Graduate Students
Dan Bustillo
M.F.A., Art and Technology, Integrated Media, California Institute of the Arts
M.A., University of California, Irvine
B.A., Art, Hunter College City of New YorkAdvisors: Bliss Cua Lim and Lucas Hilderbrand
Research Interests: Queer and trans of color theory, feminist theory, activist media, queer latinx studies, security studies, surveillance studies, carceral studies
Samantha Carter
M.A., New Media and Digital Cultures, University of Amsterdam
B.A., Modern Culture and Media, Brown UniversityAdvisors: Bambi Haggins and Allison Perlman
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.
Kylie Ching
M.A. Art History, University of California, Irvine
B.A., Art History and English, University of California, IrvineAdvisors: Cécile Whiting and Bert Winther-Tamaki
Research Interests: Research interests: Asian American visual culture, contemporary American art history, feminist theory, cultural memory, alternative press, and artist collectives
Marianna Davison
M.A., Visual Culture, Illinois State University
B.A., Art History, University of Texas at AustinAdvisor: James Nisbet
Research Interests: Modern and contemporary American art history and visual culture, the history of photography, museum studies, critical environmental studies, landscape reclamation, indigenous sovereignty and activism, socially engaged collaboration and artist collectives.
Kelly Donahey
M.F.A., Art, University of California, Irvine, M.A., University of California, Irvine
B.F.A., Photography, San Francisco Art InstituteAdvisor: Catherine Liu
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: http://www.kellydonahey.com/
Kathie Foley-Meyer
M.F.A. in Creative Writing, School of Critical Studies, California Institute of the Arts, M.A., Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine
B.S. in Foreign Service, Georgetown UniversityAdvisor: Bridget Cooks
Research Interests: Issues in contemporary Black visual culture, representations of Blackness in
early modern art, the relationship between Blackness and the ocean.
Website: http://www.kf-m.com/
Sarah Fugfugosh-Munoz
M.A., California State University, Los Angeles
B.A., Art History, California State University, Los AngelesAdvisor: Lyle Massey
Research Interests: Early modern art, visual culture and gender studies in Italy and France. Early modern subjectivity, social identity construction and corporeality in art, literature and natural philosophy; 16th and 17th century female artistic production, portraiture, visual and literary self-portraiture, and epistolary culture.
Eric Hahn
M.A., New York University
B.A., Purchase College State University of New YorkAdvisor: Peter Krapp
Research Interests: Media Archaeology, Media Policy & Law, Critical Infrastructure Studies, Digital Preservation, Emotion & Affect, Body Genres.
Ari Hakkarainen
M.A., History and Criticism of Art, Florida State University
B.A., History and Criticism of Art, Florida State UniversityAdvisor: Roland Betancourt
Research Interests: Byzantine art and architecture; the modernist engagement with Byzantium; Queer identity, queer theory, and queer studies; Ideas of the historical past, contemporaneity, and futurity; Queer medievalisms; the history of photography; art and LGBTQ activism
Robert Hayden III
B.A., (summa cum laude with honors) Art History, University of California, Los Angeles
Advisor: James Nisbet
Research Interests: Modern art of the Americas and Europe, focusing on geometric abstraction and the monochrome; postmodern American art; post-WWII visual art in Los Angeles; the John McLaughlin catalogue raisonné.
De Giuseppe Ileana
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, ItalyAdvisor: Mathew Canepa
Research Interest: Achaemenid Art and Archaeology, Hellenistic Art and Archaeology, Museum Studies, Communication of the Cultural Heritage.
Asako Katsura
M.A., (with distinction) Japanese Studies, Sophia University, Japan
B.A., Art History, International Christian University, JapanAdvisor: Bert Winther-Tamaki
Research Interests: Research Interests: Modern and contemporary Japanese art, conceptual photography in Japan and California between the 1950s and 1970s, art and visual culture of Japanese countryside before the Asia Pacific War, the culture of eroguro nansensu (erotic grotesque nonsense) in the 1920s–1930s Japan, memorialization of war trauma in postwar Japan, Asian American art and visual culture.
