Katherine Tsanoff Brown Lecture Series
The Katherine Tsanoff Brown Lecture Series is made possible through the generous support of The Katherine Brown Fund. The series honors Katherine Tsanoff Brown, a founding member of Rice University's Department of Art History, later the Dean of Undergraduate Affairs, and an ardent supporter of public lectures and visiting scholars in the arts even after her retirement from Rice University in 1989. The inaugural lectures took place in academic year 2017-2018.
2022-2023: Alvia Wardlaw (Texas Southern University), Carol Armstrong (Yale University), Elina Gertsman (Case Western Reserve University)
2021-2022: Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan) and Jennifer Roberts (Harvard University)
2020-2021: Denise Murrell (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Francesco de Angelis (Columbia University), and Yong Cho (University of California, Riverside)
2019-2020: Roxann Prazniak (University of Oregon) and Achim Timmermann (University of Michigan)
2018-2019: Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby (University of California, Berkeley), Timothy Barringer (Yale University), and Cécile Fromont (Yale University)
2017-2018: Robert Nelson (Yale University) and Kellie Jones (Columbia University)
Invited Speakers
Faculty frequently invite outside speakers whose work is relevant to courses they are offering or whose research and publications are important. Speakers may address individual classes or may give a public lecture or both. Course lectures are open to students in class and invited faculty. Public lectures are open to art history faculty, Rice faculty, graduate and undergraduate students and the public. Graduate students are encouraged to attend all public lectures in art history.
Invited Speakers for 2022-2023
Amy Gansell, St. John's University
Frank Goodyear, Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Preetika Rajgariah, Independent Artist
Lovie Olivia, Independent Artist
Masha Salazkina, Concordia University
Francesca Leoni, University of Oxford
Elaine Sullivan, University of California, Santa Cruz
Heather Richards-Rissetto, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Linarejos Moreno, University Complutense de Madrid
Vincent Valdez, Independent Artist
Indira Allegra, Independent Artist
Charles Palermo, College of William and Mary
Joseph Koerner, Harvard University
David Roxburgh, Harvard University
Francesca Leoni, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University
Matthew Melvin-Koushki, University of South Carolina
Invited Speakers for 2021-2022
Heghnar Watenpaugh, University of California, Davis
Talinn Grigor, University of California, Davis
Azra Akšamija, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lisa Fagin Davis, Medieval Academy of America
Martin Passos, Instituto Moreira Salles
Alex Kitnick, Bard College
Saskia Verlaan, Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
Wright Kennedy, Columbia University
David Heyman, Axis Maps
Dan Diffendale, Università di Napoli Federico II
Preston Gaines, Independent Artist
Indira Allegra, Independent Artist
Kristin Huffman, Duke University
Invited Speakers for 2020-2021
Yelena Bailey, State of Minnesota - Department of Education
Danielle Bennett, The Menil Collection
Susan Bielstein, University of Chicago Press
Todd Cronan, Emory University
Maria Fernanda Cardosa, Colombian artist (Australia)
Aimee Froom, The Menil Collection
Scott Hook, Greenfield Elementary School
Margaret MacNamidhe, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Jacob Margolin, independent artist (Houston)
Yuko Miki, Fordham University
Charles Palermo, College of William and Mary
Alfredo Rivera, Grinnell College
Kyle Sweeney, Winthrop University
Ana Maria Tavares, University of São Paulo
Nick Vaughan, independent artist (Houston)
Invited Speakers for 2019-2020
Megan Sullivan, University of Chicago
Fangfang Xu, independent author
Invited Speakers for 2018-2019
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, independent artist (Colombia/Australia)
Roger Wieck, The Morgan Library and Museum
Alex Kitnick, Bard College
Invited Speakers for 2017-2018
Erik Inglis, Oberlin College
Douglas Brine, Trinity University
Margarita Cadenas, independent filmmaker (Venezuela/France)
Jennifer Wild, University of Chicago
Nancy Wicker, University of Mississippi
Rangsook Yoon, Art & History Musuems-Maitland
Gabriela Gamboa, Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, Venezuela
María Isabel Baldasarre, Universidad Nacional de San Martín
Invited Speakers for 2016-2017
Kathryn Rudy, University of St. Andrews (Scotland)
Kathryn Kahn, Northern Illinois University
Sean Nesselrode, New York University
Dorota Biczel, University of Texas at Austin
Nikki Moore, Rice University
Jennifer Stob, Texas State University
John Corbett, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Travis Diehl, Otis College of Art and Design
Joshua Shannon, University of Maryland, College Park
Stephennie Mulder, University of Texas at Austin
Elena Shtromberg, University of Utah
Gavin Delahunty, Dallas Museum of Art
Walter Denny, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Alejandro Vergara, Museo Nacional del Prado
Invited Speakers for 2015-2016
Jane Gillies, Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Ingrid Seyb, Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Isabel Herault, French architect (France)
Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Colombian artist (Australia)
Magdalena Fernandez, Venezuelan artist
David Getsy, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Hashim Sarkis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gustavo Diaz, Argentinian artist Valerie Hanson, Yale University
Phoebe Segal, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
David Saunders, The J. Paul Getty Museum
Betsy Bryan, Johns Hopkins University
Brown Bag Lectures
Brown Bag lectures provide an informal format for the presentation of current research by art history faculty and local curators or graduate students. These noontime discussions are intended for all faculty and graduate students in art history.
