Alumna Emily Thames Publishes Essay in Journal Issue Co-Edited with Professor Paul Niell

Alumna Emily Thames (PhD ’22) has published a new article, “‘‘Made by the Son of a Black’: José Campeche as Artist and Free Person of Color in Late Eighteenth-Century Puerto Rico.” Stemming from her dissertation on José Campeche, this essay examines the role of race in the artist’s life and career in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Puerto Rico. As she states in her introduction, “Campeche lived both as an artist and as a free man of color within a racialized colonial society, and as such, inquiries regarding how race affected Campeche’s life and artistic practice, and particularly how his immersion in the community of free people of color in San Juan possibly impacted the manner in which he was trained and worked, allow for a more comprehensive understanding of his art production.”

Thames’ article is featured in a special issue of the journal Arts, “Black Artists in the Atlantic World,” which she is co-editing with her dissertation advisor, Dr. Paul Niell. The special issue focuses on black artists in the Atlantic World, ca. 1500-1900 CE, and will bring together essays from scholars of art history, architectural history, and archaeology to engage in a comparative conversation about the realities of black artists and their lived experience of race across the varied geographies of the Atlantic World. There are currently four essays published, with six more anticipated by summer 2024. Contributors to the special issue will also include Art History professors Mora Beauchamp-Byrd and Brendan Weaver.