Brown University History of Art and Architecture

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Bringing together HIAA students at Brown. Welcome to the page for the Brown University History of Art and Architecture Department Undergraduate Group!

The Department Undergraduate Group [DUG] is a group of undergrad students who organize events and bring together students in the HIAA department. Please contact us with any ideas you might have for fun ways to meet other people in the concentration, or events that you think will be useful to you as concentrators in this department! We'll also let you know about department sponsored events, and other opportunities for people interested in art history and architecture. Our meetings are open, so keep an eye out for announcements and invitations-we'd love to meet you)

10/27/2026

Are you interested in Graduate School for Art and Architectural History? Join us for our Statement of Purpose Workshop!

In our ongoing effort to nurture more inclusive communities in and through the study of the history of art and the history of architecture, the Department of the History of Art & Architecture at Brown University is actively seeking PhD applicants from widely different backgrounds. To help make the application process as equitable and transparent as possible, we will be hosting a virtual workshop on writing effective statements of purpose. Whether you are actively considering applying for a PhD this year, or are simply curious about the process, we encourage you to attend. All are welcome!

In addition to specific advice on preparing your application, the workshop will also be an opportunity to talk with faculty members and current graduate students in our PhD program.

📌 Wednesday, November 4, 6-7:30 pm EST
📌 ON ZOOM
📌 REGISTRATION REQUIRED - visit the linktree in our bio

10/22/2026

HIAA Concentrators!

Do you need to travel to conduct research for your senior thesis or capstone project? Apply for funding from the Rebecca Molholt Vanel Travel Fund to help with travel expenses!

The Rebecca Molholt Vanel Travel Fund provides funding from a few hundred to $1000 through a competitive application process. All applications are reviewed by a committee of faculty and are judged on their individual merit, financial need, and the importance of the proposed project to the candidate’s thesis or capstone projects in HIAA. APPLY!

📌 Application Deadline: October 29
📌 Link via our bio

10/21/2026

Identifying the Dead in Medieval China Symposium

Organized by HIAA Professor and Chair, Jeffrey Moser, and Eiren Shea, Associate Professor of Art History at Grinnell College, this international symposium brings together scholars whose work focuses on questions of identity in the interpretation of Song-Yuan tombs in medieval China.

The two day workshop will explore how common signifiers of identity such as social class and profession, ethnicity, geography, and religious affiliation of China’s middle period are interpreted broadly, in contrast to the funerary context which can appear to contradict these categorizations.

Register and join us!

📌 Friday, October 30 and Saturday, October 31
📌 Andrews House, Brown University
📌 REGISTER via the link in our bio

Made possible by the generous support of the Center for Global Antiquity and the Faculty Lecture Fund.

Brown University

10/20/2026

Hey hey!

Curious about architecture? In Spring 2027, HIAA will offer one section of HIAA 0100 Introduction to Architectural Design Studio!

Starting Monday October 19 we’ll be running a lottery to fill a total of 15 places in this perennially popular course.

The Lottery closes on November 3rd at 11:00pm.

🧢👒🎩 Throw your hat in the ring for a spot in this exciting Intro class!

📌 Find the link to the form in our bio

10/19/2026

📣 Undergrad Summer Travel Spotlight!

Carson Peterson ‘27 was awarded a Rebecca Molholt Vanel Travel Grant to conduct research in Munich on the Dutch painter Rachel Ruysch for this senior honors thesis. Carson is studying Ruysch’s still life paintings as “thought-images”: paintings that do not simply depict flowers and insects but invite a kind of slow, contemplative thinking, an idea the philosopher Walter Benjamin and, more recently, the scholar Hanneke Grootenboer might call them. He is especially interested in how poets of Ruysch’s own time wrote about her work, and how that literary response connects to the experience of standing in front of her paintings
today, centuries later.

While in Munich, he was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with curators and Dutch scholars who have devoted their careers to the study of Dutch still life paintings, and came home understanding Ruysch far better, and glimpsing his future in a world of art scholarship.

🌟 Applications are now being accepted for HIAA undergraduate winter/spring research travel! Deadline October 29!

10/18/2026

Considering a PhD in the History of Art & Architecture?

Join us for Brown University History of Art and Architecture’s
Graduate School Statement of Purpose Workshop!

Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 6-7:30 pm EST on ZOOM

In our ongoing effort to nurture more inclusive communities in and through the study of the history of art and the history of architecture, the Department of the History of Art & Architecture at Brown University is actively seeking PhD applicants from widely different backgrounds.

To help make the application process as equitable and transparent as possible, we will be hosting a virtual workshop on writing effective statements of purpose. Whether you are actively considering applying for a PhD this year, or are simply curious about the process, we encourage you to attend. All are welcome!

