Graduate Students




Photo	Name	Education/Interest	Advisor	Email

	Vanina D'Ambrosio	M.A. Art History, California State University, Long Beach B.A. English Literature, Sonoma State University MA Thesis: "Florentine Statecraft: Sensuality, Emotion, and Violence in the Patronage of Cosimo I De’ Medici" Research Interests: Early modern Queer studies & visual culture, Italian & Mediterranean art, self-fashioning & gender performance via portraiture, renaissance green space, cross cultural contact between Italy and the Islamic world, manuscripts & devotional texts.	Lyle Massey	vdambros@uci.edu
	Hannah Grissom	B.A., Art History (Honors), French, Studio Art, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte Research Interest: Guy Debord and spectacle, modern and contemporary art history, Marxist theory, and traces of transhistorical encounters (alternate constructions of time and history) that artworks produce.	Tyrus Miller	hgrissom@uci.edu
	Simin Amini	M.A., Art History, Alzahra University. Tehran, Iran M.A., Near and Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS University of London B.A., Fashion and textile design, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran Research interests: Ancient Iran Art and Archaeology, Persian mythology and literature, Zoroastrianism, Islamic Art art and Archaeology, Museum Studies.	Matthew Canepa	simina@uci.edu
	Amirali Ardekanian	B.A., Art History, University of California, Los Angeles Research Interests: The History of Photography in Iran, The reception of Ancient Iran during 19th and 20th Century, Iran.	Alka Patel Co-advisor: Matthew Canepa	aardekan@uci.edu
	Cienna Benn	B.A., Afro-American Studies, Sociology, Howard University Research Interests: Black visual culture, Africana aesthetics, visuality, social theory, archival studies, history of photography, Black feminist thought, Digital Humanities.	Bridget Cooks	ciennab@uci.edu
	Agnik Bhattacharya	M.A., History, Presidency University, Kolkata, India B.A., Ancient Indian and World History, Culture and Archaeology, Sanskrit College, University of Calcutta, India Research interests: Ancient South Asian History, South and Central Asian Archaeology, Ancient Political Thought, History of Ideas, Global Intellectual History, History of Modern South and Central Asia, History of Archaeology and History of Museum Studies Dissertation: "Political Narratives and Archaeological Investigations: A Global History of Afghan Archaeology in Modern Afghanistan, 1833–1979" I have been awarded the John F. Richards Afghanistan Fellowship in the year 2023 and 2024.	Matthew Canepa	agnikb@uci.edu
	Samantha Carter	M.A., New Media and Digital Cultures, University of Amsterdam B.A., Modern Culture and Media, Brown University Research Interests: Experience of marginalized creatives in film & television in the digital era. She is investigating this topic through what Dawn Mannay calls a researcher-initiated production, recruiting interested artists to collaborate in the development of an experimental television pilot.	Bridget Cooks	sacarte1@uci.edu
	Zane Casimir	M.A., Art History, University of Oregon B.F.A., Sequential Art, Savannah College of Art and Design B.A., Japanese/Asian Studies, Purdue University Research Interests: Spaces of Play; Japanese Design-of-Environment; Modern Architecture, Landscape Design, and Sculpted Space; Japanese Art, Material/Visual culture, and Performance Traditions; Video game and Play Studies; Contemporary Reception of Art Historical ideas and forms (i.e. Semiotics, Kitsch, Reproductions and Digital/Virtual Re-presentations).	Bert Winther-Tamaki	zcasimir@uci.edu
	Melissa DePierro	M.A., Art History, University of Georgia B.A. (with distinction), Art History and Classical Archaeology, UNC Chapel Hill Research Interest: Cross cultural interactions between Persian and Greco-Roman empires, animals in antiquity, Roman mosaics, Roman North Africa, Achemenid Egypt, Late antiquity.	Matthew Canepa	mdepierr@uci.edu
	Ileana De Giuseppe	M.A. (Summa cum laude), History, Preservation and Enhancement of the Artistic and Archaeological Heritage and Landscape, University of Bologna, Ravenna, Italy B.A. (Summa cum laude), Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Ravenna, Italy Research Interest: Achaemenid Art and Archaeology, Hellenistic Art and Archaeology, Museum Studies, Communication of the Cultural Heritage.	Mathew Canepa	idegiuse@uci.edu
	Haerin Do	M.A., Art Theory, Hongik University, Korea B.A., German Language and Literature, Art History and Theory, Arts and Cultural Management, Hongik University, Korea Research Interests: Korean art, modern and contemporary art, digital art, new media theory, computational and generative art, post-colonialism studies, science and technology studies, media art preservation.	Gabrielle Jung	hrdo@uci.edu
	Kelly Donahey	M.F.A., Art, University of California, Irvine, M.A., University of California, Irvine B.F.A., Photography, San Francisco Art Institute Research Interests: 20th century American media art and the avant-garde; mass culture; labor; the history of American Leftism, photography, art and design pedagogy, and the professional art world; Marxist, pragmatic, cybernetic, postmodern, and aesthetic theory; the conceptualization of nationalism, the public, individualism, and freedom. Website	Catherine Liu	kdonahey@uci.edu
	Sarah Fugfugosh-Munoz	M.A., California State University, Los Angeles B.A., Art History, California State University, Los Angeles Research Interests: Early modern art, visual culture, gender studies in Italy and France: 16th and 17th century female artistic production, developments in genre painting, particularly still-life painting concurrent with scientific views, food studies-nutrition, health, history of consumption, relationship between early modern scientific gaze, natural philosophy, botanical illustration, garden and landscape history and horticultural practice.	Lyle Massey	sfugfugo@uci.edu
	Anthony Graham	M.S., Critical, Curatorial, Conceptual, Columbia University, New York B.A., Architecture, University of San Diego, California Research Interests: contemporary art, materiality, and embodiment.	Bridget Cooks	grahama2@uci.edu
	Talia Gordon	B.A., English, minor in Art History and Global Medieval Studies, University of Pennsylvania Research Interests: Medieval period, materiality of the medieval Eastern Orthodox icon, the icon in cultural transition with particular attention paid to the circulation of religious objects from the Byzantine center into both Italian and Eastern European cultural contexts.	Roland Betancourt	taliaag@uci.edu
	Zachary Korol Gold	M.A., Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine B.A., Visual Art, Brown University Dissertation: "Reconfiguring Nature, Technology, and Sense: Pierre Huyghe's Situated Artworks" Research Interests: Contemporary art, ecology, ecocriticism, alternative agriculture, land and environmental art, phenomenology.	James Nisbet	zkorolgo@uci.edu
	Nastasya Kosygina	M.A., Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine B.A., Classics and Art History & B.S. in Chemistry, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Research Interests: Byzantine studies, subaltern studies, water, infrastructure, premodern Mediterranean, Rome, Constantinople, geology, urban archaeology, material culture, Greek and Syriac paleography, classical and postclassical reception.	Matthew Canepa	nkosygin@uci.edu