Department of the History of Art

Undergraduate art history students take trip to Chicago conference

kelvin — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 07:13:21 +0000

Undergraduate art history students take trip to Chicago conference kelvin Tue, 04/07/2026 - 00:13 More Press Releases Jeremy Gutierrez, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications April 07, 2026

From February 18-21, the College Art Association (CAA) held its 114th annual conference in Chicago, promoting scholarship and teaching in the arts. UC Riverside’s art history department, using its student success funds, sent six undergraduate students to the conference along with professor Yong Cho and department chair Susan Laxton. According to third-year student Kira Iokibe, the CAA Annual Conference is a place for professionals, artists, students, and scholars to gather in one place to share, exchange, and gain knowledge across countless fields of art, art history, and broader topics on pedagogy and current issues.

“For the art history field specifically, this conference allows for a discussion of topics not typically discussed in most university settings,” Iokibe said. “These can include sessions about examining the discipline of art history itself through a critical lens, or a deeper dive into specific areas of art historical study, such as Indigenous, Pacific Islander, and other minority groups and their visual culture.”

In addition to the degree-relevant information the students gained, the conference also afforded them a chance to build practical career skills that aren’t often as accessible to undergraduate students.

“Some important skills I gained by attending this conference were networking, how to ask better questions, and learning new ways to view research,” fourth-year Katarina Brown said. “As an undergraduate, I wouldn’t say I have many opportunities to see professionals in a non-working environment. It was nice being able to speak freely.”

Fourth-year Sandra Martus agreed, saying, “Attending professional conferences allows students to better understand and experience professional environments, and this conference allowed us to attend sessions specific to our field in art history, where we each individually study and make valuable connections for grad school and our careers.”

The funds that sponsored the event enabled the group to attend the conference and covered the costs of their flight, hotel stay, and access to select museums. Not worrying about the financial cost enabled the students to fully enjoy their trip, both during and outside the conference.

“We gained a bonding experience by traveling together,” second-year Emily McCartney said. “We see each other often for AHUA (Art History Undergraduate Association) events, but this trip provided a shared experience that I hope will keep us in contact with each other for our future professional development.”

Professor Cho added, “I thought the trip was wonderful. It is rare for undergraduate students to have the opportunity to attend a major international conference such as the CAA. I am so grateful that the CHASS Student Success Funds made it possible to financially support our majors to have this opportunity. I know that many colleagues at the conference were surprised to learn that our undergraduates received some funds to participate in the conference — they really admired this effort.”

FEATURED PHOTO. The students speak with Dr. Seunghee Oh, assistant curator of Chinese art at the Art Institute of Chicago.

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UC Riverside Scholar Selected for Elite NHC Summer Residency

rholguin — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 22:20:07 +0000

UC Riverside Scholar Selected for Elite NHC Summer Residency rholguin Thu, 03/26/2026 - 15:20 More Press Releases March 26, 2026

Demonstrating a loud and clear commitment to advancing its world-class research enterprise, the University of California, Riverside (UCR) announces that Susan Laxton, Associate Professor of Modernism and the History of Photography and Chair of the Department of the History of Art, has been selected for the esteemed National Humanities Center (NHC) Summer Residency program. Laxton will be one of 40 participants. Costs will be covered by the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, which has been a NHC Institutional Member since 2022.

The NHC Summer Residency Program is an exclusive, four-week fellowship designed to provide exceptional humanities scholars with a highly concentrated period of supported research and intellectual exchange. Held in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, the program is uniquely tailored to help scholars jump-start or make substantial progress on significant academic projects while fostering synergistic discussions with peers from across the country. Laxton’s project title is “Cut Together: Surrealist Photomontage and the Structure of Dissent.”

"For a historian of surrealism, the chance to think and write alongside colleagues equally absorbed in their work has its own dream logic,” Laxton said. “I am deeply grateful to the Dean, the Center for Ideas and Society, and the National Humanities Center for making it real."

“Our deliberate investments in National Humanities Center programs lead our research university enterprise,” said Daryle Williams, Professor of History and Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. “When we commit resources to placing exceptional scholars like Professor Laxton in these competitive residencies, we see direct returns in the form of accelerated, field-defining publications and a magnified UCR presence on the national stage. It is an investment in the intellectual capital that drives the humanities forward.”

Championing Field-Defining Scholarship

Laxton brings a wealth of expertise and a distinguished record of scholarship to the NHC. A Ph.D. graduate of Columbia University, her research explores the alternative art practices of the 20th-century European avant-gardes, with a profound focus on photography, photomontage, and chance-based processes. She is the author of Surrealism at Play (Duke University Press, 2019) and is currently developing a new manuscript titled “Cut Together: Surrealist Photomontage and the Structure of Dissent.” Her field-defining scholarship has already been supported by prestigious fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Hellman Foundation, and the Borchard Foundation. Her work frequently appears in leading academic journals such as October and Critical Inquiry.

