Welcome to the incoming class of PhD students!

Welcome to the incoming class of PhD students!

October 4, 2018

2018-19 incoming cohort

The Department of Art History welcomes our 2018 incoming class of PhD students:

Yoon-Jee Choi

Yoon-Jee’s research revolves around material culture and inter-regional influence within East Asian art history, particularly concentrating on the latter half of Joseon Dynasty and on modern Korean art. Prior to arriving in Chicago, she worked at the National Museum of Korea and the Asian Museum Institute in Seoul.

Rowanne Dean

Rowanne studies western European medieval art and material culture. Her research interests include metalwork, materiality, luxury objects, and the senses. Prior to entering the PhD program, Rowanne worked at the New Museum and the Morgan Library, and was a research fellow at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.

Bermet Nishanova

Bermet studies Islamic art. Her interests include the creation and appropriation of arts in Central Asia in the centuries before and especially after Islam. She holds an MA in Art History and MS in Art Conservation from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU.

May Peterson

May studies the art and literature of Late Antique Europe. Her research interests include the interface between text and image, medieval ideas of materiality, and sacred space, broadly construed. May earned a BA in Classics from Stanford University.

Sila Ulug

As a part of the inaugural cohort for the joint PhD program in Art History and Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS), Sila intends to explore the role of social- and other broadly virtual- infrastructures in art practices and spaces. She has held summer curatorial posts at the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, among others.

Sizhao Yi

Sizhao Yi studies East Asian art and material culture with a particular interest in objects from late imperial China. She received her BA in Journalism from the University of Hong Kong, and her MA from the University of Chicago. She recently interned in the textile conservation department in the Archeology Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.