Alumni Updates

Graduate Alumni

Gamble Madsen completed and defended her dissertation, "Psalm 109 and the Medieval Mind: Visions of the Godhead with Special Emphasis on the Commentary of Peter Lombard," in 2004. She has since taught courses at Occidental College and Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California.

With a dissertation titled, "Defending Russia: Russian History and Pictorial Narratives of the 'Patriotic War,' 1812-1912," Andrew Nedd received the Ph.D. in 2005. His dissertation addresses the intersection of national identity and culture in Russian artistic representations of the Patriotic War of 1812. Andrew shows that the visual narrative of the events of 1812 was inextricably linked to Russia's search for national identity and helped to form competing definitions of "Russianess."

Stacey Loughrey Sloboda completed her Ph.D. in 2004 with a dissertation titled, "Making China: Design, Empire, and Aesthetics in Britain, 1745-1851." Supervised by Karen Lang, the dissertation explores the aesthetic and social roles of chinoiserie design in relation to cultures of imperialism in Britain. Reinterpreting a style that has been conventionally and negatively read as feminine, exotic, and marginal, Stacey's research demonstrates how each of these values was a central part of British aesthetic philosophy and artistic practice. Stacey served as visiting lecturer in the department during the 2004-05 academic year. In fall 2005, Stacey joined the faculty of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale as assistant professor of art history.

Stacey Uradomo received a Ph.D. in 2005 with a dissertation titled, "Legacies: Family Memories, History, and Identity in Japanese American Art." The dissertation examines the work of three sanei (third generation) Japanese American artists: Roger Shimomura, Tomie Arai, and Lynne Yamamoto. Stacey argues that these artists draw upon family memories in the form of diaries, photographs, and oral histories, respectively, in order to interrogate the complex relationship between memory, history, and Japanese American identity.

Starleen K. Meyer (Ph.D., art history, 1998) collaborates in didactic and outreach activities at the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan, Italy (www.museobagattivalsecchi.org), one of Europe's most important historic house museums, as well as caring for its Web site. She gave a talk at the conference, “Musifications," held at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, UK, in April 2005. With Italy as its setting, the conference aimed to explore the relationship between collections in domestic residences and collections absorbed into art galleries and museums. Her talk, "The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan: a Historical Historic House Museum," examined the museological choices that determined the formation of the museum.  Further information about the conference may be found at the conference Web site (www.art.man.ac.uk/ARTHIST/forum/musification.html) or from the organizer, Dr. Suzy Butters, Mftssbb@fs1.go.man.ac.uk. For further information about the museum, or to arrange for a personalized tour of the museum, Dr. Meyer would be happy to hear from you by email: promo@museobagattivalsecchi.org.

Starleen K. Meyer was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honors in Fine Art and a minor in philosophy in 1980 from the Loma Linda University in California. She received her Master of Arts Degree in art history in 1983 from the University of California at Riverside, having written, "The So-Called Mausoleum of Galla Placidia." During these studies, she received various awards and honors, primary among which was the Marius de Brabant Fellowship for Scholastic Excellence on the Graduate Level. There followed a few years during which she worked in Los Angeles, first in an art gallery and then for Alitalia Airlines. Having returned to graduate school at the University of Southern California in 1990, she received numerous awards and honors, primary among which were J. Paul Getty Scholarships, Teaching Assistant of the Year Awards, membership in the Phi Kappa Phi All-University Academic Honor Society, a USC dissertation grant, and the Fulbright-Hayes Grant that allowed her to do original research in Rome in order to complete her Philosophical Doctor dissertation in 1998 on "The Papal Series in the Sistine Chapel: The Embodiment, Vesting and Framing of Papal Power.” Her translations from Italian into English feature in Historic Interiors (2001), Museum International (2001), Open Museum Journal (2002), The 19th-century (2003), Case-museo a Milano (2005) and Architetti nel mediterraneo (2007), as well as at the museum of Reggio Calabria, Palazzo Langosco in Vercelli and the Sforza Castle, San Giovanni in Conca, the church of Sant’Ambrogio and the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum all four in Milan. She has given talks at many international conferences. Her publications appear in the Bollettino of the Vatican museums (2000); Sisto IV. Le Arti a Roma nel Primo Rinascimento (2000); Acts of DEMHIST (ICOM’s International Committee for Historic House Museums, with which she also collaborated, 2000-2003); Pius Secundus Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini poeta laureatus Pontifex Maximus (2007); Andrea Bregno e Giovanni Santi. La cultura adriatica del Rinascimento (2007); Nativit�� e presepi nell'arte e nella tradizione a Milano e in Lombardia (2007); Confraternitas (Fall 2007; another forthcoming); Andrea Bregno. Il senso della forma nella cultura artistica del Rinascimento (2008); La Societ�� del Giardino: un percorso illustrato (2009, which she also curated); and La forma del Rinascimento (2010) on the papal series; dress and liturgical vestments; physiognomy and portraiture; Renaissance Italian art, architecture and epigraphy; Milan; Andrea Bregno; confraternities; museology and the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, Milan, Italy, where, since early 2000, she collaborates (http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.org;promo@museobagattivalsecchi.org).