Elevating UCR’s Humanities Research

Laxton’s upcoming residency highlights UCR’s aggressive, strategic investment in faculty research and the university’s ongoing commitment to shaping the national conversation in the humanities. By supporting faculty through high-impact initiatives like the NHC Summer Residency, UCR ensures its scholars have the dedicated time, resources, and intellectual community required to produce groundbreaking, field-defining publications.

The Center for Ideas and Society (CIS) at UCR plays a vital role in championing these research endeavors, fostering an environment where humanistic inquiry thrives. Katharine Henshaw, Executive Director of CIS, is an alumna of the NHC humanities center director workshop and understands its importance.

“Professor Laxton’s selection for the NHC Summer Residency is a testament to the high caliber of research emerging from our College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences,” said Jeanette Kohl, Co-Director of the Center for Ideas and Society and Professor of Art History. “An internationally acclaimed art historian of photography and the current chair of her department, Professor Laxton will benefit greatly from the dedicated time the residency provides to focus on her research and writing. This opportunity will accelerate her next publication and bring an important scholarly intervention to the field all the more quickly.”

"Prof. Laxton’s Residency in the National Humanities Center’s summer program reflects a valued colleague’s advancement of the Center for Ideas and Society mission,” added Dylan Rodríguez, Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Ideas and Society. “As a signature University of California research center supporting the interdisciplinary humanities at the UCR campus, the work of CIS is strengthened and advanced through Prof. Laxton’s national recognition by the NHC.”

For more information about UCR’s Center for Ideas and Society and its ongoing research initiatives, please visit ideasandsociety.ucr.edu.

A Sustained Partnership with NHC

CHASS has consistently invested in placing both emerging and established scholars in premier NHC programs, ensuring the university remains at the forefront of humanities research, pedagogy, and public engagement. The college’s rich historical footprint at the NHC includes recent and ongoing milestones such as the 2025 Summer Residency, sustained NHC Graduate Student Residencies, participation in the 2024 Being Human Festival, the 2025 Humanities in Practice institute for emerging professionals, and the 2022 Podcasting the Humanities program.

"Institutional sponsors play a crucial role in our mission to support high-caliber humanities research, and our relationship with UC-Riverside has allowed us to support the work of some amazing faculty and emerging scholars," says NHC Vice President for Scholarly Programs Martha Kelly. "We look forward to having Professor Laxton with us and helping her make progress on her project. We also expect that, like most scholars who come to the Center, she will forge connections that enrich her work and benefit the greater UC-Riverside community well into the future."

About the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS)

CHASS is the largest college at the University of California, Riverside. CHASS is home to three Pulitzer Prize winners, two U.S. Poet Laureates, over 11,000 students, 600 faculty members, and more than 20 departments and programs, fostering a diverse interdisciplinary environment where critical thinking, innovation, and social responsibility thrive. Through initiatives like the Dean’s Research Impact Initiative, the College continues to redefine the role of the humanities, arts, and social sciences in the 21st century at one of the world’s premier R1 research universities. Learn more at chass.ucr.edu

FEATURED PHOTO by Melanie Ramiro

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Department of the History of Art

Retired CHASS History of Art professor funds new student research travel grant

kelvin — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 19:29:46 +0000

Retired CHASS History of Art professor funds new student research travel grant kelvin Mon, 07/19/2021 - 12:29 More Press Releases Mina Shiratsuchi, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications July 19, 2021

UCR’s Department of the History of Art has created a new student research travel grant. Started in 2021, the Françoise Forster-Hahn Graduate Travel Award will allow students to extend their research experience outside of campus and fund their trips to research to any country.

The grant is sponsored by a former UCR History of Art professor, Françoise Forster-Hahn, who retired after 35 years of instruction and research. Forster-Hahn taught 19th and 20th century European art history and helped establish the UCR/California Museum of Photography in Riverside. In the past, Forster-Hahn also made contributions to the Richard G. Carrott Travel Award, which supports one History of Art graduate or undergraduate student to travel.

“I always felt that it was essential if you do study the visual arts, that you go and actually look at what you study,” Forster-Hahn said. “I encourage students to study culture in general and become knowledgeable about other countries, cultures, and languages.

The $1800 Françoise Forster-Hahn Graduate Travel Award will be presented each spring quarter used to fund independent research traveling during the summer. Although it is primarily for graduate students, undergraduate students who demonstrate an interest in historical art and commitment to research through an honors thesis or research project are also encouraged to apply.

