Announcements for our Department Graduate Alumni

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Barbara Kaminska (Ph.D. 2014) has been awarded the Asbjorn Lunde Foundation Partner Award from the Commission for Educational Exchange between the United States, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and is a Visiting Researcher at Rubenshuis in Antwerp in Fall 2025. In Spring 2026, Barbara will continue her research on the visual history of pain as a research fellow of Land Niedersachsen at Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel and at the Othmer Library of Chemical History in Philadelphia, PA.

Denise Amy Baxter (M.A. 1998, Ph.D. 2003) is, as of August 1, 2025, the New Dean for the College of Visual & Performing Arts  (CVPA) at UMass Dartmouth. She has also been the President of the College Art Association since 2023.

Anna Myjak-Pycia (Ph.D. 2018), Senior Researcher at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zürich, published a book Another Modernism: Home Economics and the Design of Domestic Space in the US, 1900-1960 with Bloomsbury Press and an article “The Peripheral Interior and People as Infrastructure: Adopting the Sewer System for Passage ,” in The Journal of Architecture.

Charlene G. Garfinkle (Ph.D. 1996) is an invited contributor to the 2025 Bulletin of the Bureau International des Expositions with the theme "Opening the Way: Women and World Expositions.” Her article, entitled “Women’s Progress Made Manifest: Creating the Woman’s Building at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition,” can be accessed at https://bie-paris.org/site/en/resources/annual-bulletin .

Holly Gore (Ph.D. 2022) published the essay, “The Assembly Line, the Dance Camp, and Wharton Esherick’s Rhythmic Art” in The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick . She also co-authored the introduction to the book with Emily Zilber.

Alexandra Schultz (Ph.D. 2022) has published two articles in 2024. The first examines the role of beach leisure spaces in reshaping the urban fabric of Alexandria, as well as the important role of women in shaping these spaces. The article appears on Metropole, the blog of the Urban History Association . In the second article, Alex discusses the role of water infrastructure and resistance in the failure of Hassan Fathy's model village project of New Qurna. This article appears on PLATFORM .

Following California Governor Gavin Newsom's Executive Order N-1-24 directing the removal of homeless encampments on state land, Ben Jameson-Ellsmore (Ph.D. 2023) reflects on the implications of such a directive. In “The Housing Crisis and Newsomville 2024 ,” published on PLATFORM, Jameson-Ellsmore directs the reader to a selection of articles published in PLATFORM, including two of his own, which helps place this policy shift in historical context.

“Robert Frank and Todd Webb: Across America, 1955,” a traveling exhibition curated by Lisa Volpe (Ph.D. 2013), was reviewed by The Washington Post , calling it "superb" and its accompanying catalogue "excellent."

Diva Zumaya (Ph.D. 2018) has been appointed Associate Curator of European Art at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens . She will join the Huntington on June 3, 2024.

Seokwon Choi (Ph.D. 2016) has been serving as an assistant professor in the Department of Oriental Painting at the College of Fine Arts , Seoul National University, since February 2022.

Sophia Quach McCabe (Ph.D. 2019) co-curated the multi-media art exhibition Positive Exposure: Southern California Asian American Art , currently on view at TAG Gallery, Los Angeles (May 4–24, 2024). The exhibition shines a spotlight on numerous UC Santa Barbara student and alumni artists and offers a nuanced presentation of the diverse and intergenerational voices within the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) artistic community.

Denise Amy Baxter (M.A. 1998, Ph.D. 2003) is Professor of Art History and Associate Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School at the University of North Texas and has recently begun her term as President of the College Art Association.

Sarah Watson Parsons (Ph.D. 2000) has two collaborative projects launching this month: the print edition of her co-authored book, Photography in Canada, 1839 – 1989: An Illustrated History and an exhibition, Hypervisibility: Early Photography and Privacy in North America, 1839–1900 . Both the exhibition and a recent article in History of Photography, “Victorian Facebooks: Privacy Concerns at William Notman’s Studio ," were undertaken in collaboration with doctoral students as part of an ongoing research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Ellen C. Caldwell (M.A. 2006) co-edited and contributed to the forthcoming volume Gender Violence, Art, and the Viewer: An Intervention coming out on September 17th with Pennsylvania State University Press. The volume explores gender violence in art, proposing ways of intervening on often-revered works of violence, and is particularly relevant for art history students, educators, and curators.

Ginny Reynolds Badgett (Ph.D. 2021) co-curated with Dr. Makeda Best the exhibition Framing Freedom: The Harriet Hayden Albums at the Boston Athenaeum through June 22, 2024. Ginny works for The Curtis Group , a Virginia-based nonprofit fundraising consulting firm and serves on the Giving USA Editorial Review Board, which provides oversight to the editor and authors of the Giving USA: The Annual Report on Philanthropy , the longest running most comprehensive report on philanthropy. Ginny and her husband James, welcomed their daughter, Mattox Elizabeth, a year ago in March 2023.

Nancy Clare Caponi (M.A. 2002) is actively involved in the effort to save her Master’s thesis project, Greenwood Pond: Double Site, by land artist Mary Miss, from demolition by the Des Moines Art Center.  Working with lead agency The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Caponi wrote letters to museum and city officials documenting the importance of this interactive sculptural installation that encircles a beautiful urban wetlands setting.  Due to input from art historians and design professionals, a Federal Judge has issued a temporary restraining order to halt the deconstruction of Greenwood Pond: Double Site.

Graduate Alumni