Each year, Duke University awards Benenson Awards in the Arts, which provide funding for arts-centered projects proposed by undergraduates, including graduating seniors. This year, the Student Arts Award Committee awarded prizes to fifteen students for creative projects spanning film, theater, creative writing, music, dance, and visual art. read more about Announcing the 2025 Benenson Award Winners »
Stephanie M. HohliosAssistant Professor of Art History Flagler CollegeThursday, April 174:00-5:30 pmA266, Bay 10, Smith WarehouseLecture Title: Stratified Modernity: Labor and the Regional Environment in Contemporary Japanese Art This talk emerges out of a chapter to be published in the multi-author volume titled Missing Bodies’ Embodied Histories: Extraordinary Lives of Ordinary Women in Postwar Japan. The chapter examines global-facing arts activism as undertaken by women… read more about Hohlios Visiting Lecture & Professional Develoment Workshop »
“Bringing Beauty into Life, Again: How Soviet Workers Discovered Aesthetics after Stalin”Serguei Alex. OushakineProfessor of Anthropology and Slavic Languages and LiteraturesPrinceton UniversityThursday, April 10, 202512:00-1:30 pm, Smith Warehouse, A101, Bay 12As early as October 1953, seven months after Stalin's death, Izvestia, the second major Soviet newspaper, complained about the color deficiency in Soviet homes, streets, and cities: "Our people are rightly concerned that the… read more about Art History Lecture Series: Serguei Alex. Oushakine »
Alejandra Gonzalez-Acosta is one of 29 students to receive the 2025 Forever Duke Student Leadership Award.Presented annually by Duke Alumni Engagement and Development, the award recognizes graduating students within Duke’s undergraduate, graduate and professional schools for their outstanding leadership and dedication to fostering a strong sense of community at Duke.Gonzalez-Acosta, a Psychology major with minors in Visual Arts and Computational Biology, was nominated by faculty and peers for her leadership in the… read more about Psychology Senior Awarded for Outstanding Leadership »
The Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies (AAHVS) at Duke established the Anti-Racism and Social Justice Initiative in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, amidst the recognition on a national scale that institutions were called upon to respond to increasing social and cultural tensions. The initial goal of the initiative was to confront and dismantle systemic racism within academia and the arts at Duke, reflecting the department’s commitment to fostering inclusivity and justice through concrete actions… read more about 2025 Dean's Award: AAHVS Anti-Racism and Social Justice Initiative »
“Summoning Pearl Harbor”Alexander NemerovCarl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and HumanitiesStanford UniversityMonday, March 245:00 PM, A266, Bay 10, Smith WarehouseHow do words make the past appear? In what way does the historian summon bygone events? What is this kind of remembering, and for whom do we recall the dead? In this meditation on the past, art historian Alexander Nemerov delves into what it means to recall a significant event—Pearl Harbor—and how descriptions of images can summon it back to… read more about Art History Lecture Series: Alexander Nemerov »
Showcasing the work of Duke Visual Arts students, the Student Art Exhibition opened on February 4 with a well-attended reception and runs through February 18 in the Student Creative Space in A112, Bay 12, Smith Warehouse. The exhibition features artwork from students taking Visual Arts classes during Fall 24 semester in such media as painting, video, printmaking, photography, sculpture, graphic arts,… read more about Student Art Exhibition »
Map of Reflections, a new limited edition CD in 4-sided Digipack with accompanying Zine and Polaroids by professor Bill Seaman and Monika Bugajny has been released on Elm Records. All music is written, recorded, and mixed by Seaman and Bugajny. Additional synth samples are by Stephen Spera, mastering by James E Armstrong, and photography by James Osland, with additional photography by John Supko and Mateusz Żaboklicki. Seaman is professor of art, art history and visual studies, whose work… read more about "Map of Reflections" CD By Bill Seaman »
Map of Reflections, a new limited edition CD in 4-sided Digipack with accompanying Zine and Polaroids by professor Bill Seaman and Monika Bugajny has been released on Elm Records. All music is written, recorded, and mixed by Seaman and Bugajny. Additional synth samples are by Stephen Spera, mastering by James E Armstrong, and photography by James Osland, with additional photography by John Supko and Mateusz Żaboklicki. Seaman is professor of art, art history and visual studies, whose work… read more about "Map of Reflections" CD By Bill Seaman »