The inaugural award has been awarded to Homer Charles Arnold, a History of Art Ph.D. student researching new media, and emergent globalism of the 1960s and 1970s. Arnold is planning on using the research funds for archival research at the Smithsonian.

UCR students can be awarded one of three travel awards in the History of Art department. Award recipients are able to use the funds to go to any country and connect with established professions from the region.

“Art history research depends upon the careful study of artworks. Every art object is unique—imbued with qualities that an illustration or digital image cannot capture,” said Jason Weems, UCR History of Art assistant professor and chair. “We prepare our students to produce top-notch scholarships. This means enabling them to study artworks in-person. Gifts such as that of Professor Forster Hahn make it possible.”

“You start engaging with people in your field and it really pushes you to be enterprising in a way,” said Camilla Querin, History of Art Ph.D. candidate. “You are forced to take the chance and make the best use of your time there.”

Querin researches the 1960s-1980s Brazilian art for her dissertation. She was able to travel to Brazil in 2018 with funds provided by the Richard G. Carrott Travel Award and again in 2019, with financial support from the Center for Ideas and Societies Humanities Graduate Student Research grant. According to Querin, traveling to Brazil provided essential field work including conducting in-person interviews and accessing archives for her dissertation.

“Going to Oaxaca changed a lot about how I went about writing my thesis because up until this point, it was a lot of theory,” said Angela Lessing, the 2018 Barbara B. Brink Award winner. “Without this experience, I would not have been able to intimately understand or comprehend what I had been researching. It seemed very superficial until I was able to go.”

Read more about the Françoise Forster-Hahn Graduate Travel Award.

To learn more about the Department of the History of Art, visit https://arthistory.ucr.edu/

Françoise Forster-Hahn
Credit: UCR History of Art Department

FEATURED PHOTO. Camilla Querin.
Camilla Querin, a History of Art Ph.D. candidate, used a research travel grant to visit the studio of artist Paulo Bruscky, pictured above, in Recife, Brazil.

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Department of the History of Art

Honoring the paintings of the past

kelvin — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 21:54:26 +0000

Honoring the paintings of the past kelvin Fri, 01/24/2020 - 13:54 More Press Releases Melissa Sagun, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing & Communications January 24, 2020

Cynthia Neri Lewis, Ph.D Candidate in UC Riverside’s Department of the History of Art, was selected as an emerging student to present her research at the second annual Getty Graduate Symposium. The symposium will be held Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020, at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

The Getty Graduate Symposium highlights the high-caliber art historical thinking that is taking place all over California. The event will include nine individual presentations, as well as panel discussions, question-and-answer sessions, and faculty mentor moderators. Participating universities include Stanford, Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Southern California.

“I’m excited to be interacting with other graduate students who are also in the midst of their writing,” Lewis said. “It’s a chance where we can be open-minded before coming to our conclusions. I’m interested to see how the conversations will go in terms of the type of feedback and questions I will get, particularly in regards to the decolonizing and indigenizing methods I have employed in this chapter of my dissertation."

As part of the symposium, the Getty asks university art departments to nominate their most promising students to give a formal presentation on some aspect of their research. At UCR, Lewis was selected to present her research, “Native Painting as a Usable Past: the Index of American Design California Mission Project (1936-1942)” Through case studies and research, Lewis has demonstrated how the Index-created archive and federally-sponsored art “restorations” have influenced our contemporary understandings of both the “mission motifs” and the Native cultures that produced them.

“Before I entered UCR in the fall of 2016, I had already been studying the art of the California missions in general,” Lewis said. “I was working primarily with 18th-century oil paintings that had been sent to the missions from workshops in Mexico City.”

When Lewis started her research with Jason Weems, Professor of Art History, she oriented her work in a different lens. Weems encouraged her to think more about the federal art projects during the time of the New Deal (1933-1939), such as the Index of American Design.

“I started to think more about something I had seen in the San Gabriel Mission, where I’m a board member of the museum,” Lewis said. “One item was a hand-painted watercolor rendering of the state of California and all the missions that were visited by the Index. They sought to define the nation’s cultural identity and provide inspiration for modern art that would be distinctly American. That they would find the California missions to be one of the most promising sources for a national art during the New Deal era, given the United States' conflicted relationship with its Spanish, Mexican and Native American roots, is the unique situation I am investigating.”

“This is a real look at public policy at the time and what it means for us today,” said Millagros Peña, Professor Sociology and Ethnic Studies, and the Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. “Art historians help us think about decisions made by the government to invest in art documentation and recovery, which shows the complicated and critical understanding of who we are as a nation and our relationships with native people. In many ways, they reach into the past, help us self-reflect, and tap into our inner conscience in order to move forward in the future.”

