Middle Atlantic Symposium

Held annually over two days in March, the Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art (MAS) offers an opportunity for advanced graduate students from universities in the mid-Atlantic region to present their original research to the public, and brings together academic and museum communities in the greater Washington area. Each year a student from the department is among those who present their work at the symposium.

Torso portrait of Nancy Um with arms folded and facing viewer with large artwork in background

The Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (The Center) at the National Gallery of Art are pleased to announce the 56th annual session of the Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art. This year’s symposium will be held Friday and Saturday, March 6-March 7, 2026. Student speakers are invited from American University, Bryn Mawr College, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, Temple University, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina, and the University of Virginia.

The symposium will begin on Friday evening, March 6th, with tea at 5:00pm in the Parren J. Mitchell Arts & Sociology Building Atrium, followed by a 6:00pm keynote in ASY2203. Nancy Um will deliver this year’s George Levitine Lecture hosted by the University of Maryland. Her lecture is titled "On the Past and Future of Indian Ocean Art History." Nancy Um is Associate Director for Research and Knowledge Creation at the Getty Research Institute. She is the author of The Merchant Houses of Mocha: Trade and Architecture in an Indian Ocean Port (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009) and Shipped but not Sold: Material Culture and the Social Protocols of Trade during Yemen’s Age of Coffee (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2017), in addition to studies about trade, art, diplomacy, and gift exchange around the early modern Indian Ocean rim. She is President-Elect of the Historians of Islamic Art Association and serves as a Board Member of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History.

Details about subscription to the dinner following the Levitine Lecture forthcoming.

please note that this list is a draft form, with minor corrections to be expected soon.

On Saturday, March 7th, graduate students will deliver their papers during morning and afternoon sessions at the National Gallery of Art, where the symposium will close with a reception in the West Building Lecture Lobby.

10:15 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Morning Session

West Building Lecture Hall
Welcome by Peter Lukehart, The Center
Moderated by Tess Korobkin, University of Maryland

Chase Helein, American University
Cupid’s Palace: Giulio Romano's Sala di Psiche frescoes and the Palazzo Te as courtly sensorium
Introduced by Kim Butler Wingfield

Flavia Barbarini, Temple University
The Primacy of Disegno and the Commodification of Drawings in Sixteenth-Century Italy
Introduced by Tracy Cooper

Ryan Foley, George Washington University
Longing for the Ghulāmān-e Farangī: European Youths in Seventeenth-century Safavid Painting
Introduced by Mika Natif

Zoe Copeman, University of Maryland
Mis-Understanding the Anatomy of the Part: How One Image Rewrote the Mastectomy Procedure
Introduced by Anthony Colantuono

12:30–2:00 p.m. Lunch
West Building Garden Café Annex

2:00–4:00 p.m. Afternoon Session

West Building Lecture Hall
Welcome and moderated by Kaira M. Cabañas, The Center

Christine Kim Korkmaz, Johns Hopkins
A Victory in Silver: Architectural Representation and Imperial Symbolism under Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909)
Introduced by Ünver Rüstem

Weixin Zhou, University of North Carolina
Rebuilding the City, Building Alternatives: Ideals, Tensions, and Politics in André Lurçat’s Reconstruction of Maubeuge
Introduced by Eduardo de Jesús Douglas

Elnaz Latifpour, University of Virginia
Exceptions and Expectations: Pictorial Carpets and the Question of Authenticity in Southern Iranian Weaving
Introduced by Amanda Phillips

Emily Shoyer, Bryn Mawr College
Isabel Katjaviv's "They Tried to Bury Us" (2018) and the Environmental Impacts of German Colonialism in Namibia
Introduced by TBA

4:00–5:00 p.m. Tea Reception
West Building Lecture Hall Lobby

MAS 2025: Fifty-Fifth Annual Sessions

The Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art are pleased to announce the 55th annual session of the Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art. This year’s symposium will be held Friday and Saturday, February 28-March 1, 2025. Student speakers are invited from Duke University, Emory University, Penn State University, University of Delaware, University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

The symposium will begin on Friday evening, February 28th, with tea at 5:00pm in the Parren J. Mitchell Arts & Sociology Building Atrium, followed by a 6:00pm keynote in ASY2203. E. Carmen Ramos will deliver this year’s George Levitine Lecture hosted by the University of Maryland. Her lecture is titled "Freddy Rodríguez: The Geometry of Freedom." E. Carmen Ramos is chief curatorial and conservation officer at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. She leads the curatorial, conservation, and registrar teams as they serve the nation and beyond through collections development, ground-breaking scholarship, art conservation, and scientific research. Ramos is curating a major exhibition on Dominican-born artist Freddy Rodríguez (1945-2022), opening at the National Gallery in 2027.

Ramos previously served as the acting chief curator and curator of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), where she helped build one of the most significant collections of Latinx art at a museum of U.S. art. She organized award-winning exhibitions including ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now (2020), Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea (2023), Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art (2013) and Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography (2017). In addition to her numerous catalogues, her scholarship appears in American Art, and in books like Picturing Cuba: Art, Culture and Identity on the Island and The Image of the Black in Latin American and Caribbean Art.

The Levitine Lecture will be followed by dinner at Mulligan's Grill and Pub at 7:30pm. If you wish to attend the dinner, please make your dinner reservation here by Thursday, February 13th for the Friday, February 28th dinner. The cost is $50.00 for faculty, staff, and guests, and $27.00 for Graduate students. Checks may be made out to the University of Maryland and delivered to: Dana Persaud, Department of Art History & Archaeology, 1211B Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building, 3834 Campus Drive, College Park, MD 20742

On Saturday, March 1st, graduate students will deliver their papers during morning and afternoon sessions at the National Gallery of Art, where the symposium will close with a reception in the West Building Garden Café.

Register here to attend these sessions

54th Annual Sessions
Saturday, March 1, 2025
10:15 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall
National Gallery of Art

Program

10:15 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Morning Session

West Building Lecture Hall
Welcome by Steven Nelson, The Center
Moderated by Emily Catherine Egan, University of Maryland

Erin Wrightson, University of Pennsylvania
The Human Forest: 16th-Century Brazilwood Extraction and Contemporary Legacies
Introduced by Sarah M. Guerin

Megan Baker, University of Delaware
Drawing Kinship: Pastel, Whiteness, and the Aesthetic Work of Colonial Authority
Introduced by Jennifer Van Horn

Amy Orner, Pennsylvania State University
Visions of Empire in Edinburgh’s New Town
Introduced by Robin Thomas

Hossein Nakhaei, University of Pittsburgh
A Composite of Fragments: Removal, Displacement, and Illusion in Museum Displays of Persian Luster Tiles
Introduced by Sahar Hosseini

12:30–2:00 p.m. Lunch/Break

2:00–4:00 p.m. Afternoon Session

West Building Lecture Hall
Welcome and moderated by Kaira M. Cabañas, The Center

Raquel Belden, Emory University
Fashioning Modernist Painting: Representations of Hand Fans in Marie Laurencin’s Art
Introduced by Todd Cronan

Brandee Newkirk, Duke University
Under Advisement: New Negro Women and the Black Beauty Bodily Aesthetic
Introduced by Jasmine Cobb

Drew Lynch, Virginia Commonwealth University
The Diasporic Archive and the Reimagining of Memory in the Art of Faith Ringgold and Simone Leigh
Introduced by Tobias Wofford

Haojian Cheng, University of Maryland
Panorama of Mount Lu and Zhang Daqian’s Taiwanese Period (1976–1983)
Introduced by Jason Kuo

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