Pedro Lasch: Entre líneas / Between the Lines, the first museum retrospective exhibition of associate professor of the practice Pedro Lasch’s large body of work, was installed at the Laboratorio Arte Alameda / Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL) in Mexico City, and ran fr om November 22, 2023 - May 19, 2024.While renowned for his pedagogical and socially engaged artworks, this exhibition is centered on the presentation of thirteen key series from the 1990s to the present that include painting, drawing,… read more about Retrospective Exhibition: Pedro Lasch: Entre líneas / Between the Lines »
Seven Trinity College of Arts & Sciences faculty members have been awarded funding from the Undergraduate Program Enhancement Fund. Backed by Duke’s Provost’s Office, the fund supports innovative proposals that enhance undergraduate experiential learning.Owen Astrachan, Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, will design a course called AI, Algorithms, and APIs: Great Ideas of Computer Science (Redux). He envisions the course as an alternative introduction to the major, with the goal of making it the one course… read more about Seven Trinity Faculty Awarded Funding to Enhance Undergraduate Programs »
Reflecting back on 2023-2024, we have much to be grateful for and celebrate even while we also were faced with difficult moments. Above all, we said goodbye to our long-time colleague, Prof. Hans Van Miegroet, who died suddenly in February. Hans was the core to our initial digital initiatives in the program and was the leader of the Duke Art and Law Markets Initiative. The latter complemented a course that Hans gave almost every semester on art markets that routinely filled with students from all across the university. His… read more about Year in Review 2023-24 »
Analyst, IT - Digital Humanities SpecialistThis position provides digital humanities teaching and research support as well as technical development and consulting for the Digital Art History & Visual Culture Research Lab (DAHVC) and related labs in Trinity College (ISS Lab; XR Studio lab), a research team and lab housed in Smith Warehouse at Duke University. Emphasis is on methodological workflows, project management, and presentation strategies for existing and newly developing courses and research… read more about Open Position: Digital Humanities Specialist »
As a young Duke art history professor in 1979, Caroline Bruzelius convinced officials at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to let her climb scaffolding during a renovation to get a close look at the architecture.It was, she thought, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She’d return many times over the next seven years until the work was completed in 1986.Decades passed – her work on Paris Cathedral was published in 1987, and she moved on to other projects. Then in 2019, Notre Dame suffered a devastating fire. The cathedral… read more about At Notre Dame Cathedral, a Hidden History Revealed »
Professor of the practice Beverly McIver’s solo exhibition, Beverly McIver: Entangled, opened at the Berry Campbell Gallery in New York on October 17 and ran through November 16, 2024. This is McIver’s first exhibition there since the gallery began representing her last year. Entangled is comprised of eighteen recent paintings created in the artist’s North Carolina studio with subjects ranging from reflective self-portraits that capture her… read more about Beverly McIver: Entangled »
Physics major Nik Narain has been obsessed with the brain since elementary school. “I’d spend most of my time either reading, researching, watching or creating videos about the brain,” he confesses. As a first-year student at Duke, Narain couldn’t decide which career to pursue: scientist or physician. He resolved the issue by taking the class he wanted in his rearview mirror the fastest: Fundamentals of Physics. That course changed his entire trajectory, and while Narain acknowledges that subjects like… read more about Mind, Matter & Visual Media »
An election year brings the return of a distinctive course merging media-making with the study of women in politics. In GSF 225S, Women and the Political Process, students get a hands-on approach to understanding how gender and politics interact, all while equipping them with skills in media production. Taught by Lauren Henschel and Rachel Gelfand, both instructors of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, and offered every two years, the course is especially relevant during election cycles, when… read more about Gender, Politics and the Magic of Media, All in a Single Classroom »
Screen/Society--Man on a Ledge – Filmmaking above the Cinematic Abyss | Public Talk by Guy MaddinNovember 7, 7:00pmSpeaker(s): Guy Maddin Director Guy Maddin presents a talk on the topic of centennials. Event Link and Full Description read more about Filmmaking above the Cinematic Abyss | Nov. 7 Public Talk by Guy Maddin »
