Join the 2023–2024 SAAM Fellows as they present new scholarship on a range of topics and time periods, media and messages. This multi-afternoon program will highlight a new generation of scholars who are engaging the Smithsonian’s collections and archives in order to tell new stories about American art. The lecture will be held in person and online; registration opening soon.
Wednesday, May 8
Session I: 1–2:45 p.m. ET
Moderated by Eleanor Jones Harvey, senior curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Cassandra Good, Smithsonian Institution Senior Fellow, Marymount University
“Picturing Power: Representations of Women's Political Participation in Early American Art”
- Molly K. Eckel, Joe and Wanda Corn Predoctoral Fellow, Princeton University
“The Prophecy of Divine Justice in Robert S. Duncanson’s Robbing the Eagle’s Nest (1856)”
- Ashley Williams, William H. Truettner Predoctoral Fellow, Columbia University
“Marking Clay and Shaping Freedom: The Wilson Potters in Reconstruction Texas”
Session II: 3:15–5 p.m. ET
Moderated by Robin Veder, executive editor of American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Phillippa Pitts, Wyeth Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, Boston University
“Pharmacoepic Visions: A Critical Disability Studies Perspective on Nineteenth-Century Art”
- Elizabeth Fair, Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley
“Frames of Memory: Chinese American Architecture in Post-Earthquake San Francisco”
- Natalie E. Wright, George Gurney Predoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin—Madison
“Disability and ‘Function’ in Postwar America”
Thursday, May 9
Session III: 1–2:45 p.m. ET
Moderated by Melissa Ho, curator of twentieth-century art, Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Kelly-Christina Grant, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, Paris Nanterre University
“Sense of Location: The Travel Narratives in Loïs Mailou Jones’s Landscapes”
- Chaeeun Lee, SAAM Predoctoral Fellow in Asian American Art, City University of New York, The Graduate Center
“Bernice Bing's Ghosts: Abstraction and Psychic Reparation in Chinese America”
- Tyler Shine, Will Barnet Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
"Infinite Radius: Alma Thomas's Earth and Space Paintings"
Session IV: 3:15–5 p.m. ET
Moderated by Randall Griffey, head curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Kéla B. Jackson, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, Harvard University
“‘All I Had to Do Was Fly’: Faith Ringgold’s Sutured Visions of Black Girlhood”
- Sonja Gandert, Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, City University of New York, The Graduate Center
“Cowboys, Glitter, and Molotov Cocktails: Luis Jiménez's West as Protest"
- Li Machado, SAAM Predoctoral Fellow in Latinx Art, Temple University
“The Portrait as Archive and Activism in Queer Chicanx Los Angeles”
Friday, May 10
Session V: 1–2:45 p.m. ET
Moderated by Saisha Grayson, curator of time-based media, Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Sadé Ayorinde, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, Cornell University
“Many Men: Invisibility and Vulnerability in Glenn Ligon’s To Disembark”
- Adela Kim, Douglass Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, Yale University
“In Appropriate Institutions: Andrea Fraser’s Tearing Critique, 1991–1993”
- Alex Dika Seggerman, Patricia and Phillip Frost Senior Fellow, Rutgers University-Newark
“Untangling Islam in American Art: Shirin Neshat, Ghada Amer, and Shahzia Sikander”
Session VI: 3:15–4:30 p.m. ET
Moderated by Mary Savig, Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft, Renwick Gallery
- Jenni Sorkin, SAAM Senior Fellow in American Craft, University of California, Santa Barbara
“The Metaphoric Textile: Regional Group Exhibitions of the 1990s"
- Namita Wiggers, Smithsonian Institution Senior Fellow, Critical Craft Forum
“Making Craft History: Exhibitions in U.S. Craft Museums, 2000–2020”
Click here to view the 2022-2023 recordings
Image/Credit: SAAM 2023–2024 Fellows, courtesy of subjects