "Coming Out with a Camera: Sunil Gupta and Hinda Schuman"
   
• Cyle Metzger, predoctoral fellow, Smithsonian Institution, Stanford University
  "It’s all about ME, Not You: Greer Lankton and Transgender Embodiment"

Watch Session 3