The Department of Art History celebrates Ph.D. student Shane Harless as a recipient of the James T. Wagoner ’29 Foreign Study Scholarship. This award will allow Shane to travel to Italy to conduct extensive field research for his dissertation project, which focuses upon the Eucharistic devotion of Clarissan nuns in trecento Italy and the manner in which cloistered communities participated in the solemnities from the remote location of their choir. By analyzing the spatial experience, architectural layout, and painted embellishment of extant nuns’ choirs throughout the region, this study attempts to glean further insight into how cloistered viewers sought access to the body of Christ through images, thereby transforming their enclosed prayer chambers into prime resources for ocular communion.
The Wagoner Foreign Study Scholarship is given by Rice University’s Graduate Council to support strong travel proposals to students who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and promise in their research.
Shane Harless specializes in late medieval Italian art and architecture. He holds a master’s degree in art history from Tulane University and a master’s degree in theological studies from Vanderbilt University.