The MA program in Art History at the University of St. Thomas focuses on the development of key skills that serve professionals working in many capacities. Students submit a qualifying paper during the last semester of study. This paper demonstrates the ability to carry out original and extensive scholarly work in the discipline. Students give a presentation of their work at the annual graduate forum sponsored by the department. Art History MA qualifying papers from 2015 to the present are available here.

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Theses/Dissertations from 2022

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“Alice and the White Knight”: John Tenniel’s Satire of the Victorian Idea of the Medieval, Jason K. Burnett

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Spiritual Capital at the Yongning Pagoda: A Study of Glass Beads, Emily Jane Magyar

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Black Madonnas, Christa M. Mariottini

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More Than a Housewife: The 1950s Housewife in Postwar Magazine Illustration, Mary Agnes Ratelle

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I Will Be A Witness: Bessie Harvey and Alternative Legacies in American Feminist Art Qualifying Paper, Frederica Simmons

Theses/Dissertations from 2021

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The Orpheus-Christus and Roman Identity in the Catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus, Marit Anderson

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Prefabricated Housing for the World War II Defense Workers: A Case Study of Vallejo, California, Jayne Barden-Oddan

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The Problem of the Heroine: Persephone as “Hero”?, Gabriella Gillette

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Why Wood? Restoring the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, Cecelia M. Matt

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Street Art as Historical Narratives: Cultural Memory and Colonial Trauma in the Murals of Derry, Northern Ireland, Molly McIntosh

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The Power of the Garden in Hannah Höch’s Photomontages During World War Two, Taylor Menendez

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Rediscovering the Imaginative Drawings of Richard Holzschuh: Storytelling though Art and Nostalgia, Louise E. Nemmers

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Puttin’ on the Ritz: Examining Class Distinctions in a J.C. Leyendecker Arrow Collar Ad, Brianna Nielson

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Otto Frank and the Creation of the Anne Frank House, Ryan N. Niezgocki

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We Become the Flowers: A Woman Reclaims Her Corpse, Brittany Plachecki

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The Grain Belt and Schmidt Breweries: Facilitating Their Communities Through Architecture, Michael P. Rainville Jr.

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The Cave, The Wind, and The Cosmos: A Study of the Villa Eolia as a Sacred Space, Annie N. Vitale

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“We Can’t Breathe” An Analysis of George Floyd Square, Rachel Weiher

Theses/Dissertations from 2020

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ANTIRACIST COUNTER MONUMENTS: Kara Walker: Fons Americanus and the Graffiti-Altered Robert E. Lee Monument, Richmond, Virginia, Marilyn Elizabeth Burnett

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Harriet Tubman as a Visionary Leader in the Work of Charles White, Kira Lapinsky

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Ferdinand Hodler’s Fin-de-Siècle Feminine: Symbolism and Women at the End of the Nineteenth Century, Theresa M. Nelson

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Tell Me, Where Was God? Monuments of Remembrance at Dachau and Auschwitz, Jessy Saffell

Theses/Dissertations from 2019

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Community-based Collaboration at the Field Museum, Fort Snelling, and Minneapolis Institute of Art, Alexandra Buffalohead

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Dressing Up? Costume, Identity, and Performative Expectations in the Works of John Singer Sargent, Rachel E. Decker-Di Flauro

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“FEED MY SHEEP”: PRIESTLY FORMATION AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT OF THE ST. MARY’S CHAPEL AT THE ST. PAUL SCHOOL OF DIVINITY, Lydia Eby

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Dislocation and Nostalgia: Thomas Hovenden and the Home in the American Gilded Age, Bridget Gallagher-Larkin

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When Death Sleeps She Dreams Of You: Dario Robleto’s Semiotic Reworking of Sylvia Plath, Hanna Kathleen Stoehr

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LAYERED IDENTITIES: SONIA BOYCE’S USE OF WALLPAPER IN EXPLORING SOCIAL SPACE, Michelle Turner