Aaron Katzeman
M.A., Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine
B.A. (summa cum laude with honors) Art History, certificate in Environmental Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at MānoaAdvisor: James Nisbet
Dissertation: “We Only Want the Land: Contemporary Art and Visual Culture Before Ecology”
Research interests: contemporary art, documentary photography, Third Cinema, land art, environmental humanities, climate change, political ecology, cultural geography, global studies, social movements, decolonization, settler colonial studies
Website: https://aaronkatzeman.com
Justin Keever
M.A., Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine
B.A. (with highest honors & highest distinction) Communications/New Media Theory, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Production, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillAdvisor: Braxton Soderman
Research Interests: New Media, Game Studies, Critical Theory, Neoliberal Subjectivity, Structural Marxism, Ideology, Animality, Glitch Aesthetics, Embodiment, Materialism, Agency
Zachary Korol-Gold
B.A., Visual Art, Brown University
Advisor: James Nisbet
Research Interest: Ecological art, contemporary art, alternative agriculture, ecocriticism, political ecology
Nastasya Kosygina
B.A., University of Minnesota-Twin CitiesAdvisor: Mathew Canepa
Research Interest: Archaeology and material culture of the late antique eastern Mediterranean and western Asia, human relationships to materiality and their effect upon the material debris of praxis, etic and emic concepts of "magic" vs premodern landscapes of doing, non-luxury material culture and human intentionality, the unintelligible word and the non-legible inscription, Greek and Syriac epigraphy and paleography.
Kien Minh Le
M.A., Film Studies, Ohio University
B.A., (with distinction), Digital Media Studies, Juniata CollegeAdvisor: Lucas Hilderbrand
Research Interests: film theory & history, phenomenology, queer theory, cultural studies, postcolonialism
Edward Charles Mendez
M.A. Public Engagement - University of Nevada, Reno
B.A. English (Writing Specialization) - University of Nevada, RenoAdvisor: Bambi Haggins
Research Interests: Black film, racial representation in film and media, blackness, humor, critical race theory, feminist theory, political economy, American literature, rhetoric, and cultural studies.
Quyên Nguyen-Le
B.A. Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Politics and Law, University of Southern California
Advisor: Lucas Hilderbrand
Research Interests: critical refugee studies, queer and trans of color feminisms, artistic praxis, transnational cinema, transformative justice
Website, https://www.quyennl.com/
Ryan-Rose Nowak-Crawford
B.A., Art, University of Southern California
Advisor: Bo Ruberg
Research Interests: Queerness, video games, horror and monstrosity, de-colonization, anti-capitalism.
Akane Okoshi
B.A., Environmental Policy, Anthropology track, Fordham University Lincoln CenterAdvisor: Bridget Cooks
Luis Eduardo Serna
M.A. Art and Ecologism, Universidad de Colombia, Colombia, South America
B.A., Fine Arts, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia, South AmericaAdvisors: Glen Mimura and Allison Perlman
Research Interests: Contemporary artistic practices focused on social justice processes, the Colombian peace process, narratives and representations of victims in the armed conflict in Colombia, representation of otherness, controversy mapping as a way to expand disciplined forms of analysis.
Sara Sisun
M.F.A., Painting, The San Francisco Art Institute
M.A., University of Colorado at Boulder
B.A., Art Practice, Standford UniversityAdvisor: Lyle Massey
Research Interests: Early Modern art and corporeality, critical theory, medical humanities, history of science, posthumanism
http://www.sarasisun.net/
Molly Katharine Thrailkill
M.A. (with distinction), History of Art, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
B.A., Art & Art History and French, Colgate UniversityAdvisor: Cécile Whiting
Research Interests: History of photography, photojournalism, and documentary; American art and visual culture; new media and digital rendering.