As a space for innovative and groundbreaking research, the Getty Research Institute moved forward with it’s philosophy to engage with exemplary scholars in art history and graduate level research. The initiative was to create a high-level symposium, hosted by the Getty, that would highlight the work that was taking place in art history departments and programs across the state of California. The conversation included leaders from various UC’s with the intent to give visibility not only to scholars, but the departments and programs they come from as well.

“For our department, this gives us the chance to display the kinds of research opportunities, types of mentorships, and quality of education we offer,” Weems said. “ We can demonstrate the way in which our faculty and art programs are contributing to the study of art history, locally, nationally, and internationally. This is a tremendous opportunity for us because out of the eight departments in California that offer the Ph.D., ours is certainly the youngest out of all the programs.”

Camilla Querin, last year’s candidate, felt honored to represent the art history department and UC Riverside at the first Getty Graduate Symposium. She notes that this was an excellent opportunity to present her research in such an important venue for the study and discussion of art.

“When I participated, I had just defended my prospectus, therefore it was a great way to present my project to a larger public of scholars and test my argument, its appeal, as well as my presentation skills,” Querin said. “The fact that UCR was selected as one of the universities to participate in the Getty Graduate Symposium positions the art history department within a larger academic network, which can foster positive exchanges and future collaborations.”

FEATURED PHOTO. Photo courtesy of Cynthia Neri Lewis.
Doctoral candidate and art history graduate student Cynthia Neri Lewis is set to present her research at the annual Getty Graduate Symposium on February first.

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More than a hobby

kelvin — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 18:46:55 +0000

More than a hobby kelvin Tue, 09/10/2019 - 11:46 More Press Releases Hannah Croft, Student Writer/CHASS Marketing and Communications September 10, 2019

Monique Veloz has been creating art her entire life. Painting is more than a hobby for Veloz, it's a way of expressing emotion and giving back.

"There's not one form of art, there are multiple forms," Veloz said. "Everybody needs an outlet. Whether it’s poetry, art or music, whatever makes you feel better about yourself or gets you through your situation."

Veloz is an Academic Personnel Analyst within UC Riverside’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, who uses oil paint as a creative outlet. Veloz has created more than 70 original works. Some of her favorites include the "Beautifully Broken" paintings, a series of ten paintings that became her way of expressing emotions after a personal loss, and her "San Gabriel Enslavement" and "Dance For My Ancestors" paintings, created to pay homage to her Serrano and Mexican heritage.

Veloz's favorite piece is currently "Nichole," an oil painting created for a family friend experiencing personal struggles. The piece is intended to showcase the power and strength of womanhood, and alongside her other works, uniquely reflects powerful emotions, messages and history.

"Art is a way to express yourself, and is a way to steer your emotions," Veloz said. "All of my emotions come out through my art. You may have an image in your mind, and then when you start painting it turns out completely different. I like to say that the canvas talks to you, because sometimes things may not flow properly, and you think you'll go back and fix it but you take a step back to look at it and that’s what it was supposed to be."

Veloz has displayed her works in many art shows and galas. Last year, she was featured in an online magazine and four art shows. She sold an original piece at a recent "Pancakes and Booze," a premier world-traveling, pop-up art show.

Veloz strives to bring art to the community through her shows and donations, and has donated art pieces to the local Riverside Community Arts Association. She was also offered a position to teach a children's art class for the Inland Empire Latino Art Association, an organization that offers free dance classes, art classes and other children’s programs to the local community. She also donated two original paintings to the association.

"I just feel like, giving back is something I want to do," said Veloz. "My way to contribute is me donating so they can continue the work that they’re doing. It’s really big to give back where I can. I’m not able to give money, but I can donate a piece that can help them raise money and to me you need to give back to the kids."

Veloz has continued painting with her family, and has influenced her nieces to start painting by encouraging them to express themselves through art. She is continuously influencing and being influenced by them, and continues to find new inspiration for works to display at shows and on social media through her time in CHASS.

"UCR has definitely kept me inspired," Veloz said. "My departments are Art, Art History, Music and Creative Writing, and when I see what the professors are doing it keeps me motivated to keep going."

Veloz plans to continue her art, and hopes to one day exhibit her art in New York. Her ultimate goal is to hold an art show in Europe, and to be on display in France or Spain.

Follow Monique Veloz @monique.veloz on Instagram or at moniqueveloz.com.

Veloz has been featured in an online magazine and four art shows.
Photos courtesy of Monique Veloz

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