News
NEWS
HAA 2026 Senior Thesis Prize Winners
From left to right: Charissa Shang, John Weaver, Catherine Mignone, Carrie Lambert Beatty. Congratulations to this year’s HAA prize winners: Abramson Prize: John Weaver, for his senior thesis Worldly Heaven: Elephanta’s Polyvalent Program and Sacred...
HAA Graduate Student Ebonie Pollock Awarded Dedalus Foundation Dissertation Fellowship for 2026 – 2027
The Dedalus Foundation Dissertation Fellowship for 2026 – 2027 has been awarded to Ebonie Pollock, a PhD Candidate in the History of Art & Architecture Department at Harvard University, for her dissertation “Gold Would Not Be Too Precious a Medium”...
Byron Otis and Marin Gray Awarded the Bowdoin Prize
Congratulations to Marin Gray (HAA class of 2026) and Byron Otis (HAA G3), who have both been awarded Bowdoin Essay Prizes for 2025-2026. They are two of only six awardees total for the year. The Bowdoin Prizes, some of Harvard’s oldest and most...
The Professor Jeffrey Hamburger Co-Edited "Power, Patronage, and Production: Book Arts from Central Europe (ca. 800–1500) in American Collections" Has Been Released.
Edited by Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Beatrice Kitzinger, and Joshua O’Driscoll. Studies and Texts 242; Text Image Context: Studies in Medieval Manuscript Illumination 11 xxvi, 378 pp. incl. 232 colour illus. ISBN 978-0-88844-242-0 This volume complements and...
HAA Graduate Student Walid Akef Appointed Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture in UMass Amherst
The Department of the History of Art and Architecture is pleased to welcome Walid Akef as a new faculty member who will teach Islamic Art and Architecture starting fall 2026. Akef is currently completing his PhD in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic...
Mapping Color in History: What goes into the making of Krishna’s blues on paper or palm leaf?
How blue is Krishna? The poet can get away by responding with a metaphor, calling the dark god Ghanashyam, a storm cloud. Krishna, passionate lover, desired by many and desiring many, is the dark cloud, writes the poet, about to descend on the beloved...
The Power of Looking: Cécile Fromont uses art to interrogate what societies choose to see—or ignore.
Fromont focuses on how global exchange—through the intertwined histories of Christianity, empire, and the slave trade—shaped artistic practices and ideas about power, identity, and spirituality across continents. “What I’m interested in at the core is how...
The Frick Collection Appoints HAA Alumnus Aaron Wile As New John Updike Curator
NEW YORK, NY.- The Frick Collection today announced the appointment of Dr. Aaron Wile as its new John Updike Curator. He will take up the post on April 6, 2026. In this senior curatorial role, Wile succeeds Dr. Aimee Ng, who became the museum’s Peter Jay...
Professor Sarah Lewis Honored As One of TIME Magazine's 2026 Closers
Sarah Lewis is on a mission to make sure Black artists get their due. As a curator, an art and cultural historian, and an academic, Lewis is guided by a big question: “What is the role of art and culture for determining who counts, and who belongs, in...
Kongo Christianity: The Intersection of Two Worlds
[Professor] Cécile Fromont reflects on the history of Christianity in the Kingdom of Kongo and how it is expressed in Kongolese culture through the lens of a crucifix at The Met. When we look at Kongo Christian visual culture, we know there is an entire...
