Ehsan Behbahani-Nia is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an upcoming fellow at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Tehran Iran, and three master’s degrees related to ancient architecture and archaeology from Strasbourg and Paris, France. His research focuses on ancient building technology, stone-cutting, and craftsmanship, as well as cross-cultural interactions and craft connections across the Mediterranean, Persia, and Egypt.
Xiaoyan Bi is currently a visiting Ph.D. student in the department of History of Art at the University of Michigan and a third-year Ph.D. student at Southeast University. She studies the contemporary development of traditional Chinese handicrafts, centered on material and culture, globalization, and interdisciplinary studies in art and anthropology.
Carla Burkert is a graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Visual and Critical Studies program. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Art History from New York University. Informed by her own experience as an emigrant, Carla’s work is driven by questions of culture and hegemony.
Alicia Gallant is a second year PhD student at the Graduate Center with a focus on the role of the American South in twentieth century African American art. Most recently, they were the Graduate Fellow at the Johnson Collection in Spartanburg, SC, where they curated Roots/Routes: Mobility and Displacement in Art of the American South. Prior to joining the program, Alicia held curatorial and education positions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian Institution).
Colton Klein is a Ph.D. student in the History of Art and a Whitney Humanities Center Fellow in the Environmental Humanities at Yale University, where he studies the visual culture of the United States with interests in material and environmental histories. He previously worked as a curatorial assistant at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Christina Marks is a first year doctoral student at UNC Chapel Hill under Dr. Cary Levine. Christina’s research on contemporary art and visual culture is informed by queer and decolonial theories, as well as spatial practice. She is interested in collaborations across the arts and sciences, land use, architecture, cartography, intercultural spaces, and the complex relationship of humans with the more-than-human world.
Teddy Perkins is a poet, trauma therapist, and graduate art history student at the University of Georgia who is interested in collective understandings of threat and care. Her previous graduate study was focused on religious trauma, sexual violence, and visual culture. Additional research interests include how ideology shapes lived experience, stigma, self-objectification, & violence prevention and response policy.
Sam C. Shin is an audiovisual composer, researcher, and educator whose work explores technology through the lens of Korean studies, philosophy, and experimental electronic music. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Digital Composition at UC Riverside where he studies with Ian Dicke, Dana Kaufman, and Paulo Chagas.
Yixin (Star) Song is a second-year art history Ph.D. student at Bryn Mawr College, specializing in Chinese arts. His interests lie in the Song and Yuan dynasties’ landscape paintings and the phenomenology of architecture. He received a B.A. in Art History with a minor in Cognitive Science from Carleton College. He currently serves as the assistant curator at the Chengdu Chang Dai-Chien Art Museum, preparing for the permanent exhibition and the special exhibition “Eastern Chang & Western Picasso.”
Courtney Thomas is an Art History and Library Science double Master’s student at UNC-Chapel Hill. She holds B.A.s in Theatre and Dance and Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin, and regularly writes about visual and performing arts for the popular press (Slate, Glasstire, Sightlines, etc.).
Michael VanHartingsveldt, a PhD Candidate in the Department of Art History at the University of Kansas, is currently writing his dissertation about the Buddhist sculptor profession in medieval Japan. His research interests include traditional woodworking tools, unfinished Buddhist sculptures, and the patronage of religious sites in pre-tenth century East Asia.
Alexis White is a graduate student in the History of Art department at Bryn Mawr College. Her research is focused on American Art, material culture, and dance studies. Prior to attending Bryn Mawr, she received an MFA from Cornell University.