Sarah Warren received her Ph.D. in 2002 with a dissertation titled, “Performing the Primitive:  Mikhail Larinov and the Paradoxes of Russian Futurism.” She is an assistant professor of art history at the State University of New York, Purchase College. The recipient of numerous research grants, her scholarship concentrates on late imperial Russian avant-garde painting, performance, and curatorial practice.  Sarah was a fellow at the Clark Art Institute in the summer of 2006. 

Agnes Bertiz (Ph.D., art history, 2003) is currently teaching at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and the University of La Verne. Agnes became a CSMP (Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence at Liberal Arts Colleges) Post-Doctoral Fellow in Spring 2006, and visiting assistant professor in the Department of Art History at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. At Hamilton College, Agnes is teaching a course on “Women in Renaissance” and “Baroque Art,” and an introductory survey of “Asian Arts and Cultures.”

Undergraduate Alumni

Eunice Lee ( B.A. in Art History and a minor in Cinema-Television) graduated in 2005. Since graduation, she has received a M. Litt History of Art & Connoisseurship in Fine & Decorative Art at Christie’s Education in London (Accredited by the University of Glasgow). Upon graduation from Christie’s (2007-2008), she was appointed Curatorial Associate at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, and oversaw the publication of the foundation’s catalogue. She had interned there while she was a student at USC. As of July 2009, she has worked as an Education Coordinator in the Education & Public Programs at LACMA. Her department is dedicated to providing meaningful experiences and the highest level programming for the museum’s audiences, and organizes professional developments, lectures, and special events to educate the public.

Jeanna Yoo ( B.A., Art History) has been appointed the new Chief Advancement Officer of The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD). As CAO, Yoo will oversee all aspects of development, membership, and communications at the Museum and will be a key member of the MCASD leadership team. Yoo holds dual degrees in art history and psychology from University of California, Los Angeles, and a Master’s Degree in art history and museum studies from University of Southern California. Yoo previously worked for the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco (CAS) where she has been Director of Individual Giving. She has also served as Associate Director of Development/Membership Director at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Membership Marketing Manager at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Public Affairs Assistant at the Getty Trust, Co-Curator at USC’s Fisher Gallery, and Outreach Coordinator at the UCLA/Hammer Museum of Art.

Ceres Botros ( B.A., Art History) has joined the Pasadena Museum of California Art as Special Events Manager. "We are so excited that Ceres has joined the staff officially. She has a huge amount of energy and has always been committed to the museum, so we are lucky to have her." says Emma Jacobson-Sive, Director of Public Relations. Since her arrival, Ceres has brought PMCA new partnerships, including the Southern California Public Radio station KPCC, Southern California Edison and clothing line Tommy Bahama. Ceres first came to the PMCA in the spring of 2004 as an intern while getting her BA in Art History at the University of Southern California. She worked on the Keeny Scharf, California Design Biennial '05

Theresa Papanikolas ( B.A., Art History, 1986) most recently appointed as Curator of European and American Art at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. She has a forthcoming book, The Cultural Politics of Paris Dada, 1914 -1924:  Anarchism between the Wars (London: Ashgate Publishers).  She is currently, the Wallis Annenberg Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Prints and Drawings at LACMA, where she curated the special exhibition Doctrinal Nourishment:  Art and Anarchism in the Time of James Ensor. 

If you are an art history alum and have news of a new appointment, publication, award or something else of significance that you would like to announce to your fellow USC art historians, please let us know at arthist@college.usc.edu. We will review your update and add it to our Web page.