SMU Art History RASC/a

SMU Moody Graduate School Reposting this because we are so proud of PhD Candidate Laura Martin!! ❤️

Congratulations to Laura Martin, Ph.D. Candidate in Art History at SMU, on receiving four prestigious research fellowships from the Lilly Library, John Carter Brown Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and The Huntington Library.

These awards will support her dissertation research, Divine Intimacy: Sexuality and Spirituality in Early Modern Hispanic Art, through access to archival collections across the country.

Congratulations, Laura, on this remarkable achievement!

Thank you to Dr. Meredith Gamer for sharing her research during our first Comini Lecture of the semester! Dr. Gamer, Associate Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University presented “‘With utmost delicacy and tenderest care:’ William Hunter’s maternal-fetal bodies.”

It was a full house yesterday for our first Scratchpad Talk of the semester with PhD candidate Jennifer Laffick! Jennifer presented research in progress for her dissertation. Her presentation was titled “Atlantic Neoclassicism: Jean-Baptiste Debret and the Mutations of History Painting in Brazil.” Wonderful talk Jennifer! Thank you to everyone who attended!

Join us this Thursday, September 17th from 5:30 to 7 pm for our first Comini lecture of the school year! Dr. Meredith Gamer, Associate Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University will present "‘With utmost delicacy and tenderest care:’ William Hunter’s maternal-fetal bodies."

We will have our first Department of Art History Scratchpad Talk featuring PhD candidate Jennifer Laffick on Monday September 14 from 2-3:30pm in OFAC 1650. Jennifer's talk is titled "Atlantic Neoclassicism: Jean-Baptiste Debret and the Mutations of History Painting in Brazil." See you there!

Congratulations to Dr. Claudia Zapata (PhD ‘22) for curating “Radical Histories: Chicano Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum” at the H’ART Museum in Amsterdam!! The exhibition closes on Monday, September 6.

Congratulations to SMU Art History alum Dr. Claudia Zapata (PhD ‘22) for having a film in the Dallas Latino Film Festival this weekend!! Dr. Zapata’s film is titled “Texas Pride” and will be screened this evening at 8:15 pm at the Latino Cultural Center!!

First graduate student workshop of the school year! ✅ Thank you to Dr. Anna Lovatt, Dr. Stephanie Langin-Hooper, and PhD student Erin Wilson for speaking about best practices in teaching!

We are SO back. Welcome to our new and returning students! We had a wonderful time at our welcome back event and heard about our returning graduate students’ summer travels! And of course there were snacks.

After my two months at the JCB, I will travel to New Haven, Connecticut, for my final fellowship of 2026 at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. As a substantial part of my dissertation examines the concept of “mystic marriage” between nuns and their heavenly bridegroom, I will spend much of my time at the Beinecke examining materials that explore marriage and its conventions in the early modern Hispanic world. The Beinecke’s collections also offer valuable insights into early modern conceptions of morality and the ways in which they intersected with ideas about sexuality. I am looking forward to finishing up my research tour at the ! Thanks for spending the week with me!