Website: https://mkthrailkill.com/
Bryan Truitt
B.A., Art Practice and Cognitive Science, University of California, Berkeley
Advisor: Aaron Trammell
Research Interests: digital media, biopolitics, cultural studies, feminist and queer theory, science and technology studies, critical race theory, social and environmental justice.
Website: https://www.bryantruitt.com
Ella Turenne
M.A., Media Studies, The New School
B.A., Psychology (Studio Art, Theatre Art Minors), Stony Brook UniversityAdvisor: Bambi Haggins
Research Interests: Black film, television and media, cultural production, feminist theory, critical race theory, Caribbean history, Black history, art and social justice, mass incarceration, podcast culture, digital humanities, race and justice
Website: http://www.ellaturenne.com/
Ella is the creator and co-host of the podcast "Fanm on Films" https://fanmonfilms.com/ because of her love of cinema, Haitian culture and the power of community. Each season, this show bring you reviews of Haitian movies old and new, as well as interviews with Haitian filmmakers and actors to talk about their work.
Lucena Lau Valle
M.S., Art History, Pratt Institute, NY
B.A., Art History, San Francisco State University, CAAdvisor: Cécile Whiting
Research Interests: Museum studies, urban studies, cultural political economy, Latina & Latino studies, Asian American studies, Los Angeles, cultural memory and public humanities
Scott Volz
M.A., Art History and Criticism, SUNY Stony Brook
B.A., Art History, Kent State UniversityAdvisor: James Nisbet
Dissertation: "Deadly Circularity: Waste and Ecology in Art of the 1970s and 1980s"
Research Interests: Modern and contemporary art, land and environmental art, animal studies, climate change, the Anthropocene, decolonization, discard studies, ecocriticism, ecosocialism, environmental history, environmental justice, historical materialism, new materialism, political ecology, urban biodiversity.
Mallory Elizabeth Wells
B.A., Art History, Occidental CollegeAdvisor: Matthew Canepa
Research Interests: Transcultural exchange and visualities of authority in the late antique Mediterranean, the late antique Near East, and the early European Middle Ages.
KT Wong
B.A., Music and Theater, Lafayette College
Advisor: Bo Ruberg
Research interests: Game studies, ludomusicology, media archaeology, translation studies, transmedia storytelling
Siavash Yansori
M.A, Film & Media Studies, Columbia University
M.F.A, Photography, University of CincinnatiAdvisor: Kristen Hatch
Research Interests: Iranian and Middle Eastern Cinema,
Melodrama, History of Photography, Postcolonialism, Gender, and Queer Studies
Xinyue (Lulu) Yuan
M.A. (with distinction), History of Art and Archeology, University of London
B.A., Liberal Arts, Sun Yat-sen UniversityAdvisor: Roberta Wue
Research Interests: Modern Chinese Art and Visual Culture
Dissertation: Her dissertation focuses on a global history of art and modern media technologies by examining Chinese artists’ intervention in the industrially produced book in the early 20th century.
Layah Ziaii-Bigdeli
M.A., Art History Concentration in Cultural Heritage and Preservation, Rutgers University–New Brunswick
B.A., Art History & Archeology, Columbia UniversityAdvisor: Matthew P. Canepa
Research Interests: Sasanian Art and Archaeology, Islamic Art and Archaeology, Persian Language and Literature, Numismatics, Museum studies, Cultural Heritage, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Website:http://uci.academia.edu/LayahZiaiiBigdeli
Jessica Ziegenfuss
M.A., Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The Ohio State University
B.A. (with honors) Women's Studies and History of Art, The Ohio State UniversityAdvisor: James Nisbet
Dissertation: The Matter of Eva Hesse: Industrial Collage, Latex, and Plastics within Post-War Material Culture, 1964-1969.
Research Interests: Feminist and queer theory, critical theory, ecological studies of art, postminimalism, issues of materiality and art, scientific experimentation in art, and the history of synthetics and the petrochemical industry
Website: https://jziegenfuss.weebly.com