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Visualizing Mongolian National Identity in the Work of Baatarzorig Batjargal, Samantha J. Wisneski

Theses/Dissertations from 2018

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Remembering the Holocaust in Hungary: An Examination of Political and Popular Memorials in Budapest, Lauren Marie Balogh

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Propaganda and Portraiture: Samuel Fosso, Kehinde Wiley, and China-Africa Relations, Jayne Cole

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REDEFINING THE SACRED: THE INTERSECTION OF CATHOLIC CHARITIES’ PROGRAM MODEL AND SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS ARCHITECTURE, Margaret A. George

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After the Museum: Immersive Experience as Art-Object in the Cases of Sakura Yume and Graffiti Nature, Ashleigh Mary Jakaj

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The Broad and the Rubell Family Collection: Contemporary Donor Memorial Museums, Floris Anita Lafontant

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Memorial Museums: Shaped by Memory, Defined by Politics, Amanda Rose Lesnikowski

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Taking Control of the Narrative with Ink and Pixel: Three Women's Adventures in Autobiographical Comics, Keith Pille

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Memory in Museum Design at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Lindsay Simmons

Theses/Dissertations from 2017

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A Critical Battle: An Analysis of the Early Colonial Cartography of Tenochtitlan/Mexico City, Bret Campion

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IGLESIA BAUTISTA HOREB: A MODEL FOR BAPTIST ARCHITECTURE IN NEW ORLEANS, Rachel A. Houck

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STEILNESET MEMORIAL | Peter Zumthor’s Atmospheres as an Architectural Means for Memory, Kathryn Joy

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TUNNEL VISION: An Examination of Asmat Shields and Ancestor Poles in Institutional Exhibitions, Elizabeth J. Madden

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Visual and Thematic Harmony in Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’s Religious Pendants, Dakota Passariello

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An Investigation of Death Iconography and Female Fertility Imagery in Aztec Art, Alyssa Helene Thiede

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Reinvestigating Pictish Stone Monuments: Memory Themes and The Quadruped, Sandy L. Tomney

Theses/Dissertations from 2016

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Pop Art - Make It Significant, Make It Last: Lawrence Alloway's Evolving Theory On Pop Icons, Marquette Dionne Bateman-Ek

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CONVERGENCE AND RESTORATION: ASMAT ART THROUGH THE WRITINGS AND DRAWINGS OF TOBIAS SCHNEEBAUM, Gretchen Michelle Burau

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Framing the Narrative: Alchemical Psychology and Pictorial Devices in Une Semaine de Bonté by Max Ernst, Sarah Crandall

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Das Berliner Schloss and Humboldt Forum: A Contemporary Repository of Cultural Identity, Rachel Florence Goldstein

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Creating the Mona Lisa: Isabella d’Este’s Influence on Leonardo da Vinci’s New Portrait Type, Megan Harrington

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Visual Culture, Ritual, and Landscape at the Holy Wells of St. Brigid in Ireland, Clare Ave Monardo

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Rubrics and Recitations: Books of Hours in Public Influencing the Protestant Reformations in England, Nicole Alexis Sheridan

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Heritage Redefined: Post-Preservation and the Historic Ford Center, Hayley E. Stoen

Theses/Dissertations from 2015

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A PLATFORM FOR IDENTITY: USING LARGE-SCALE EXHIBITION TO POSITION BAHIA, BRAZIL’S CONTEMPORARY CONDITION, Angela Kay Daniels

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Whatever You Want Me to Be: The Purse, Identity, and Exchange in Ancient Greece, Zachary John Forstrom

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Anxiety in Experience: H.R. Ginger's Swiss Bars, Abigail Hall Gilmore

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ENTREPRENEURIAL ABOLITION: RE-EXAMINING THE PORTRAIT CAREER OF JOSHUA JOHNSON, Alex Kermes

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Reality in Fantasy: Disneyland's New Orleans Square, Nyssa Yau-Mei Lee

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The Thesmophoria of Morgantina, Jennifer Lynn Smith