MA Students Present Research in Toronto and Chicago

Second-year MA student Caitlin Mims spent spring break in Toronto, Canada, where she presented at the multidisciplinary Vagantes Conference on Medieval Studies. Her paper, titled “Identity and Reception of the Byzantine Croce degli Zaccaria,” was included in the session Imagined and Created Identities. In an effort to highlight institutions, collections, and scholars of medieval art, the Vagantes Conference travels to a new host university every year. As a part of this year’s program in Toronto, Caitlin had the opportunity to tour the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies Library, which holds one of the most significant collections of medieval texts in North America. Earlier this semester Caitlin presented “Through the ‘Eyes’ of Holbein: The Shaping of Holbein’s Erasmus Portraits by Patron and Artist” at another preeminent North American research event, the Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies Graduate Student Conference in Chicago.

Also presenting at the Newberry Center Conference was fellow MA student Caroline Nooney, whose paper “Rethinking the ‘Christian’ Iconographic Motifs in the Copenhagen Maimonides” grew out of a topic she began researching in Professor Doron Bauer‘s seminar Interconnectivity and Exchange. Similar to the Vagantes Conference, the Newberry Center Conference offered many opportunities for graduate student speakers to view exhibits of the center’s collections.