Presentation for Washington University's Environmental Studies interdisciplinary group

I really enjoyed having the opportunity this past week to present a version of my paper on the ethics of eco-art for Washington University’s Environmental Studies group, which is composed of faculty from across the university engaged in environmental research and programming. For this context, I presented a modified version of the paper I delivered at the Cleveland Symposium — focusing, once again, on a contemporary Cleveland-based eco-art case study but with heightened emphasis on its environmental science and climate communications dimensions.

CAA 2024 presentation for a panel on the legacy of New Deal art programs

I’m excited to be presenting at the 2024 College Art Association annual conference (in Chicago, IL) as part of the panel “Confronting the Legacy of New Deal Art in the Twenty-First Century" about my research on the People’s Art Center of St. Louis. The session, which is co-chaired by Dr. Erika Doss and Dr. Mary Okin, will take place on Wednesday, February 14 from 2:30-4 p.m.

Paper presentation at the 49th Cleveland Symposium

I was honored to present my paper “Mistakes on the Lake: On the Ethics of Eco-Art and Ecological Stewardship” at the 49th annual Cleveland Symposium this past weekend. The symposium is organized by the graduate art history department at Case Western Reserve University and hosted at the Cleveland Art Museum; this year’s theme was “Surface Tension: Water, Waterways, and Art” and featured a remarkable program of presenters.

Guest lecture at St. Louis University on the People's Art Center

I had the pleasure of giving a guest lecture about my research on the People’s Art Center of St. Louis for Prof. Devin Johnston’s “Folk Modernism” seminar at St. Louis University. My talk involved a broad overview of the WPA/FAP art programs, narration of my process of conducting archival research at numerous local repositories — including the St. Louis Public Library, the Missouri Historical Society, the Missouri State Historical Society, the St. Louis Art Museum, the George B. Vashon Museum, and Washington University’s Special Collections — and a discussion about the challenges of researching subjects/persons historically marginalized by the structural inequities of archives themselves.

New Perspectives Lecture: Credible Testimony and Gender-Based Violence

I was given the opportunity to deliver a New Perspectives lecture at Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, using two prints from the Kemper’s collection — Sue Coe’s photolithograph “Thank You America” (1991) and Adrian Piper’s serigraph “Let’s Talk” (1994) — as points of focus for thinking through the representation of gender-based violence and survivor testimony in visual art.

Graduate Research Fellowship from The Divided City

I was awarded a 2022 Graduate Summer Research Fellowship from the Divided City: An Andrew W. Mellon-Funded Initiative. This fellowship, issued through the Center for Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, supports interdisciplinary graduate research centered on how segregation in the broad sense has and continues to play out as a set of spatial practices in cities, neighborhoods, and public spaces.

I will use this fellowship to continue my research on The People's Art Center of St. Louis (1942-1965), a community art space founded via the WPA/FAP with a racially integrated mission.