Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pietà: Construction, Creation, and Sculptural Meditation

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Heidi Pyper Faculty Mentor: Elliott D. Wise, Department of Comparative Arts and Letters I organized this research project to better understand Michelangelo’s final work and sculpture, the Rondanini Pietà, which contains an upright Jesus supported from behind by Mary (Fig. 1). Michelangelo labored on the sculpture up until the last days of his life, and […]

Recognizing the Portuguese Immigrants of the 1940s through Photographs by Visual Anthropologist John Collier Jr.

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Anna Giberson and Faculty Mentor: James Swensen, Department of Comparative Arts and Letters This project focused on the study of the photographs of Portuguese immigrants in Massachusetts taken in 1942 by John Collier Jr., an important pioneer in visual anthropology. My goal was to analyze Collier’s photographs in order to raise awareness of the contributions […]

Digital Analysis of Norwegian Tourist Journals: Searching for the Ecological Imaginary

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Andrew Tate and Dr. Christopher Oscarson, Department of Comparative Arts and Letters I wanted to understand how Norwegians’ perceptions of their own country, particularly with regards to ecology, changed between the years 1868 and 1921. The Norwegian Tourist Association (or Den Norske Turistforening) has been publishing yearbooks since 1868. These publications are packed with articles […]

Exploration of the Feminist and Judaic Components in the Art of Bracha L. Ettinger

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Hannah Sandorf and Faculty Mentor: Heather Jensen, Department of Comparative Arts and Letters Bracha L. Ettinger is considered by many contemporary art scholars as one of the most important living artists of our day that addresses cultural trauma transferal. The child of Jewish immigrants who escaped the Lodz Ghetto, Ettinger grew in Israel, becoming interested […]

The Herculaneum Papyri: A Paleographic Approach to the Latin Library

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Jordan Rawlings and Faculty Mentor: Roger Macfarlane, Department of Comparative Arts and Letters In the 1750’s AD, military engineers commissioned by the Bourbon rulers found many black, chalky chunks while excavating an underground Roman villa. Initially these lumps were thought to be coal or other detritus and were thus handled with little care. Later, some […]

Painted Ladies of Rome: The Role of Beauty in Defining Female Excellence

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Cassandra Ball Faculty Mentor: Michael Pope, Comparative Arts and Letters Ancient Rome was a culture obsessed with excellence, and much scholarly ink has been spent identifying and elucidating the intricate matrix of ideal Roman masculinity. Meanwhile, relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to the concept of feminine excellence, or the means by which Roman […]

Early Ecologies: Distance Reading Popular Scientific Journals in Turn-of-the-Century Sweden

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Erin Modersitzki and Dr. Christopher Oscarson, Comparative Arts and Letters Introduction The understanding of art and literature depends on an ability to contextualize it within the discourses from which it emerges. This project combined two important new strands of literary research to flesh out the context in which the idea of ecology emerged in Sweden: […]

From Imposition to Integration: Teotihuacan Influence on Maya Culture, as Evidence by Stela 7 at Piedras Negras

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Nuckols, Catherine From Imposition to Integration: Teotihuacan Influence on Maya Culture, as Evidence by Stela 7 at Piedras Negras Faculty Mentor: Allen J. Christenson, Comparative Arts and Letters Introduction This project was inspired by the Maya monument known as Stela 7, from Piedras Negras, Guatemala (shown at right). This stela, or upright stone carving, portrays […]

Rites and Rituals of the Yaxhilan Queens: Analysis of the Iconography of the Yaxchilan Lintels 24, 25, and 26

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Bentley, Jillian Rites and Rituals of the Yaxchilan Queens: Analysis of the Iconography of the Yaxchilan Lintels 24, 25, and 26 Faculty Mentor: Allen Christianson, Comparative Arts and Letters The ruins of Yaxchilan on the shores of the Usumacinta River, Mexico have some of the only occurrences of iconography that contain women performing sacred bloodletting […]

Unveiling Poetic Patterns in El Titulo de Totonicapan

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DeVictoria, Karen Unveiling Poetic Patterns in El Título de Totonicapán Faculty Mentor: Allen Christenson, Comparative Arts and Letters When the Spanish launched a conquest on the Maya empire in the 16th century, the Maya suffered devastating blows to their livelihood and culture. Perhaps the most injurious effect of this conquest was the loss of the […]