A Winter Update from the Chair
Dear HAA Community,
As we head toward winter break, I want to reach out and give you an update on the many exciting things happening in HAA this academic year.
Nakhaei Talks About Fragmentation of Luster Tiles at University of Hawai'i
Hossein Nakhaei delivers a talk at the University of Hawai'i at Mānao entitled "Every piece you see is a fragment: Persian luster tiles from architectural elements to museum objects." In this talk, he explores fragmentation on three interrelated levels: material fragmentation—the physical breakage caused during their removal and through their subsequent circulation among dealers and collectors; compositional fragmentation—the separation of tiles from their original ensembles; and contextual fragmentation—the removal of those
Nakhaei Co-Authors Detailed Historiography of Persian Luster Mihrab in Hawai'i
PhD Student Hossein Nakhaei and art historian Dr. Keelan Overton publish a comprehensive historiography of a luster mihrab entitled “From Varamin to Honolulu: The Displacement, Commodification, and Aestheticization of the Emamzadeh Yahya’s Luster Mihrab, 1863–2025.” This essay traces the extraordinary journey of one of Iran’s most important luster tile ensembles, from its sacred space in the Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin to its current display in the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu.
Nakhaei Receives 2025 Graduate Student Presentation Award
Hossein Nakhaei receives Khamseen’s Graduate Student Presentation Award for his talk entitled “A Composite of Fragments: Removal, Displacement, and Illusion in Museum Displays of Persian Luster Tiles.” This award enables advanced PhD students to feature their expertise and contribute a talk to Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online. Nakhaei’s talk will be released in 2026 as part of Khamseen’s new feature, Concept, in which his contribution focuses on the theme of Fragmentation.
Donnelly publishes chapter on slavery, resistance, and the architectural legacy of Cuba's sugar plantations
Jennifer Donnelly publishes a chapter in Architectures of Slavery: Ruins and Reconstructions, the inaugural volume in the University of Virginia Press' series Race, Place, and Justice and edited by Nathaniel Robert Walker and Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann. Over fifty nineteenth-century sugar plantations, or ingenios, decay in various states of ruin in the the tropical valleys of the Valle de los Ingenios on the southern cost of Cuba. The region was once a global center for the production of sugar.
Bai and McCoy present on transcultural exchange in Eastern Eurasian religious art at MARAAS
HAA graduate student Mengtian Bai (presenter) and faculty member Micki McCoy (discussant) jointly participated in the panel, "Negotiating Foreignness: Rethinking Religious Art within and beyond East Asia, 12th-17th Centuries," at the Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies which was held this year at Pitt.
Read Mengtian Bai's student profile here: https://www.haa.pitt.edu/people/mengtian-bai
UAG Cantini Exhibit Featured in PittWire
Read the article "Meet the maker behind iconic Pitt public art pieces in the University Art Gallery’s latest exhibit" in the PittWire
Students Explore African and Diasporic Dance with Legacy Arts Project’s Erin Perry
On October 16, Erin Perry, executive director of the Legacy Arts Project, led a dynamic workshop for students enrolled in the course Arts of Africa. Based in Homewood, The Legacy Arts Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the arts of Africa and its diasporas through performance, education, and community programs.
UAG Exhibits Receive Feature in University Times
Read the article "Exhibit focuses on Virgil Cantini and often-overlooked wife, Lucille" in the University Times.
Copeland Contributes Interview to Echo Delay Reverb Exhibition Catalog
An interview with Professor Huey Copeland was published on October 17, 2025 in the catalog for the exhibition Echo Delay Reverb: American Art, French Thought, on view through February 2026 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Copeland was interviewed by art historian and co-editor of the publication Elvan Zabunyan.
Copeland Participates in Vision & Justice Now Convening
Professor Huey Copeland moderated a “Fireside Chat” with artist Glenn Ligon for the 2025 convening of Vision & Justice Now: The Challenge and Promises of American Democracy. The event, which ran from October 6-7, 2025 at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York, convened artists, legal scholars, cultural leaders, and civic thinkers to examine how art and culture shape, explore, and reimagine the democratic ideals we claim to hold.
Smith organizes exhibit at Hillman Library
In September, Teaching Assistant Professor of Museum Studies Deirdre Smith's exhibit "We Humans" at 70: Educating Pittsburgh on Race in the 1950s opened at the Hyland Gallery at Hillman Library. The exhibit focuses on "We Humans," an exhibit on race and racism developed by two curators of Anthropology at the Carnegie Museum that opened in downtown Pittsburgh in 1955.
Design Studio 2 Students Visit Proposed Development Site in Strip District
On a sunny Saturday in September, ARC 1202 Design Studio 2 met with Riverlife Pittsburgh Director of Planning and Projects Gavin White to tour a proposed development in the Strip District at the corner of Railroad Street and the 31st Street Bridge. Riverlife is a community organization dedicated to the development of Pittsburgh's riverfronts. The group hopes to transform the site into a mixed use development and a public park.
Art Journal Publishes Article by Alex Taylor on James Rosenquist
The latest edition of Art Journal (Volume 84, 2025) includes Taylor's article titled "Body Count: The Critical Matrices of James Rosenquist’s Growth Plan."
Nygren's forthcoming book awarded Meiss Prize by CAA
Christopher J. Nygren received the Millard Meiss Prize from the College Art Association for his forthcoming book, Sedimentary Aesthetics: Painting on Stone and the Ecology of Early Modern Art (Yale, 2026).
Read more about the Meiss Prize: https://www.collegeart.org/programs/publishing-grants/meiss