Jenny Lion’s life has been a study in peeking behind the curtain. The new assistant professor of the practice of Art, Art History & Visual Studies was trained as a professional dancer but found her passion in moving image. She soon found those moving images could be a canvas on which to explore complex societal issues. Her work in film and video is deeply connected to activism, often incorporating cinematic, participatory and experimental techniques.Rather than seeing the dancer and activist as opposites, Lion… read more about Jenny Lion Peeks Behind the Curtains of American Landscapes »
Angelina Lucento’s admiration for post-Soviet spaces can be traced back to the 1992 summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The assistant professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies cut her teeth in the world of women’s competitive gymnastics at a time when the newly dissolved USSR had reconfigured into the Unified Team — and continued to dominate the sport. Lucento’s specialty was the uneven bars, where the teenager utilized her physical strength to execute bold transitions navigating from bar to… read more about Angelina Lucento & Post-Soviet Spaces »
“I spent most of my time preening feathers with tweezers and Q-tips,” recalls Andrew Griebeler, assistant professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies (AAHVS).As an undergraduate at the University of Puget Sound, he worked with the Wing & Tail Image Collection at the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History before graduating with degrees in Biology and Art History. Griebeler has always been captivated with the natural world — thanks to his mother, a biology teacher, who often took the family birding.… read more about Andrew Griebeler Is Deeply Rooted in Medieval Art and the Natural World »
This September, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University premiered Processing Systems: Numbers by Sherrill Roland, featuring new works of art and research materials by artist Sherrill Roland from his ongoing exploration of the criminal justice system and inspired by the cases of people wrongfully convicted in North Carolina. Roland’s interdisciplinary practice deals with concepts of innocence, identity, and community, reimagining their social and political implications in the context of the… read more about New Body of Work by Sherrill Roland to Debut at Nasher Museum »
Kristine Stiles contributed an essay titled “Switching Off” on the infamous Australian artist Mike Parr, best known for his dangerous performances and his drawings, printmaking, and paintings. Stiles begins by quoting Parr: “I enjoy being someone that I’m not.” She responds: “Who is the someone that you are not?” Parr answers that in drawing “language ceases” and he “switches off.” Stiles identifies this “dissociated state…as a critical coping and survival mechanism for enduring the psychic, physical pain and trauma” that… read more about Kristine Stiles on Mike Parr »
“I’ve always loved the arts,” Alejandra Gonzalez-Acosta confesses. The senior dabbled in a bit of everything growing up, from singing and dancing to acting and drawing, but decided to take her passion a bit more seriously in high school — and did she ever. With seven theater productions and seven semesters of art classes under her belt, Gonzalez-Acosta wanted to bring those interests with her to Duke. The Psychology major feels she’s achieved the goal twofold through a Visual Arts minor and her involvement with… read more about Canvas of Care: Visual Arts Enhancing Healthcare »
Kristine Stiles has contributed one of the two major essays for the volume,Tomas Schmit: Werke, Texte, Dokumente/Works, Texts, Documents 1962-1970, just published in Berlin by n.b.k. along with an essay coauthored by the Romanian-born curator Marius Babias and the Hungarian curator Krisztina Hunya, Project Manager, for the 19th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. This 566-page book is the first major publication on Schmit, a renowned German artist, who created over two… read more about Kristine Stiles on Tomas Schmit »
When Victoria Szabo began working in the digital humanities in the 1990s, the Internet was just emerging, and inaccessible information was suddenly accessible. Rare texts and images that were seen primarily in libraries are now widely available. That prompted scholars to learn digital skills such as coding and programming. Duke’s arts and humanities faculty members harnessed this momentum in a variety of ways, launching a series of digital, long-term arts and history projects. Szabo, a research professor in the… read more about Digital Humanities on the Rise »
