News

López begins Will Barnet Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship at SAAM

PhD candidate Janina Lopez has joined the Smithsonian Institution's Fellowship Program as the Will Barnet Foundation Predoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This fellowship will support work on her dissertation, “The Royal Chicano Air Force’s Comuniversidad: Public Art and Education in Northern California since 1969,” which examines the murals, printed materials, and educational programs of the Sacramento-based collective of artists and activists.

Alex Taylor Reports on Calder Mobile at New Airport Terminal

Alex Taylor was consulted by local journalists on the reinstallation of the Alexander Calder mobile Pittsburgh (1958) in the new terminal of the Pittsburgh International Airport. Taylor has written the new interpretative label for the work, which is now suspended over a two-story atrium as the centerpiece of the landside terminal. The terminal will open in the last quarter of 2025.

Bertagnolli Presents at Smithsonian American Art Museum

Isaiah Bertagnolli (PhD 2025) presented dissertation research on during SAAM's annual fellow's lectures. Bertagnolli discussed Barbara Donachy's "Amber Waves of Grain" (1983), a 35,000 piece model of the US nuclear arsenal made from clay. In his analysis, he described audience emotional reactions to the artwork as logged in viewer comment books, how "Amber Waves of Grain" facilitated social organizing against the arms race, and how the material of fired clay made connections to antinuclear platforms. 

Fava-Piz Appointed Curator of Modern Art at the Phillips Collection

Alumna Clarisse Fava-Piz (PhD 2022) has been appointed the new Curator of Modern Art at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. She will help steward the Phillips’s internationally recognized modern art collection and collaborate across departments to create dynamic exhibitions and fresh scholarship that foster more inclusive narratives about modern art within a global context. Clarisse’s work will focus on expanding the modernist canon through transnational and interdisciplinary approaches that resonate with contemporary audiences.

Bromberg Receives Tenure

Alumna Sarah Bromberg (PhD 2013) was awarded tenure at Fitchburg State University.

Reparative Histories of Art and Architecture - Update from the Grant Team - HAA Colloquium

The grant team leading the work for the Reparative Histories of Art and Architecture grant from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation will lead a discussion about the current state of the work being done. They will give a brief introduction to the theme and aims of the grant, introduce the grant team, and describe the events the unfold across the next academic year.

Read more about the grant in the press release.

Serrato Doyen presents on the Teenie Harris Archive at eLaboratories

Graduate student Kale Serrato Doyen will present her ongoing dissertation research in "Research in Progress: New Projects Committed to Recontextualizing Visual Objects" at the University of Virginia's eLaboratories. Serrato Doyen will share developments in her dissertation, Mapping the Teenie Harris Archive: Photography, Community, and Pittsburgh's Black Built Environment. eLaboratories is an emergent space committed to making source materials accessible, discoverable, or (re)imaginable. This event will be held virtually.

Copeland Invited to Getty Research Institute as Guest Scholar (January-June 2026)

Andrew W Mellon Professor Huey Copeland has been invited to the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles as a Guest Scholar for the spring and summer 2026 terms. While in residence he will continue work on his monograph, "Thinking the Unthought: From Continental Philosophy to Black Radical Study," in the context of the Institute's year-long thematic engagement with notions of "Repair," which productively resonates not only with his scholarship, but also the department's Mellon-funded exploration of reparative art histories.

Summer Studio Design students are falling for Fallingwater

The summer Fallingwater Studio, a new design studio in the Architectural Studies program led by Gabe Nolle and Drew Armstrong, was featured by the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences.

Vuk Vuković was awarded an ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship

Recent graduate Vuk Vuković (PhD 2025) was profiled in PittWire after being award the ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship, which will support his position position as an associate curator at the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago.

PhD student Hossein Nakhaei won a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship

Graduate student Hossein Nakhaei was profiled on PittWire after winning a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship.

Rajagopalan receives New Foundation for Art History’s Inaugural Publication Subvention Grants

Mina Rajagopalan has received one of the New Foundation for Art History’s inaugural publication subvention grants. The grant will go towards Open Access fees for her book 'Marks She Made: The Art and Architecture of Begum Samru' which is under contract with Manchester University Press as part of the Rethinking Art's Histories series.

Lauren Taylor Joins Fulbright Hays Group Project Abroad in Senegal

During summer 2025, Lauren Taylor will be one of twelve Pitt faculty, academic administrators, and doctoral students to participate in a one-month Fulbright-Hays group project in Senegal. This initiative works to build trans-disciplinary, trans-national partnerships facilitating research between US and Senegalese scholars.

Adriana Miramontes Olivas Publishes Article on Voluspa Jarpa's Judd Shaft

Confucius in the Cathedral

Cecilia Rike (Chinese and Political Science BA, 2025), curates a digital interactive wall exhibit on Pitt’s Chinese Nationality Room as part of her Archival Scholars Research Award.