Undergraduate Art History Symposium
This year's SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium from April 3-7 was the biggest one yet, with more than 300 undergraduate scholars from five continents participating. The virtual event, which is the largest of its kind in the world, included Art History student Sophia Burton ’27 (Art History/French), as well as Art History alumni Ben Kuhn ’24, Jocelyn Thornton ’24, and Shay Steuart ’23, who pitched in as hosts.
This year's symposium also featured a keynote address by Dr. Sharon Stocker and Dr. Jack Davis of the University of Cincinnati, who in 2015 uncovered Mycenaean Bronze Age tomb at Pylos, Greece. In their presentation, "Lord of the Gold Rings," they shared the incredible objects they excavated from what is now known as the Griffin Warrior Tomb.
Learn more about the symposium and see the full schedule at its website.
From jenrette.org
Mya Bailey ’22
Mya Rose Bailey ’22 was named one of four 2025 William L. Thompson Collections Fellows by the Jenrette Foundation. According to the foundation, "The Thompson Fellowship is a short-term residential fellowship opportunity, designed for emerging museum professionals and graduate students interested in careers related to collections and material culture within historic house museums."
According to the announcement, Bailey "is a current graduate student at the Bard Graduate Center, completing their M.A. in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture. Their master’s thesis, 'A Sense of Enslavement: Constructed and Contested Sensory Experiences at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and Poplar Forest,' merges their interests in multisensory anthropology, land and soundscape design, temporality, and memory in Black communities throughout American history."
From jenrette.org
Steven Baltsas ’23
Steven Baltsas ’23 was named one of four 2025 William L. Thompson Collections Fellows by the Jenrette Foundation. According to the foundation, "The Thompson Fellowship is a short-term residential fellowship opportunity, designed for emerging museum professionals and graduate students interested in careers related to collections and material culture within historic house museums."
According to the announcement, Baltsas "is a Lois F. McNeil Fellow in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware and is interested in the junction of Southern European design and race in antebellum America. His master’s thesis studies the consumption of Renaissance Revival furniture in New York, New Orleans, and Paris between 1845–1861."
Art History students named Outstanding Graduates
Three Art History students were named Outstanding Graduates by the President's Office for the 2024-25 academic year.
“This group has not only accomplished the completion of the expectations, but have excelled in critical areas,” said President Darrell P. Wheeler. “You are to be applauded for the accomplishments that you’ve made in your discipline, for the impression that you’ve made on your faculty and staff and your colleagues and for the impact that you stand prepared to make as you go forward beyond your time as an undergraduate.”
Congratulations to our outstanding graduates from Art History: Jocelyn Thornton, Alessandra Papaleo, and Ian O'Connor.
