KU Department of Art History

08/31/2026

08/26/2026

Shout-out to our new MA student Jackie Berry, Director of Community Engagement at the John Wornall House and Alexander Majors House Museums in Kansas City, Missouri, whose research to help build an online database of the nearly 4,000 enslaved people estimated to have lived in Jackson County by 1860 received coverage this summer from KSHB and KCUR.

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/lets-talk/wornall-majors-house-museums-uncover-hundreds-of-names-of-enslaved-people-in-jackson-county-missouri

https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2026-08-07/at-this-kansas-city-museum-a-chance-discovery-is-revealing-the-names-of-enslaved-people

The names of nine people who were enslaved in Jackson County surfaced in old property records from the estate of Pony Express tycoon Alexander Majors. Now, an online database is making hundreds of records referencing enslavement easier to search — and shedding new light on slavery's deep roots in ...

08/21/2026

Ph.D. alumna Sooa McCormick is excited to announce the upcoming exhibition, Ten Kings of Hell: The Afterlife in Medieval Korea (October 11, 2026–January 3, 2027, The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall, Cleveland Museum of Art), presented in partnership with the National Museum of Korea. Featuring rare and important works from the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392), the exhibition unfolds across three sections that trace the soul’s journey from death through purgatory and ultimately to Buddhist paradise. At its dramatic center is the historic reunification of a dispersed set of ten hanging scrolls depicting the Ten Kings of Hell, including the Third King of Hell, whose whereabouts had remained unknown since 1961.

Please see the following links for more information about the show https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/ten-kings-hell-afterlife-medieval-korea and its accompanying catalogue: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300292725/ten-kings-of-hell/.
There will also be a two-day international symposium on 11/20-11/21/2026: https://www.clevelandart.org/events/rise-ten-kings-hell-silk-road

In conjunction with the exhibition Ten Kings of Hell: The Afterlife in Medieval Korea, the Cleveland Museum of Art is hosting a two-day international symposium, bringing together leading scholars to examine the origins, transmission, and transformation of the Ten Kings of Hell imagery along the Silk...

07/17/2026

We are delighted to announce that Associate Professor Maya Stiller has been named the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art for the 2026–27 academic year. During her fellowship, she will pursue her project, “Sensing the Buddha Land: Architecture, Sound, and Devotion in Late Chosŏn Korea.” Congratulations, Professor Stiller!

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (the Center), the National Gallery’s world-renowned research institute, announced today its fellows for the 2026–2027 academic year. Over 30 fellows will conduct research that spans continents, centuries, and disciplines.

07/06/2026

Yuan-Hsi Chao (PhD student) joined the organizing team and served as a program commissioner for the 2026 North American Taiwan Studies Association Annual Conference, held from June 26 to 28. This year’s conference, titled “Resonance/Dissonance — Taiwan Studies, Knowledge Production, and Power Asymmetry,” focuses on collaborative and contested dialogues across disciplines on issues regarding Taiwan and pays more attention to Indigenous issues and the Taiwanese diaspora. Yuan-Hsi delivered the paper “The Dilemma of Gazing at the Other: An Alternative Reading of Guan Xiao-Rong’s Lanyu Anti-Nuclear Series,” which focuses on the photographs of the Indigenous people’s protest about nuclear waste storage facilities in Orchid Island and sees how those photographs might resonate with the respect of the majority social groups through the returned gaze from the photographed protesters. He also organized a roundtable discussion entitled "Intersection, Visibility and Identity in Taiwanese and Asian American Art," which brought together art historians and artists to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by Taiwanese American artists in their creative work, curating, and teaching, as well as reflecting the concept of "Asian American Art" from a Taiwanese perspective.

06/08/2026

Congratulations to Julie Thompson Borger (PhD Candidate). Julie was appointed the Getty Graduate Curatorial Intern for the Manuscripts Department from September 2026 until August 2027.

06/07/2026

Prof. David Cateforis is quoted in this recently published article about the renowned Nebraska landscape artist and KU alumnus Keith Jacobshagen. On May 22, Prof. Cateforis was pleased to attend the opening reception of the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art’s Jacobshagen exhibition, The Shape of the Prairie, which was handsomely installed by the museum’s registrar and exhibitions manager Megan Benitz (MA ‘05).

Unlike other landscape artists who capture obvious scenic glories of crashing ocean waves or snow-crested mountains, Jacobshagen has devoted his life to depicting what much of the rest of America calls flyover country.

06/06/2026

Shout-out to Reyna Catching (MA ’25) who in April was promoted to Assistant Curator at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, where she previously worked as the Education Coordinator.
Additional exciting news from Reyna: her research on the museum’s monumental painting Panthéon de la Guerre culminated in an interactive feature for the museum’s centennial exhibition. Reyna identified the painting’s approximately 250 notable figures and created brief biographies of them accompanied by photographs. Visitors can access this material by selecting figures on a touchscreen interface keyed to the painting. The photograph shows Reyna posing next to the screen.

06/05/2026

Congratulations to our distinguished alumnus Robert Mowry (MPhil ‘75) who last month was awarded the 2026 Grand Prize of the Order of National Merit of the Republic of Korea, in recognition of his work to build a collection of Korean art for Harvard and for promoting Korean art and culture in the West through lectures, publications, and exhibitions. As Bob couldn’t travel to Seoul on short notice, his dear friend GuGu Kim accepted the award on his behalf, while Bob officially acknowledged it and expressed thanks via Zoom. Sponsored by government ministries and agencies, this national award was administered through the Kim Koo Museum and Library, Seoul.