In addition to specific advice on preparing your application, the workshop will also be an opportunity to talk with faculty members and current graduate students in our PhD program.

Preregistration is required! Visit our profile for the link.

10/17/2026

📣 Undergrad Summer Travel Spotlight!

Sydney Wright was awarded a summer research Frequent Flyer award to develop her understanding of the architectural history of New York City. She investigated urban density, structural systems, and cultural importance while exploring New York, learning about the city’s nuanced history. Through museum exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Skyscraper Museum, and the Tenement Museum, Sydney learned more about draftsmanship, immigration, and the development of NYC. “I was able to learn quite a bit about how diverse the landscape of the city is and how much of it was shaped by immigration through major hubs like Ellis Island. I also learned about the history of the subway, the block system, and the classic NYC skyline. It was interesting to learn about the city’s cultural influence and how it became such an important American symbol. I found the history of the city to be much more nuanced than I had anticipated.”

“On a personal level, it was also interesting to experience these things while navigating the city myself. I could feel how intentional the grid system was, which was incredibly different from where I am from [Atlanta], and it was interesting to learn how these systems and structures came to be. I have never seen a skyline that parallels that of New York, so visiting the Skyscraper Museum and learning not only how the buildings are constructed but also how they contribute to the density of the city was particularly interesting.”

🌟 Applications are now being accepted for HIAA undergraduate winter/spring research travel! Deadline October 29!

10/16/2026

📣 Undergrad Summer Travel Spotlight!

Parsa Zaheri ‘27 was awarded a Rebecca Molhot Vanel Travel Grant this summer to conduct research in Rome for his senior thesis on Annibale Carracci’s ceiling frescoes ‘The Loves the Gods’. While in Rome, Parsa not only visited the frescoes, but could view them in the context of other works in Palazzo Farnese, such as the Camerino and Sala dei Filosofi, sparking new paths for comparisons. He also traveled to Villa Farnesina, another Farnese property just across the Tiber River that serves as one of the argumentative sections in his thesis.

“I was able to explore some of the vital pieces of evidence for my thesis, and along the way, I explored the beautiful city of Rome, travelling to the Roman Forum and the Pantheon, where I was also able to see where Annibale Carracci was interred. I can’t say enough about how grateful I am for [the Moholt Vanel Travel endowment] in supporting this trip…which made it possible for me to take up this crucial research for my thesis.”

🌟 Applications are now being accepted for HIAA undergraduate winter/spring research travel! Deadline October 29!

10/15/2026

📣 Undergrad Summer Travel Spotlight!

Lily Ellman ‘27 was awarded a Rebecca Molholt Vanel Travel Award this summer to conduct preliminary research for her thesis on Niki De Saint Phalle and the Nouveau Réalistes. She traveled to the Niki Charitable Art Foundation Archives in San Diego where she was given access to books, letters, press releases, interviews, and a series of videos and movies which helped her begin to develop and structure her thesis.

“The books taught me about Niki De Saint Phalle’s intentions with her work, where I discovered that her relationship with the public was more than a performance, but a therapeutic process … [helpful] in healing her own experience of sexual abuse; shooting at the canvas and making others shoot at it for her to release the paint from its sealed pockets rendered the piece as simultaneously productive and destructive. She created a life cycle where a killing could be beautified, collectivized, and a form of her own release. This led me to think of De Saint Phalle’s perception of strangers as not only democratizing the artistic production process, but also as self-serving. Although perhaps the artist’s hope for a sort of life cycle within each shooting also served universal purposes to “heal” and satisfy the stranger, too.”

🌟 Applications are now being accepted for HIAA undergraduate winter/spring research travel! Deadline October 29!

10/14/2026

ATTENTION ALUMNI in the Philly area!

Professor Osayimwese will be lecturing tomorrow, October 15, at 12pm at the Weitzman School of Design at UPenn as part of their Fall 2026 Climate of Architectural History & Theory lecture series. We’d love to see you there!

Osayimwese’s talk “Museums and the Displacement of African Architecture” will share research from her recent publication “Africa’s Buildings: Architecture and the Displacement of Cultural Heritage”. The book is a groundbreaking history of Africa’s looted architectural heritage—and a bold proposal for the repatriation of the continent’s stolen cultural artifacts.

Please join us!

📌 Thursday, October 15, 12:00 pm
📌 Plaza Gallery Meyerson Hall, University of Pennsylvania
📌 Free and open to the public

Brown University

Address

List Art Center, 64 College Street
Providence, RI
02904

Website

http://www.brown.edu/academics/art-history/

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