Brown Bag Discussions for 2022-2023
Adrienne Rooney, Art History Ph.D. Candidate, Rice University
Yuri Yoshida, Art History Ph.D. Candidate, Rice University
Henry McMahon, Art History Ph.D. Candidate, Rice University
Brown Bag Discussions for 2021-2022
Leo Costello, Associate Professor of Art History, Rice University
Carly Boxer, Post-doctoral Fellow, Rice University
Brown Bag Discussions for 2018-2019
Ruoxin Wang, Art History Ph.D. Student, Rice University
Brown Bag Discussions for 2017-2018
Sarah Rous, Post-doctoral Fellow, Rice University
Sebastian Schmidt, Post-doctoral Fellow, Rice University
Brown Bag Discussions for 2016-2017
Sarah Rous, Post-doctoral Fellow, Rice University
Rex Koontz, Professor of Art and Art History, University of Houston
Brown Bag Discussions for 2015-2016
Alison Weaver, Moody Arts Center, Rice University
Alida Metcalf, Rice University
Jessica Basciano, University of St. Thomas
Conversations in Art History
To facilitate, explore and encourage scholarly traffic across traditional art historical boundaries. There are two formats for the Conversations in Art History: the John and Dominique de Menil Seminar and the Master Classes.
John and Dominique de Menil Seminar
A renowned scholar whose work expands or challenges established ideas in Art History is periodically invited by the department to visit Rice and discuss his/her work. Ideally, the scholar's work transcends individual fields and approaches and is relevant to all art historians. Readings are made available to participating faculty and graduate students ahead of time, which, following introductory comments by the visiting scholar, function as a catalyst for extended seminar-style discussion.
2022-2023: Joseph Leo Koerner (Harvard University), author of Art in a State of Siege, forthcoming.
2019-2020: Rebecca Zorach (Northwestern University), author of The Designs of Nature: Form, Matter, and Making in Early Modern Europe, 2020.
2016-2017: Keith Moxey (Columbia University), author of Visual Time: The Image in History, Duke University Press, 2013.
2015-2016: Griselda Pollock (University of Leeds), author of After-affects/After-images: Trauma and Aesthetic Transformation in the Virtual Feminist Museum, Manchester University Press, 2013.
2013-2014: Alexander Nagel (New York University), author of Medieval Modern. Art out of Time, Thames & Hudson, 2012.
Master Classes
Master Classes are held to encourage an informal conversation between graduate students and faculty members concerning individual fields in art history. A dinner at a faculty member’s house with graduate students is followed by a presentation and discussion about issues, methodologies, and questions, in that faculty member’s field of expertise.
Master Classes for 2016-2017
Spring 2017: Classical Archeology and Art History, Postdoctoral Fellow Sarah Rous
Master Classes for 2015-2016
Fall 2015: Medieval Art and Architecture, Professor Linda Neagley
Spring 2016: Modern European Art, Professor Gordon Hughes
Master Classes for 2014-2015
Fall 2014: Early Modern Art, Professor Diane Wolfthal
Spring 2015: Nineteenth Century European Painting, Professor Leo Costello
Master Classes for 2013-2014
Fall 2013: Greek and Roman Art of the Ancient Mediterranean, Professor John Hopkins
Spring 2014: Art and Architecture of Modern Latin America, Professor Fabiola López-Durán.